ESPN College Football

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Mike Canales, who coached the New York Jets' wide receivers last year, left the NFL to become Arizona's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach on Wednesday.

Mike Stoops, hired Nov. 29 to revive a program that bottomed out last year under John Mackovic, also added Mike Tuiasosopo as defensive line coach. The assistants -- Stoops' seventh and eighth -- leave him with one more staff vacancy.

"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 championship-level players," Stoops said.

Previously hired were: Mark Stoops, the coach's brother, as defensive coordinator and secondary; Tim Kish, linebackers; Charlie Williams, wide receivers; Eric Wolford, tackles and tight ends; John Peterson, centers and guards, and Kasey Dunn, running backs.

Mike Stoops also brought in Corey Edmond and Mark Hill to oversee strength and conditioning; Erick Harper as director of football operations; and Gene Johnson as the team's offensive graduate assistant. Former Arizona linebacker Marcus Bell is the defensive graduate assistant.

Johnson, the former coach at Klein (Texas) Forest High School, produced two recruits -- defensive end McCollins Umeh and safety Dominic Patrick -- who have committed to the Wildcats.

Canales played quarterback at Utah State and spent three years in Brigham Young's productive offense under Lavell Edwards and then-offensive coordinator Norm Chow. He followed that with seven years at Snow, a Utah junior college, and joined the staff at Pacific in 1995, the year Pacific dropped football.

Canales landed at South Florida as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, left for two years as the passing-game coordinator at North Carolina State and joined the Jets for the 2003 season.

Tuiasosopo played at Pacific Lutheran, an NAIA member, and coached at three California high schools and Pacific (1991), earning a master's degree, before landing an assignment as defensive line coach at Utah State in 1996. He left in 2000 to coach at Nevada and was hired at Utah last year to coach defensive tackles.

Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press