The first time Brent Brennan coached in a Territorial Cup, in 2000, Arizona lost at home and not long after forced out Dick Tomey. That was near the beginning of Brennan’s coaching career, as a graduate assistant, and probably felt pretty bad. Not nearly as much as being on the losing end of the most lopsided result for a Territorial Cup debut in school history.
“For what this game means to everybody here and everybody in this town and everybody in the state, for us to be so unproductive today is soul crushing,” Brennan said after Arizona’s 49-7 home loss to the Sun Devils.
Arizona finishes the 2024 season at 4-8, down six wins from a year ago.
“This was a really hard year, a hard year for everybody associated with the program, but I’m optimistic for the future,” Brennan said. “This year was not fun, it was absolute misery. There were some fun moments, but not nearly enough. And I feel bad, because I feel like I let down these players. I feel like I let down this community, and I feel like I let down this university. This thing starts with me looking in the mirror and doing a hardcore evaluation of the choices and the decisions I made, and then building that out with our entire program every step of the way. The evaluation process begins.”
Our game recap can be found here. Below is what Brennan, running back Quali Conley and defensive end Tre Smith said afterward:
Brennan on ASU: “They have a good football team, and they got after us in every way today. Skattebo is a fantastic player, just so powerful and runs low to the ground and it’s hard to bring down. The quarterback is really efficient. Their whiteouts made some plays and then they were really effective on defense. They have a good football team, and as much as that hurts me to say, I got to respect it.”
On the offseason: “These next couple weeks will be chaos in college football. We’ll be getting ready for signing day on Wednesday, which we’re excited about, and then working hard to build our roster so that we can play the best football we could possibly play here at the University of Arizona.”
On his 2024 team: “I love these players. They fought their tails off all year. We went through extreme circumstances with injuries. Lots of guys that we didn’t anticipate counting on we’re all of a sudden playing meaningful roles for us, and they gave us everything they had. And I thank them for that. I also thank our seniors, its a really great group of people, just how they stayed together, everything they did to keep this team together in the transition a year ago. I’m really, really appreciative of them, and a lot of them contributed on the field in such a significant way.”
On trying to win back fans: “It depends on where their point of reference is. If they (need) to wait 10 months until we win a football game, or nine months, however far away that is, I’m not gonna be able to do it between now and then. But I’ll tell you this: you only have one choice when you’re in this position, and that is to go over and to believe that you can. Because the other choice doesn’t lead to the results you want.”
On not going for it on 4th down multiple times: “In the second half, if we didn’t get it, we were going to give them the ball on the plus-43 yard line. And the series before they went 75 yards in three minutes and 12 seconds, or something like that. It was fast, that’s when they missed the field. So that was that decision. In the first half. I was just thinking, hey, let’s get some points on the board, let’s start inching our way back into this thing.”
On not being able to match Cam Skattebo’s physicality: “Not having some of the pieces available to us that bring a certain level of physicality also makes that picture different. That was disappointing, that being said, he does that to everyone. Respect. The guy’s a badass, man.”
On Arizona’s level of competitiveness: “I thought it was really good last week, and I thought today wasn’t good enough. And I also think we played a good team that whooped our butts right. I think that’s what we’re all sick about, is how that thing felt. We chose to defer, we couldn’t stop them, we had a chance to stop them on third and short, Skattebo fell forward for the first down, and we didn’t stop them, and then they went down to score, and then we came out, and I think we got one first down and then we punted. And they answered with points. And so they did what good teams do. They played complimentary football with their offense and their defense.”
On the delay of game on the field goal (that led to a missed kick): “I thought that was ridiculous. I thought that was totally ridiculous. And I was extremely frustrated with that moment in the game. Not because of (Michael) Wooten, that should have been clean. The guy in charge of that should have had that. That’s on me, that’s on me, because I’m responsible for all those pieces. And so that stuff should not happen.”
On Jonah Savaiinaea missing his first start because of injury: “We were hopeful he could go. He never took real reps in practice, he did some movement, and we thought there was a chance that he’d be able to. But then in his warm up today, he just couldn’t.”
On Savaiinaea likely heading to the NFL: “He’s just an awesome football player and an even better person. I mean, anyone who knows Big Jonah, just a huge heart, definitely a hard worker, crazy competitor, like it’s so important to him. I’m excited for the next chapter for him, but I met him on the first day here, and he just had this big smile, gave me this big hug, and he’s a really special, special man.”
On the reasons for his optimism: “I believe in the support we’re getting from our athletics director and our President. I’m extremely optimistic about the recruiting class that we’re going to put together and the action we’re going to get done in the portal, and I believe in our coaches and these players, so I’m excited to move forward. Now, the good news is, I’ve been through things like this before. I’ve been a part a lot of staffs that have taken over programs, so I’m not afraid of the challenges. I’m actually excited about them.”
On having exit meetings with players and trying to convince them to stay: “The next seven days will be a lot of meetings. There might be someone I’m talking to that says, like, I’m gonna hit the portal and I’m gonna say good luck to you. But then there’s gonna be someone else and I’ll say yeah, we want you to be part of this.”
On getting players who went through 2024 to expect better in 2025: “That’s a fair question. I think it’s a little bit of a leap of faith. But they have been around us. They have been around our coaches. They know our level of ability to teach and coach. I do feel like we have a great relationship with these players. I do think that is strong. I think the culture is healthy. And I think if you want to be a part of building something, great. If you want to go try and jump on a bandwagon somewhere else, if that’s who you are, go. I’m confident that everything that’s going on within the program, the coaches, the players, where we’re at with our administration, and the (revenue) share, all those things, those are all part of the conversation right now. I’m confident where we’re at. I think we’ll be in a good spot with retention.”
On being able to establish relationships with players in the portal: “I think those decisions are going to be made quickly. I think some of them are going to be transactional. You have a chance to still bring them here, they can still come to us. So it’s a quiet period. It’s not a dead period in December. It is very, very different. But I do think that this coaching staff and the … recruiting staff and our trainers and everybody that touches Arizona football, I think does a great job of making people feel good when they’re around you.”
On evaluating his staff: “That starts tomorrow. We have recruits here right now, so I got a busy night ahead of me. It’s gonna be a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to it. But got to figure that out. Like I said, every aspect of the program is under evaluation. Everything.”
On Tetairoa McMillan: “He’s an awesome person. And I think you know what he has been to this university, what he’s been in this community, just how generous he is with his time, how good he is with people. Everybody that comes in contact with him enjoys being around him. If he decides to go to the NFL, which I’m assuming, everyone’s assuming he is, he hasn’t made that official statement yet, but we want what’s best for him. He’s a Wildcat forever. He’s a great human being, and everybody will always be rooting for T-Mac always.”
On his postgame message to the team: “My final message to the team was, every person in the room has a piece of how we feel. Every single one, and some pieces are bigger than others, but everybody who was involved in that disaster today. And so, how committed are you going to be going forward? There’s nowhere that you get where you want to go without putting in the work. There’s nowhere. And so what is the next month going to look like? What does the next three months look like? What is the next six months going to look like?”
Conley on Brennan: “He’s like a genuine guy. He’ll tell you the truth, if you want to hear it or not he’ll tell you the coach. He’s a player’s coach. He’ll let the players voice their opinions.”
On the 2024 season: “I feel like it was nothing really disappointing, but it just was a learning period for the guys, the young guys on how season should look. So next year, the season shouldn’t end like this, it should be better.”
On ASU sticking its fork in the Block A: “It’s our field, and just doing that is disrespectful. I think it was Montana, he’s the one who stopped him. I just feel like that was uncalled for.”
On Noah Fifita: “He’s just a heck of a leader. Everybody, even coaches listen to what he has to say. Noah is the first guy I ever met that has so much respect for everyone on the team.”
Smith on the loss: “The best way to put it is they just out-executed us in all things. That’s what it comes down to, I’m just going to be pretty blunt with it.”
On being unable to stop Skattebo: “Let me start off saying the game plan didn’t go as planned, obviously, but we know he’s a great player, and they got a great offense, so the mission was to just stop the run and make him bounce and keep him going sideways.”
On the 2024 season: “It wasn’t exactly what we wanted. And to say that there no disappointment would be unrealistic, obviously. We’re all humans. But Coach Brennan works tirelessly, and he’s a great dude. He knows what he’s talking about, he’s just working on getting it all together.”
On what Brennan told the team after the game: “Basically, it’s a lesson to learn from, just like everything else in life. You could either take that and lay down, whether it be playing at the next level or staying here. You gotta keep going, and you have a choice to make. So we’re gonna swing, we’re not gonna sing.”
On the lessons that younger players can learn from this season: “The first and most obvious one in my mind is perseverance, just the ability to continue to work hard no matter what comes your way, and just really trusting the process and having faith in the people around you. Have faith in yourself, play fast, play hard, things like that.”
On if he’s expecting teammates to transfer: “I personally have no idea, but I would love to play with all my teammates again.”
On what’s in store for the team this offseason: “Hard work, hard work and grit and just building the Brotherhood. But first and foremost, hard work.”