Dennis Polian is in his second season at Arizona as the program’s Chief of Staff and Associate Athletic Director for football. Polian comes to Tucson following two seasons as Texas A&M’s Associate AD and Director of Player Personnel after serving in a variety of administrative roles in professional football over the previous decade.
Polian arrived at Texas A&M from the Tennessee Titans where he served as a pro scout, football administrator and special assistant to head coach over the past five years. Prior to working with the Titans, Polian served in similar roles with the Indianapolis Colts and the Minnesota Vikings, including as the Super Bowl XLI team coordinator for the Colts in 2007.
Polian moved to the NFL after a year with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League where he served initially as the running backs coach and director of quality control and later as the assistant general manager from 2008-09. He also served as the director of team services with the Arena Football League from 2007-08.
He had a two-year stint with Tulane University from 2006-07 where he began as the director of football operations and later served as assistant director of athletics with oversight of sports services, including football administrative planning, equipment, event management, facilities management and coaches video.
He was also heavily involved in Tulane athletic department’s Hurricane Katrina action plan.
He moved to Tulane from Columbia University where he served as assistant athletic director for football operations and special projects from 2004-05.
From 2003-04, Polian served as the corporate sales and client services manager for the Arena Football League.
He began his career in athletics in event / facilities operations at Boston College from 1999-2001 where he served as a game operations manager for various revenue events, including football, men’s and women’s basketball and hockey.
Polian is a 1999 graduate of Villanova University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and he earned his master’s in administrative studies from Boston College in 2001.
