ESPN: Arizona, SJSU's Brent Brennan Agree to HC Contract After Fisch Joins Washington

Arizona is hiring San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan to replace Jedd Fisch, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel.

Brennan went 34-48 in seven years with the Spartans, a record that's skewed by the 22 losses they combined to suffer in his first two seasons at the helm. The program qualified for a bowl game in three of the past four years.

Brennan was reportedly a finalist for the Wildcats in 2020 during the coaching search that led them to hiring Fisch.

Selecting Fisch worked out nicely for the Wildcats. They went 10-3 and finished 14th in the final College Football Playoff rankings, their best finish since 2014.

Fisch didn't wait long to cash in on that success, though. Washington announced his arrival Sunday, and The Athletic's Bruce Feldman reported he's taking his entire offensive staff with him to Seattle.

In addition to the turnover on the coaching staff, Brennan may have to ward off the kind of exodus that's becoming increasingly common in the transfer portal era. Leading rusher Jonah Coleman was the first Arizona player to hit the portal since Fisch's departure, and quarterback Brayden Dorman, a 4-star recruit from the 2023 class, is out the door as well.

Assuming Brennan doesn't lose too many key starters and fills out the squad through the portal, the pieces are nonetheless there for Arizona to make a big impression in its first season in the Big 12. Noah Fifita, who threw for 2,869 yards, 25 touchdowns and six interceptions in particular shows a lot of promise.

University administrators, meanwhile, will hope Brennan is more committed to the program than Fisch was.

Given his nomadic coaching career, nobody should be surprised Fisch's stay in Arizona was relatively short. He has jumped around from a number of jobs across the college and pro levels, so it was inevitable that he'd leave for what he believed to be greener pastures.

Brennan, on the other hand, was a graduate assistant at Arizona in 2000, giving him existing ties to the Wildcats. The 13 years he spent at San Jose as both an assistant and head coach suggest he's prepared to call Tucson home for a long time.