At the end of the 2022 season, Oregon Duck fans saw offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham leave Eugene to take a head coaching job in the state of Arizona. A year later, it looks like history has a chance to repeat itself.
While Dillingham left to take over the Arizona State Sundevils, the last 24 hours have seen current Oregon OC Will Stein have his name mentioned as a candidate for the open Arizona Wildcats job.
A string of events has led to this. Nick Saban’s retirement led to Washington’s HC Kalen DeBoer leaving for Alabama, which led Arizona HC Jedd Fisch to leave for Washington. Now the Wildcats are looking for someone to take over their top job. According to On3, Stein could be a good option.
The 34-year-old former Louisville quarterback’s rise has been fairly meteoric, and it would be interesting to have the last two Oregon OCs coaching the two sides of the Territorial Cup rivalry. (Stein’s predecessor at Oregon was current Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham.) Stein is originally from Kentucky, but he learned to coach in Texas. After joining former Cardinals coach Charlie Strong for a year at Texas, Stein worked at Lake Travis High in Austin before joining Jeff Traylor’s UTSA staff. Stein’s recruiting connections in the Lone Star State are excellent, which would be big for a new Big 12 program.
While Stein is certainly a strong candidate with his offensive success at Oregon and his strong recruiting ties in the Big 12 base, mainly Texas, it’s fair to say that there are other candidates who will likely be at the top of the list for the Wildcats.
We will see over the coming days who Arizona chooses to replace Fisch, but it will likely happen relatively quickly.
Story originally appeared on Ducks Wire
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