Arizona has decided to move on from head coach Kevin Sumlin with two years remaining on his contract after three rocky seasons in Tucson. The Wildcats will have to start over and it will be up to athletic director Dave Heeke to get it right this time around. UA will have to dole out $7.5 million to Sumlin as part of the buyout for terminating his contract early, so the options for his replacement could be limited for the Wildcats.
Leading Arizona football is a unique position that brings with it many challenges, so finding a coach who understands the intricacies of building a program in Tucson will be key.
Here is our initial list of potential options for the head coach position at Arizona, in alphabetical order.
Brent Brennan – San Jose State head coach
CAREER RECORD (as a head coach): 14-29
SALARY (2020): $850,000
BIO: Now in his fourth season as the head coach at San Jose State, Brennan has led the Spartans to an undefeated season this year with the team clinching a spot in the Mountain West title game for the first time in program history. Brennan has been a coach since the mid-1990s with his first college position coming as a graduate assistant at the University of Hawaii in 1998. He would go on serve as a graduate assistant at Washington and Arizona before earning his first full-time assistant coach job at Cal Poly in 2001. He became the receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at San Jose State in 2005 and remained with the program until 2011 when he left to coach receivers at Oregon State. A San Jose native, Brennan eventually returned to his hometown as the head coach in 2017. He signed a contract extension last year that will keep him as SJSU's head coach through the 2024 season.
WHY HE'S AN OPTION: A West Coast native who played at UCLA, Brennan has experience being on staff at Arizona plus he has strong ties to Dick Tomey having served under the legendary UA coach both with the Wildcats and at San Jose State. He has experience coaching several positions and has led a turnaround with the Spartans over the last two seasons. Brennan is an impressive recruiter who has built his program by focusing on local prospects.
Graham Harrell – USC offensive coordinator
CAREER RECORD (as a head coach): N/A
SALARY (2020): reportedly ~$1.2 million
BIO: The USC offensive coordinator is now in his second season with the Trojans after having success at North Texas from 2016-18. The former Texas Tech standout has been a coach since 2014 when he worked as an offensive analyst for former head coach Mike Leach at Washington State. He eventually moved up to coach the outside receiver group for the Cougars in 2015. Harrell also had a stint as a quality control analyst at Oklahoma State under then-offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen. He has continued to fine tune his version of the Air Raid offense with the Trojans helping USC to become one of the top 25 passing offenses in his first season. That earned him a three-year contract extension last December.
WHY HE'S AN OPTION: Arizona has a quarterback in place with a lot of promise in sophomore Grant Gunnell, who happens to come from Texas. While the Wildcats have weapons on the offensive side of the ball and are built to be a passing team, the scheme Noel Mazzone brought with him was predictable and did not bring results this season as it was a struggle to put the ball in the end zone. Meanwhile, the Trojans have the top passing offense in the league and rank second in the Pac-12 with 10 passing touchdowns so far this year. Arizona wants to continue to have a strong hold on recruiting in Texas and Harrell would give the program direct ties to the state. He would also present a departure from the program after its last two hires as he is just 35 years old.
Jay Norvell – Nevada head coach
CAREER RECORD (as a head coach): 24-22
SALARY (2020): $625,000
BIO: The Wisconsin native and Iowa alum has spent time at several programs across the country, but he landed his first head coaching job at Nevada back in 2017. Since then he has made steady progress in building the Wolfpack and helping to put the program in contention for the conference crown. The 57-year-old coach started his career in the profession soon after his playing career at Iowa came to an end. He went on to become a graduate assistant for the program before moving on to Northern Iowa in 1988 when he became that team's wide receivers coach. After stints at Wisconsin and Iowa State, Norvell went to the NFL for several years with stints in Indianapolis and Oakland before returning to the college game at Nebraska as offensive coordinator in 2004. A season at UCLA and several years at Oklahoma followed that before he ended up at Texas and finally Arizona State, where he was the Sun Devils' receivers coach and passing game coordinator.
WHY HE'S AN OPTION: Though he was a defensive back in his playing days, Norvell is another offensive-minded coach who has spent the entirety of his career focused on that side of the ball. The Wildcats have more pieces to work with on that side, so the odds are good that the program will continue to move ahead with another coach whose experience is offense. Norvell has been able to establish himself in the West and he has experience recruiting Arizona during his time with the Sun Devils. Like Harrell, his system would invigorate the Wildcats on the offensive side of the ball with Nevada currently owning one of the top passing offenses in the Mountain West.
Charlie Ragle – Cal special teams coordinator
CAREER RECORD (as a head coach): N/A
SALARY (2020): $275,000
BIO: The Cal special teams coordinator has his roots deeply embedded in Arizona. Ragle started his coaching career at Moon Valley High School in Phoenix back in 200 as the team's defensive coordinator. He held that position until 2005 when he made the move to Chaparral High in Scottsdale as that team's defensive coordinator. After a brief stint at Arizona State as a graduate assistant in 2006, Ragle returned to Chaparral as the team's head coach leading to a string of success at the high school level including three state championships. Rodriguez hired the New Mexico native at Arizona as an assistant director of operations before he moved into a full-time coaching position as the team's special teams coordinator and tight ends coach in 2013. He held that position until he left the program to join the staff at Cal in 2017.
WHY HE'S AN OPTION: Ragle has built on his success recruiting within Arizona since his time with the Wildcats. Cal has continued to pull talent from the desert during his time on staff with the Golden Bears. The Wildcats need to have a shift with their in-state recruiting efforts, and Ragle certainly has strong ties to the state that he built over his time at the high school and college levels. He is a familiar name to recruits and coaches across the state. The Cal assistant coach is just 44 years old and has plenty of energy to bring to a program that will need to reinvigorate the fan base after Sumlin's failed tenure.
Joe Salave'a – Oregon associate head coach/co-defensive coordinator
CAREER RECORD (as a head coach): N/A
SALARY (2020): $650,000
BIO: Arizona fans know the Oregon assistant coach well. Salave'a played for the Wildcats and shined for the program during his time in Tucson in the mid-1990s under Tomey. He eventually went on to play eight seasons in the NFL before starting his college coaching career with Tomey at San Jose State. After his two seasons at SJSU, Salave'a returned to his alma mater in the final season for head coach Mike Stoops after being hired in late 2010. He then moved on to work under Leach at Washington State in 2012 where he remained for five season with the final two earning him a promotion to assistant head coach adding to his previous duties as defensive line coach. Salave'a has been at Oregon since 2017 where he currently serves as the team's co-defensive coordinator alongside Andy Avalos in addition to holding the titles of associate head coach, run-game coordinator and defensive line coach.
WHY HE'S AN OPTION: Since leaving Arizona back in 2011, when he was not retained by Rich Rodriguez, Salave'a has become one of most sought after assistant coaches out west. His success at Washington State helped establish him as one of the top developmental defensive line coaches in the region and he has now become a top-notch recruiter with the Ducks. Salave'a has obvious ties back to Arizona and Tomey plus he has experience being on the coaching staff for the Wildcats. The 45-year-old native of American Samoa has strong ties to the Polynesian community and is a member of the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame.
Steve Sarkisian – Alabama offensive coordinator
CAREER RECORD (as a head coach): 46-25
SALARY (2020): $1,550,000
BIO: The Alabama offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach is no stranger to the Pac-12 or the West Coast. A Southern California native, Sarkisian began his coaching career at his alma mater El Camino College before moving on to become the quarterbacks coach at USC. That put him on a path to the NFL where he became the Oakland Raiders quarterback coach before returning to Los Angeles to take over the quarterback group once again. He was eventually named the Trojans' offensive coordinator before taking over as the head coach at Washington from 2009-13. He ultimately returned to USC as the Trojans' head coach, but after a rocky two years he was ultimately fired in 2015. Nick Saban then hired Sarkisian as an offensive analyst and eventually an interim offensive coordinator at Alabama. He returned to the NFL in 2017 as the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons. After being fired from that job, Sarkisian returned to Alabama in early 2019 to serve as offensive coordinator for the Crimson Tide.
WHY HE'S AN OPTION: Sarkisian has plenty of experience as a recruiter and coach in the Pac-12 so he understands the landscape. During his most recent stint at Alabama the offense has risen to the top of college football and currently sits as the fourth-best passing offense at the FBS level. His familiarity with the region would certainly give the Wildcats a direct pipeline into California and potentially make Tucson a destination for high-level quarterbacks.
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