Early Thursday afternoon, Mike Canales walked into the football coaching offices at Utah State, and his 33-year journey through every conceivable rank of college football — through Tucson and Tampa, good and bad — had come full circle.
He was back home.
It’s one of the most fulfilling stories I’ve come across in the fickle world of college football coaching.
Canales was 42 when he was hired as Arizona’s offensive coordinator in January 2004. He was a hot ticket: former coach of North Carolina State quarterback Philip Rivers, soon wooed away to coach with the New York Jets.