Oct 19, 2024; Tucson, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Brent Brennan against the Colorado Buffalos at Arizona Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Arizona Assistant Coach Named to Intriguing List

Originally posted on Arizona Wildcats on SI
By Troy Hutchison | Last updated Aug 19, 2025 7:00 AM ET

Arizona has added a lot of new faces to its coaching staff and roster with 61 new players and six new coaches for Brent Brennan, who is trying to turn things around after an underwhelming 4-8 season in his first year as the Wildcats head coach.

One of the changes for Arizona was promoting linebackers coach Danny Gonzales to defensive coordinator after one season, Duane Akina leading the group.

The promotion of Gonzales left a hole at the linebacking coaching job and Brennan left it up to his defensive coordinator to fill the void and find someone he trusts to coach the unit.

After going through candidates for the job, Gonzales and Arizona hired Josh Bringuel as the linebackers coach, who spent the last six seasons with programs in the ACC, Big Ten and Mountain West.

On Monday morning, 24/7 Sports announced their top 30 assistant coaches in college football under the age of 30 and Arizona’s newly hired linebackers coach in Bringuel, who is 27 years old and entering his seventh season as a college-level coach.

Before getting into coaching, Bringuel played for Gonzales, who was the defensive coordinator at San Diego State. He played for the Aztecs during the 2018 season but suffered a knee injury after walking on the football team and making the roster.

Gonzales in a press conference pointed out the hard work Bringuel put in to make the Aztecs’ roster and then the way he handled his injury that led him to believe that his former player would be a coach one day.

Troy Babbitt-Imagn Images

This offseason both Gonzales and Bringuel worked hard to rebuild the linebacking corps with only Taye Brown leading the way as the main returning starter from the 2024 defensive unit.

Since signing with the Wildcats as part of the 2022 class, Brown has played in 25 games while recording 75 tackles, 32 solo tackles, four tackles for loss, 2 ½ sacks and one fumble recovery for Arizona.

Outside of Brown, Gonzales and Brignuel went out and added two key transfers in Max Harris and Riley Wilson. The duo has played in 40 college games bringing much needed experience to what was a young linebacking group.

So far in training camp, Bringuel has mixed up the linebacking pairings and has been able to see which units work best in several different situations.

I think Arizona will rotate its linebackers when it has a chance to do so in games to keep the group fresh and ready for the fourth quarter of games.

This article first appeared on Arizona Wildcats on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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