Brent Brennan: Defensive changes put ‘everybody in the right seat’ on Arizona’s staff

The last time Joe Salave’a was in Tucson, in 2019, it was a somber homecoming. The former Arizona star was in town to attend a memorial service for Dick Tomey, his coach with the Wildcats and the man who got him into coaching.

Five years later, the emotions are still fresh.

“It wasn’t until the plane was starting to descend that I saw Coach Tomey’s face,” Salave’a said Friday, at a press conference to introduce him as the UA’s new defensive line coach. “Rich Ellison, the former teammates that I played with, some that have already passed. Very surreal.”

Salave’a, who played for the Wildcats from 1994-97 before spending nine seasons in the NFL, was one of two defensive staff changes made Thursday by head coach Brent Brennan. The other was elevating Danny Gonzales to defensive coordinator after he coached linebackers and special teams last year.

Those moves, along with not retaining longtime Brennan assistant Joe Seumalo, follow the decision in December to shift Duane Akina back to coaching defensive backs after being the DC in 2024. The changes were necessary after Arizona ranked near the bottom in the Big 12 in almost every defensive category.

“I think that gives us a chance to have everybody in the right seat in terms of how we want this thing to go,” Brennan said.

Gonzales has previous experience as a defensive coordinator, both at San Diego State and ASU, and both of those stops saw him run schemes that were derived from those employed by former SDSU and New Mexico head coach Rocky Long. Long developed his scheme from several coaches, including Rich Ellerson, who was part of Tomey’s staffs at Arizona during the Desert Swarm era in the 1990s.

“The Desert Swarm is all part of what we’ve done forever,” said Gonzales, who plans to run multiple fronts depending on his personnel and the opponent. “If we have four D-linemen that we think are elite, then that’s what we’re going to major in. If we have 3 D-linemen and three linebackers and we think we’re elite, that’s what we’re going to major in. We’re going to have a 4-down front, 5-down front, 3-man front, whatever gives you the best chance to be successful every week.”

Salave’a has previously coached at Arizona, being part of Mike Stoops’ final staff in 2011. Since then he’s spent time at Washington State, Oregon and most recently Miami (Fla.), at each stop coaching the defensive line. He said he has to assess what the Wildcats have up front but knows what he’s looking for from the top contributors.

“The pedigree of the play at the trenches is toughness, the mentality and the competitive spirit, those are the things we got to make sure that everybody’s on board with,” he said. “We’ve got to count on guys that are willing to do the dirty work.”

Brennan and Salave’a coached together at San Jose State in 2008-09, under Tomey, and Brennan said Salave’a was one of the first to reach out to him after he got the Arizona job last January. Adding him to his staff was always a goal, but that required him to be available.

Miami recently fired its defensive coordinator, opening the door for Salave’a to move on after working with Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal since 2017.

A week after going 4-8 in his first season, Brennan announced he would be replacing all three coordinators. A week later he added Seth Doege from Marshall, with Gonzales’ promotion filling a second opening. Brennan said a special teams coordinator hire is still in the works, as could other potential staff changes, but the priority has been on rebuilding the roster through the NCAA transfer portal.

Arizona has 23 portal commitments, in addition to more than 20 high school and junior college signings.