By FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Thursday, January 15, 2004
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New head football coach Mike Stoops filled two more vacancies on his coaching staff yesterday, hiring Mike Canales as offensive coordinator and Mike Tuiasosopo to coach defensive linemen.
Canales comes to Tucson after a year spent coaching wide receivers for the NFL's New York Jets.
He has also orchestrated the passing game at North Carolina State and worked under current USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow, who was a candidate for the UA head coaching vacancy.
Tuiasosopo was Utah's defensive line coach last season after holding the same position at Nevada and Utah State.
"These two guys are going to help us," Stoops said. "Mike Canales' offensive background is outstanding and will give us the kind of emphasis we want spreading the field, and Mike Tuiasosopo has coached some champion-level players and has a football mentality that will spread throughout our team."
The 43-year-old Canales played collegiately at Utah State. Last year, he coached Santana Moss to a 1,000-yard receiving season for the Jets. Tuiasosopo, 40, was a defensive tackle at Pacific Lutheran and has coached talents such as current NFL linemen Hannibal
Navies of Carolina and Oakland's Marcus Williams. Tuiasosopo should be a familiar name to longtime Pacific-10 Conference fans. Mike's cousin Manu was a two-time All-American at UCLA, while his brother Titus played at USC. Former Washington star and current Oakland Raider Marques and current Husky fullback Zach are Mike's second cousins.
The hirings leave Stoops with one vacant defensive position. Gene Johnson and former Wildcat linebacker Marcus Bell were hired as the offensive and defensive graduate assistants, respectively.
