Brent Brennan
Brent Brennan went 52–61 as a head coach, 2017–2026, at San José State and Arizona. Share
- Record
- 52–61 career
- Seasons
- 10
- Schools
- 2
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Mar 20, 1973
- Alma mater
- UCLA 1996
- Best season
- 2020 7–1, No. 24
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | San José State | 2–11 | |||
| 2018 | San José State | 1–11 | |||
| 2019 | San José State | 5–7 | |||
| 2020 | San José State | 7–1 | Arizona Bowl L | 24 | |
| 2021 | San José State | 5–7 | |||
| 2022 | San José State | 7–5 | Famous Idaho Potato Bowl L | ||
| 2023 | San José State | 7–6 | Hawai’i Bowl L | ||
| 2024 | Arizona | 4–8 | |||
| 2025 | Arizona | 9–4 | Holiday Bowl L | ||
| 2026 | Arizona | 5–1 |
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game.
Players he coached
Every player from his seasons with a Heisman top-five finish, a national award, consensus All-America honors or a first-round pick. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, free licenses; credits on each player’s page.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 16 | 2–14 | 13% |
| Against top-10 teams | 2 | 1–1 | 50% |
| Against rivals | 22 | 8–14 | 36% |
| Conference games | 77 | 35–42 | 45% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 4 | 0–4 | 0% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 32 | 14–18 | 44% |
| At home | 56 | 35–21 | 63% |
| On the road | 51 | 16–35 | 31% |
| At neutral sites | 6 | 1–5 | 17% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 47 | 34–13 | 72% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 66 | 18–48 | 27% |
His own 113 games on file, 2017–2026, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jay Norvell 2017–2022 | 2–4 | Nevada, Colorado State | 6 | |
| Jeff Tedford 2017–2023 | 2–3 | Fresno State | 5 | |
| Craig Bohl 2017–2022 | 3–1 | Wyoming | 4 | |
| Brady Hoke 2020–2023 | 2–2 | San Diego State | 4 | |
| Kalani Sitake 2017–2026 | 0–4 | BYU | 4 | |
| Marcus Arroyo 2020–2022 | 3–0 | UNLV | 3 | |
| Timmy Chang 2022–2025 | 3–0 | Hawai’i | 3 | |
| Tony Sanchez 2017–2019 | 1–2 | UNLV | 3 | |
| Bryan Harsin 2019–2022 | 1–2 | Boise State, Auburn | 3 | |
| Troy Calhoun 2019–2023 | 1–2 | Air Force | 3 |
Brent Brennan’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Hawai’iseries | 8 | 5–3 |
| UNLVseries | 7 | 5–2 |
| San Diego Stateseries | 7 | 2–5 |
| Fresno Stateseries | 6 | 2–4 |
| Nevadaseries | 6 | 2–4 |
| Utah Stateseries | 5 | 1–4 |
| New Mexicoseries | 4 | 4–0 |
| Wyomingseries | 4 | 3–1 |
How he was hired
- Hired by Arizona for the 2024 season from San José State, where he was head coach. He had a prior connection to the school.
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Woodside (CA) high school | Assistant coach | |
| 1998 | Hawaii | Graduate assistant and wide receivers coach | |
| 1999 | Washington | Graduate assistant and tight ends coach | |
| 2000 | Arizona | Graduate assistant | |
| 2001–04 | Cal Poly | Wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| 2005–06 | San Jose State | Wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| 2007–08 | San Jose State | Tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| 2009 | San Jose State | Co-offensive coordinator and offensive line, tight ends and special teams coach | |
| 2010 | San Jose State | Wide receivers coach | |
| 2011–16 | Oregon State | Wide receivers and outside receivers coach | |
| 2017–23 | San Jose State | Head coach | |
| 2024–present | Arizona | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Fred VonappenHawai’i
- Rick NeuheiselWashington
- Dick TomeyArizona, San José State
- Rich EllersonCal Poly
- Mike MacIntyreSan José State
- Mike RileyOregon State
- Gary AndersenOregon State
Assistants who became head coaches
- Alonzo CarterSacramento State, Contra Costa
- Danny GonzalesNew Mexico
- Dino BabersBowling Green, Syracuse, Eastern Illinois
- Mike NesbittWest Texas A&M, OUAZ
Worked under (7)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fred Vonappen | Hawai’i | 1998 | Graduate assistant and wide receivers coach | |
| Rick Neuheisel | Washington | 1999 | Graduate assistant and tight ends coach | |
| Dick Tomey | Arizona | 2000 | Graduate assistant | |
| Rich Ellerson | Cal Poly | 2001–04 | Wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| Dick Tomey | San José State | 2005–09 | 2005–06: wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator; 2007–08: tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator; 2009: co-offensive coordinator and offensive line, tight ends and special teams coach | |
| Mike MacIntyre | San José State | 2010 | Wide receivers coach | |
| Mike Riley | Oregon State | 2011–14 | Wide receivers and outside receivers coach | |
| Gary Andersen | Oregon State | 2015–16 | Wide receivers and outside receivers coach |
Coached under him, later head coaches (4)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alonzo Carter | San José State, 2017: running backs coach; 2018–20: running backs coach and recruiting coordinator; 2021–23: assistant head coach, running backs coach and recruiting coordinator; Arizona, 2024–25: assistant head coach and running backs coach | Sacramento State, Contra Costa | |
| Danny Gonzales | Arizona, 2024: linebackers and special teams coach; 2025–26: defensive coordinator | New Mexico | |
| Dino Babers | Arizona, 2024: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Bowling Green, Syracuse, Eastern Illinois | |
| Mike Nesbitt | Arizona, 2026: STA | West Texas A&M, OUAZ |
Other assistants under him (9)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Andrew Sowder | San José State, 2017: offensive coordinator | |
| Bojay Filimoeatu | San José State, 2017–18: linebackers coach | |
| Derrick Odum | San José State, 2017: defensive coordinator; 2018–23: assistant head coach and defensive coordinator | |
| Ryan Gunderson | San José State, 2017: quarterbacks coach; 2018–20: quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator | |
| Kevin McGiven | San José State, 2018–20: offensive coordinator; 2021–23: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Chuck Cecil | Arizona, 2024–26: senior defensive assistant | |
| Duane Akina | Arizona, 2024: defensive coordinator | |
| Joe Salave’a | Arizona, 2025–26: assistant head coach and defensive line coach | |
| Seth Doege | Arizona, 2025–26: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | Contract pay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | San José State | head coachbonuses up to $210,000; buyout $2,036,706 | $581,916 USA Today |
USA Today’s coaches salary database (2014–17, from public-records requests to the schools; Rachel Ehlers’ copy): the season’s contract pay, school pay plus outside money, before bonuses.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
Brennan’s teams went for it on 22% of fourth downs and on 39% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 56% of plays and took 26.7 seconds a play, 2020–2026.
| Season | School | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 8 g | San José State | 13 of 57 23% | 38% | 57% | 26.3 | +0.06 | |
| 2021 10 g | San José State | 11 of 87 13% | 27% | 55% | 24.9 | −0.07 | |
| 2022 12 g | San José State | 17 of 88 19% | 42% | 61% | 26.7 | +0.07 | |
| 2023 13 g | San José State | 19 of 77 25% | 40% | 51% | 28.9 | +0.13 | |
| 2024 12 g | Arizona | 19 of 89 21% | 36% | 61% | 26.8 | 0.00 | |
| 2025 13 g | Arizona | 29 of 99 29% | 52% | 53% | 25.8 | +0.08 | |
| 2026 6 g | Arizona | 5 of 27 19% | 29% | 55% | 27.7 | +0.16 | |
| All 74 g | 113 of 524 22% | 39% | 56% | 26.7 | +0.06 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.