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Larry Smith, 1973-75: Smith built a national reputation as the Wildcats went 8-3, 8-3 and 9-2 in his three UA seasons. He was then hired to be the head coach at Tulane before returning to Tucson to be the UA head coach from 1980-86.

Moe Ankney, 1980-85: Ankney's UA defenses were superb, powered by Ricky Hunley, Chuck Cecil and Byron Evans, among others. He left the UA in 1986 to spend five years as head coach at Bowling Green.

Larry Mac Duff, 1987-96: A key part of the Desert Swarm years, Mac Duff benefited from all-conference players such as Tedy Bruschi, Chris Singleton and Rob Waldrop. He left Tucson in 1997 to be the special teams coordinator for the New York Giants.

Rich Ellerson, 1992-2000: The Salpointe Catholic grad implemented the "Double Eagle Flex" defensive scheme that ignited the Desert Swarm legend. He left in 2001 to be head coach at Cal-Poly and then Army.

Mark Stoops, 2004-09: No one was a bigger part of the UA's reconstruction project of 2004-09 than Stoops, brother of head coach Mike Stoops. He left in 2010 to be defensive coordinator at Florida State. He is now the head coach at Kentucky.

Gonzales, who turns 50 next month, arrived at Arizona after four years as the head coach at a long-struggling New Mexico program. Gonzales would seem to be a prime candidate to be poached by a Top 25-level program. To help prevent that, athletic director Desireé-Reed Francois signed him to a contract through 2026, as she did offensive coordinator Seth Doege and assistant head coach Joe Salave'a. Good move.