Arizona AD Seen 'Cordially Chatting' With Brent Brennan After Blowout Loss

Despite the blowout loss Arizona suffered against Arizona State, their AD was seen chatting with the head coach.

Aug 31, 2024; Tucson, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcat head coach Brent Brennan interacts with fans as he walks down the Wildcat Walk before a game against the New Mexico Lobos at Arizona Stadium / Aryanna Frank-Imagn Images

Things could not have gone worse for Arizona than it did on Saturday.

One year removed from the Wildcats destroying their archrivals in the Territorial Cup, it was Arizona State who delivered the whooping this season.

A coaching change and subsequent roster turnover was certainly an issue for Arizona throughout this disappointing campaign, but they still had plenty of star power in place to play much better than their 4-8 record would reflect.

What was the difference?

Jedd Fisch was the coach last year and Brent Brennan was the coach this year.

Coming into the season, there was optimism that the drop off wouldn't be too steep despite Fisch clearly being a premier program builder and leader.

After all, Brennan had a successful run at San Jose State which is regarded as a tough place to win.

But, the gap between the two was beyond noticeable, especially when looking at the offensive side of the ball that couldn't string together consistent drives in four quarters of a single game, let alone on a week-to-week or month-to-month basis.

There was some real thought during the year that Brennan might be fired, and despite beating Houston coming out of their bye week, the two subsequent losses they had against TCU and Arizona State, especially the latter one, didn't do anything to calm that sentiment.

However, a report by Michael Lev of The Arizona Daily Star might.

"UA athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois was in the room during Brennan's postgame news conference. The two appeared to be cordially chatting as they exited," he wrote.

Arizona hired her in February of this year to replace fired AD Dave Heeke.

Desiree Reed-Francois left her role as Athletic Director of the University of Missouri to sign a five-year contract with Arizona.

Brennan was hired in January, so there was always a chance she could be looking to get her own head coach in to lead the football program since she wasn't the person who hired him, but it seems like she is comfortable backing the vision the now-embattled head coach has for how this Wildcats team will operate going forward.