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Confirmed: Akina to return to Arizona to coach the secondary

by on Jan. 16, 2011, under Arizona football, Sports

Duane Akina

Texas defensive backs coach Duane Akina is returning to Arizona to coach the secondary, a source inside the Wildcats football program told TucsonCitizen.com Sunday night.

Reports of Akina’s hiring had surfaced earlier, including one from Tom Dienhart of the Rivals.com. Look for an official statement from Texas and Arizona on Monday, with Akina likely to be in Tucson on Tuesday morning.

I first heard about this possibility, off the record, last week and my initial reaction was “WOW!”

This is a great, great, great hire for coach Mike Stoops. Did I say great?

A call to Akina has not yet been returned, but I did reach former Arizona All-American safety Tony Bouie, who spent a couple of years playing under Akina.

“Master motivator,” Bouie said of Akina.

“He will get the best out of the guys that he coaches. Without a doubt. Hands down. He is so passionate. Detail-oriented. He obviously knows the position extremely well. He is going to bring a lot of credibility to that position when they are recruiting guys to play DB. …

“He just knows what he’s doing. This is the deal of the century.”

I don’t say the following just because I know Akina from his time at Arizona (1987 to 2000) under Dick Tomey, but I do know this: If I was the head coach of a college football team and needed to fill my coaching staff, I’m first calling Duane Akina to coach the defensive backs.

I think he’s the best secondary coach in the country.

Related: Ex-Cat on Akina: ‘I would chew nails and spit blood for that guy’

Akina was at Arizona under Tomey as the secondary coach from 1987 to 1991, as the offensive coordinator from 1992 to 1995 and, again, as the secondary coach from 1996 to 2000. Akina was set to be the defensive coordinator for John Mackovic at Arizona in 2001, but he left for the Longhorns in the spring.

Akina has coached three winners of the Jim Thorpe Award, given to the nation’s top defensive back: Arizona’s Darryll Lewis (1990), and Michael Huff (2005) and Aaron Ross (2006).

The best cornerback he ever had at Arizona (perhaps ever coached) should have won the award in 1998, but Chris McAlister, but Antoine Winfield of Ohio State won it instead.

Other star Akina pupils include Chuck Cecil (for one season at Arizona), Quintin Jammer, Michael Griffin and Earl Thomas at Texas, where he has been since the 2001 season.

Akina will replace Greg Brown, who left to take the defensive coordinator’s position at Colorado.

Akina, 54, also carried the title of “assistant head coach” at Texas under Mack Brown and was the co-defensive coordinator there from 2004-07. There was no immediate word if he would carry an additional title at Arizona.

Akina made $318,509 per year under his Texas contract, according to the USA Today salary database.

The highest paid Arizona assistants last season were Brown and fellow 2010 co-defensive coordinator Tim Kish at $230,000. With Brown’s departure, Stoops has said that Kish will be the sole coordinator in 2011.

Why would Akina leave Texas?

One possible reason is the upheaval on the Longhorns coaching staff after a 5-7 season. Akina might feel “maxed out” at Texas. He might might also view this a return “home” to Tucson.

I’m sure we’ll hear more details in the next couple of days.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 16th, 2011 at 7:57 pm and is filed under Arizona football, 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.

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  • Carlos J. M.

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  • Carlos J. M.

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  • Carlos J. M.

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  • Carlos J. M.

    As long as it’s the DBs, good deal. That’s all I’ll say. But certainly Anthony – you must know the UA-Akina history in its entirety, right?

    Now what about Special Teams? If not Alamar, another Tomey throwback and a pretty darn good one, I say we send Hammerschmidt to a ton of coaching clinics, conferences, workshops, training sessions – whatever it takes. Let’s have him sit with and pick the brains of every top kick coverage and return coach in the land, college and pro.

    And Brown was paid what by Stoops?!…To do what, where, to whom?!…How?!

    • Anthony Gimino

      Carlos,

      Unless someone else leaves, the staff is full. We’ll see what Stoops says in the coming days about Akina’s role/title, but he’s slated for similar duties as he had as Texas — secondary coach. Also had the additional assistant head coach title, as I mentioned. The only history with Akina that matters is he is a great secondary coach.

      If this is the final staff, then Stoops might make some decisions on special teams, but it sounded last week as if Hammer was staying in his same roles as last season. We know special teams was a disaster last season, but the return game and coverage units had been good under Hammer until then.

      Clearly, though, he did not win the mental game with his kickers. Don’t know who is really to blame for that lack of connection. Take your pick.

      • Rick

        [quote]We know special teams was a disaster last season, but the return game and coverage units had been good under Hammer until then.[/quote]
        Let’s be honest Anthony. Special teams have been in a steady decline for the past 3 years, and last year was the culmination of the decline. Self implosion at it’s finest if you will. Who thought 4 years ago we would have a kicking game like the one we experienced last year? When Crier came onto the scene as a freshman everyone thought we had landed a All American Punter for the next 4 years. What happened to that booming leg? Who thought after we signed a Zendejas to kick for Arizona that he would end up being the kicker who…let’s be honest here…lost 2 games for the Cat’s because of PAT’s. And who really wants to talk about the Punt Return team? Anyone? We know what happened there.
        I’m a Arizona homer as much as the next guy, but the Hammer needs to be shown the door.

        • Anthony Gimino

          I stand by what I wrote earlier. Hammer had the No. 3 and No. 4 punt return team in the nation in the previous two years. He has had a top 10 kick return team.

          Some of the coverage units suffered this season because they didn’t use top-line personnel. Is that Hammer or Coach Stoops? Stoops isn’t a coach inclined to sell out for a lot of blocks … again, Hammer or Stoops?

          No doubt, we all thought the same thing about Crier. Kickers tend to have their own “gurus” they go to get fixed technically. What happened? I don’t know. Communication and motivation can be a two-way street, and something was lacking there.

          Stead decline? Overall, I see it as two pretty good years on special teams and then a drop off the cliff. I’m happy Hammer is getting another year to fix it. I think he deserves that.

  • Carlos J. M.

    Anyone else having trouble posting? The font will suddenly change on its own as I’m typing and not let me send what I’ve typed. Instead I get an error message telling me I must have something typed in the message box in order to send it. Just thought you might want to know this Anthony & Co. at TC.com.

  • Carlos J. M.

    Thanks Anthony. I think you’re right though. With coaches Joe, Anae and Akina, things should be looking up. Look, I don’t want to see anyone lose their job, least of all a Cat, but I’m not completely sold on things being “fixed” in the running game or kicking game. Can’t believe Littrell and The Hammer don’t have it in them to succeeed. Just doesn’t seem natural, if you know what I mean. I am in favor of second chances, so we’ll see…

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  • Augie

    Interesting how it looked as if we were going to lose all our coaches in December with Mike Leach and Dana Holgorsen looking to start up their programs (plus the Colorado hire of John Embree) and here we are today with a better quality coaching staff on the defensive end and the hire of Robert Anae is a huge upgrade on the OLine!
    I am curious to see how recruiting is going to pan out. Even though this has been a quiet recruiting year, retaining Criner has a great impact on the program going into next year’s tough schedule. I’m pumped up and cannot wait!

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