Tucson Citizen.com
AG's Wildcat Report - Dispatches on the Wildcats, from Anthony Gimino

Ricky Hunley: ‘I would absolutely love’ to join Stoops’ coaching staff

by on Dec. 11, 2010, under Sports

That's Ricky Hunley in the front as 1980s teammates reunited last year at Arizona Stadium. From left behind Hunley is Glenn Howell, Marsharne Graves and Julius Holt.

Arizona Wildcats coach Mike Stoops says he has no shortage of good candidates for the two vacant assistant positions on his staff, and one of those possibilities is Ricky Hunley.

Hunley, the former Arizona All-America linebacker and a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, told TucsonCitizen.com on Saturday night that he has put his name “out there” when it comes to the Wildcats’ coaching vacancies.

“He knows it’s out there,” Hunley said of Stoops. “I would love to come back. I would absolutely love it. Arizona has always been a destiny for me. That’s home.”

Stoops has to make two hires to replace co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach Greg Brown, and defensive tackles coach Mike Tuiasosopo. Both accepted positions last week at Colorado.

Hunley, 49, has spent the past two seasons as the defensive coordinator of the Sacramento franchise in the United Football League.

“I’m ready to move on,” he said. “I’m moving forward.”

After a seven-year NFL career from 1984 to 1990, Hunley coached at USC from 1992-93, at Missouri from 1994 to 2000 and at the University of Florida in 2001. From there, he followed Gators coach Steve Spurrier to the Washington Redskins, where he coached the defensive line. He then spent five seasons as the linebackers coach for Marvin Lewis with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Hunley was out of coaching in 2008 before joining the UFL.

Earlier this season, Arizona retired Hunley’s jersey — as well the jerseys of six other prominent ex-Wildcats.

Stoops said Friday he would be interviewing potential assistant coaches this weekend and next weekend. Hunley said he has not had any formal discussions with Stoops yet … but that doesn’t mean that he won’t.

“Mike is a great guy,” Hunley said. “I love his passion. He has turned that program around. It would be great to be a part of something like that.”

Hunley said he is looking at coaching jobs at the college and professional level.

“No question, it has to be the right job,” Hunley said. “In my case, the University of Arizona is always the right job. But it has to be the right fit for the man in charge.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 11th, 2010 at 8:33 pm and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

RSS feed for this post (comments)
«
»