Brent Brennan's Former OC Takes Utah State Job, Ends Reunion At Arizona Speculation

With Arizona looking for a new offensive coordinator, the possibility of Brent Brennan reuniting with his former OC from San Jose State is done after he took the Utah State job.

Jul 10, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Brent Brennan speaks to the media during the Big 12 Media Days at Allegiant Stadium / Candice Ward-Imagn Images

Arizona is looking for a new offensive coordinator after moving on from Dino Babers.

It was a brutal showing on that side of the ball by the Wildcats, something that was frustrating to see with so much talent still on the roster headlined by star quarterback Noah Fifita and projected top 10 NFL draft pick Tetairoa McMillan.

The juxtaposition between how the offense looked under previous head coach Jedd Fisch and this year's head man Brent Brennan was eye-opening.

One thing that was head-scratching when Brennan got the job was he didn't bring his longtime offensive coordinator, Kevin McGiven, with him from San Jose State, instead opting to hire Babers in the first place after he had been fired as the head coach of Syracuse.

In the middle of the season, Brennan tried to change things up on offense by removing play calling duties from Babers and giving it to tight ends coach Matt Adkins, something that worked in the short-term but never fixed the issue.

So, with Arizona searching for the right guy to take over this role, the obvious connection to make would be to bring in McGiven.

Unfortunately, that is no longer a possibility.

Per Pete Thamel of ESPN, he has been hired to become the new offensive coordinator at Utah State under recently hired head coach Bronco Mendenhall, leaving San Jose State for the first time since 2018 when he was brought in by Brennan.

While the news is certainly disappointing, Arizona could have made this move.

This will be McGiven's third time back in Logan, Utah so there are clearly some connections there, but coaching the Wildcats in a Power 4 conference is a much greater job than what he's going to get at Utah State.

Why Brennan didn't bring McGiven with him the first time or aggressively go after him when moving on from Babers isn't known.

Arizona will have to look elsewhere if they're going to turn this offense around since the quick fix of bringing in McGiven, who called some dynamic offenses with Brennan in charge at San Jose State, won't be happening.