Duane Akina, who spent 14 years on Dick Tomey's staff at Arizona, is rejoining the Wildcats coaching staff as defensive backfield coach.
Akina, 54, has coached three Thorpe Award winners, including Darryll Lewis at Arizona, and 23 defensive backs who moved on to the NFL. He has been at Texas for the past 10 years and was a top defensive assistant at Arizona from 1987 to 2000.
"Duane has a ton of experience at the top level of the game, is familiar with the Arizona program and is a great complement to our defensive staff," said head coach Mike Stoops. "He's been a coordinator at two schools and knows defense inside and out. His championship experience will be a huge benefit to our program."
"I'm very excited about coming back to Arizona. It's obviously a special place for me and my family, where lots of good things happened," Akina said. "I'm grateful to Texas for giving me a chance to be a part of Longhorn football for the past 10 years and now I'm appreciative of the chance to work with Coach Stoops. (Athletics director) Greg Byrne has a vision for Arizona football that's going to work. I want to help."
Akina tutored Lewis (1990) and UT's Michael Huff (2005) and Aaron Ross (2006) to Thorpe Awards, plus has worked with six finalists for the honor including UA's Chris McAlister. He also worked with UA consensus All-American Chuck Cecil in his first season at Arizona in 1987.
Akina was offensive coordinator for Tomey at UA from 1992-95 and Texas' co-defensive coordinator for four seasons under Mack Brown at Texas from 2004-07. He has been assistant head coach and defensive backs coach the last three years at Texas.
A native of Honolulu, Akina is a 1979 graduate of the University of Washington and earned three letters for the Huskies as a quarterback.
