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Last summer Tommy Lloyd had never made a Final Four, Chip Hale was coming off a trip to the College World Series, Brent Brennan was an embattled football coach, Caitlin Lowe’s team had fallen in the regional after a very successful debut season in the Big 12 and Becky Burke was trying to assemble a roster mostly from scratch.
That was last summer.
This summer sees those coaches all in vastly different positions than they once were. Lloyd and Brennan, for example, are riding high after very successful seasons, whereas Hale is coming off his worst since taking over the program, Lowe’s contract has yet to be extended and Burke is still the beneficiary of the standard honeymoon period.
Everyone had opinions of these coaches when they were hired and it’s reasonable that those opinions have evolved with time and performance. The goal at Arizona is to compete for and win championships, something every one of the aforementioned coaches has said they can do in Tucson. A realistic goal? For some sure, for others maybe not.
Nevertheless as we head into the summer it’s a good idea to take a look at these high-profile coaches and see if we should feel confident in their abilities to get the job done, whatever that means. Let’s roll with a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most confident.
Chip Hale
Hale’s hire was not the most inspiring, but right out the gate he had some pretty good success in trying to pick up the pieces after Jay Johnson bolted. The Arizona great guided the program into the postseason in each of his first four seasons, won the Pac-12 regular season and conference championship in 2024 and then brought the Cats to the College World Series in 2025.
Even his doubters had to be at least moderately impressed.
Then 2026 happened. Picked to finish 2nd in the Big 12 in February, the Wildcats instead finished second-to-last. Injuries and a bit of a rocky offseason with regards to pitching coaches ultimately proved to be too much to handle, and the result was a team that couldn’t even qualify for the conference tournament.
It wasn’t all bad, of course. Freshmen Tony Lira and Nate Novitskemade the All-Freshman Team, giving the program a couple of building blocks (assuming they stick around). Garrett Hicks (and Lira) also were all conference honorable mention choices.
But that is all of little consolation given what the expectations for the season were and now the fear of what the future might bring. Defections are a concern even when things are good, so we can only wonder and worry about what will transpire following the disaster that was ‘26.
Confidence Level: 6
Reason: Hale has proven to be a good coach and leader, but whereas before he was challenged with not letting the program slip he is now tasked with a rebuild. Hiring the right coaches and retaining key players will make all the difference.
Tommy Lloyd
This is an easy one, right? All Lloyd has done since being named Arizona’s head coach is win. Be it big nonconference matchups, important regular season games, conference tournaments, NCAA tournament games or recruiting, he’s won. He’s also a strong and enjoyable presence in the community and a terrific ambassador for the program and school.
That was before he took Arizona to its first Final Four since 2001, a feat that all but solidified Lloyd as the coach in Tucson.
Continuing to keep the program at an elite level will not be easy, especially in this era of NIL, the transfer portal and players who one would think would have no eligibility possibly having some left. But if there was a coach to feel confident in being able to navigate these bumpy waters, it’s Lloyd.
One need only look at how he’s done as Arizona’s coach, consistently blending returning talent with high-impact freshmen and valuable transfers to create rosters that have consistently been among the conference’s and country’s best. There is a level of trust in the coach that he has most definitely earned, which is why even what on the surface looks like a disappointing offseason coming off a trip to the Final Four is no reason to panic or doubt.
If Lloyd (or the NBA’s coaches, scouts and GMs) can convince Koa Peat to return to school the Cats would be in a great spot heading into next season, but even if he departs does anyone think Arizona will struggle to fill his spot? Arizona’s picked up a good amount of fresh talent via the portal and the incoming freshman class features one of the best players in the country in Caleb Holt and another excellent piece in Cameron Holmes.
Confidence Level: 9
Reason: Maybe Arizona takes a step back next season. It would be understandable as there’s not much room to step forward. But five seasons into his tenure Lloyd has proven himself to be one of the best coaches in the country, to the point where blue blood North Carolina made a serious run at him. Lloyd turned them down and extended his contract at Arizona, but the likelihood that this won’t be the last time a top-tier program tries to pry the coach away is the only reason why Lloyd doesn’t get a 10.
Caitlin Lowe
Lowe was never going to have it easy replacing a legend in Mike Candrea, but being the successor to the all-time great made plenty of sense. Having played for Candrea and then coached under him at Arizona, Lowe was a perfect fit for the pressure-packed gig.
Things started off well, too, as her team got hot in the postseason and made a run to the Women’s College World Series in her first year. But after missing the postseason in Year 2 Lowe’s teams have never made it further than the NCAA Super Regionals, with Regional exits in each of the last two seasons.
That she is entering this offseason with just one year remaining on her contract and is not an obvious candidate for an extension is, in a word, concerning.
To Lowe’s credit, she was able to withstand losing 10 players from last season’s team in the portal and the graduations of aces Devyn Netz and Miranda Stoddard to build a team that won 37 games, but struggles late in the season and then falling to Duke in back-to-back games after run-ruling the Blue Devils the day before has left a pretty sour taste in many a fan’s mouth.
Where the program goes from here is going to be interesting to see. Coaches don’t normally like to go into the final year of their contracts, but given how often players move around these days perhaps it’s not as big of a hindrance when it comes to player acquisition.
Confidence Level: 5
Reason: Everyone wants Lowe to succeed, and it’s true that expectations might be a bit unreasonable for her and her program. However, the further Arizona gets from the Candrea era the less the program looks like a national power, and questions about whether Lowe can lead Arizona back to that level in the current landscape are valid. If her contract does not get extended this summer we’ll have a pretty good idea of how much confidence her bosses have in her abilities.
Brent Brennan
If ever there was an example of “just give the coach a chance” Brennan is it. His first season, one that began with incredibly high expectations, was a dud. His second, which had incredibly low expectations, was a smashing success.
It certainly seemed like Brennan benefited from a full offseason in charge of the program as well as an opportunity to truly assemble the kind of coaching staff he wanted. The results were a nine-win team that produced four NFL draft picks and a handful of others who signed with teams as undrafted free agents. QB Noah Fifita is returning as a dark horse Heisman candidate and given how the offseason went with regards to recruiting and the portal there’s little reason to believe a big step back is on the way.
As it stands, the roster looks pretty good heading into the summer.
With the coaching staff largely returning, including coordinators Seth Doege, Danny Gonzales and Craig Naivar, and rather than fear of a step back there should be an expectation of continued success.
Then again, this is Arizona Football and we know how things can go. The last time there was confidence heading into the season things went about as poorly as they could have and the Cats won’t be overlooked by anyone in ‘26.
Confidence Level: 7
Reason: All throughout his career Brennan has proven to be at least a solid coach, but solid will not be good enough to make waves in a pretty competitive Big 12. It’s fair to believe much of the head coach’s success is due to having an elite veteran QB and hitting on both coordinators and we can all wonder what will happen when Fifita is gone and if either Doege or Gonzales were to leave. However, it is important to point out that Brennan is the guy who hired the coordinators and was able to keep Fifita in Tucson, so it’s not as if he does not have an eye for talent or ability to sell himself and the program.
Becky Burke
Taking over a program that wasn’t exactly in great shape, Burke’s first season at Arizona was not particularly memorable. The team battled all season long but was short on talent and injuries, especially to leading scorer Mickayla Perdue, proved to be too much to overcome. Is that an excuse? Absolutely.
But it also could be a reason.
Much of that initial roster will not return, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Burke and her staff have done plenty to try improve the talent level, snagging four-star guard Jasleen Green and Arynn Finleyto headline the top recruiting class in the Big 12 and what ESPN deemed the 17th-best freshman class in the country. The five-player group is the type that could be transformational and set the table for something special in the desert.
Mix in some returners and quality veteran portal additions and the result is a largely different team from last year but one that is definitely Burke’s, and similar to Brennan with football there’s every possibility all she needed to show her abilities was a complete offseason to work with.
Confidence Level: 7
Reason: Successful coaches recruiting at a high level is rarely a surprise or reason to celebrate. But for Burke, who is unproven in the Big 12 and coming off a rough year to pull in the kind of talent she has shows that there is a strong believe in what she can do and what she is building. Last year’s team played hard, but was short on talent. Assuming that is less of an issue going forward, she seems to have the mentality and ability to lead Arizona into the future.
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