Former Titans Coordinator Survives College Coaching Change

Chuck Cecil will remain a part of the University of Arizona staff, will have a different job than he has had for the past three seasons.

Former Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator Chuck Cecil has a new boss and a new title. He does not have a new home.

Cecil was named defensive backs coach for the University of Arizona on Thursday.

He spent the last three seasons as a senior defensive analyst (as well as a brief stint as interim defensive coordinator in 2019) for the program under former coach Kevin Sumlin, who was fired after just nine wins in three seasons. New coach Jedd Fisch elected to retain Cecil, who starred as a player for the Wildcats in the mid-1980s.

"The University of Arizona and the Tucson Community is home to me, and I am proud to serve the Wildcat football program and its incredible student-athletes as defensive backs coach," Cecil said in a release from the school’s athletics department. "I am grateful to Coach Fisch for the opportunity to work alongside him and the entire UArizona coaching staff as we bring back the grit, toughness and character of Arizona football."

Cecil got into coaching as a defensive assistant/quality control coach with the Titans from 2001-03. Over the course of a decade, then-coach Jeff Fisher promoted him three times, the last to defensive coordinator, a job he held for two seasons (2009-10). Tennessee’s defense finished in the bottom third of the NFL in yards allowed both years.

He worked under Fisher again with the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams as defensive backs coach (2012-14) and senior defensive assistant (2015-17).

Arizona is his first – and still his only – stop as a college coach.

“His addition to our coaching staff will bring decades of elite coaching and playing experience, collegiately and professionally,” Fisch, who said. “I know he will have a tremendous impact on our student-athletes by showing them what they can achieve on the field, in the classroom and in the community.”