VIEW LARGER University of Arizona football coach Brent Brennan (r.) with UA athletic director Dave Heeke. The Arizona Board of Regents unanimously approved a five-year contract for the new University of Arizona head football coach Brent Brennan. His base salary will start at $2.2 million and incrementally increase yearly for a combined compensation of $16.1 million.
The new coach can also earn annual performance incentive payments capped at $1.2 million each year. Incentives include $60,000 for the AP National Coach of the Year award and $175,000 for participating in the College Football Playoff Championship.
Additionally, Brennan will receive $400,000 in agreements with Nike and Learfield. According to ABOR documents, if there is a breach or lapse of the agreement, the university will pay Brennan the difference of what is left in the contract if he remains in good faith performance of his obligations.
If Brennan stays at UA by Jan. 30, 2026, he will become eligible for a “one-time retention payment” of $250,000 given that he remains in good standing.
Brennan attended Thursday’s board meeting and was welcomed with enthusiasm by the regents, many thanking him for his team-building skills.
“Brent is a Wildcat through and through,” UA President Robert Robbins said. “It’s a welcome home for Brent and his wife, Courtney, and their three children.”
Brennan previously coached under UA’s winningest former head football coach Dick Tomey at both UA and San Jose State University. For the new coach, this is a homecoming for him.
“This is where I want to be,” Brennan told the board. “It's where my family wants to be. I get to work around great people and the people in Tucson, Arizona have always been amazing. It's been amazing to me, amazing to my family and the people make the place.”
Brennan’s contract comes after former head football coach Jedd Fisch announced last week that he was leaving for the University of Washington. When Fisch left, fans were concerned that UA’s top players would follow along.
“One of the biggest affirmations that we got the right guy for the right time to be at the University of Arizona, is that the team that our former coach left, I think he assumed a lot of them were going to follow him to the great northwest to the Purple Rain region…but they stayed,” Robbins said.
UA is expected to receive $5.5 million from Fisch and Washington as a buyout. Some of that money will be used to pay SJSU $1 million to satisfy Brennan’s contract.
Additional benefits include tickets to UA “sporting events, a country club membership, use of one automobile, use of a non-commercial airplane for in-season road trips, and a bowl/post-season fame package.”
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