Lovie Smith, son Miles Smith resign at Desert Ridge HS (AZ) after following national controversy

Ten months after Desert Ridge (AZ) landed a former NFL head coach and his son to rebuild a winless program, both are reportedly gone, and the season still has two games left to play.

Head coach Miles Smith stepped down on Monday, October 19, according to The Arizona Republic and 12News. His father, Lovie Smith, will not return for the rest of the season, per multiple reports. Lovie is the former head coach of the Chicago Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Houston Texans, as well as Illinois, and he had been a volunteer assistant on the staff. 

Gilbert Public Schools told The Republic it was “unable to comment as no official resignation has been received.”

The exit comes two weeks after Miles Smith controversially dismissed senior starting quarterback Gunner Brewer in a move that quickly turned into a national headline as twelve of Brewer’s teammates then quit in support of him.

Desert Ridge athletic director Kevin Swann announced the hires on December 16, 2025. “We hired a tandem - Miles Smith and his dad, Lovie Smith,” Swann said at the time. Miles Smith also took a job teaching history at the school. The Jaguars were coming off an 0-10 season under first-year coach Jeremy Beamon.

Miles Smith coached linebackers at Illinois under his father and was on Lovie’s Houston Texans staff in 2022. 

Lovie went 81-63 with the Bears from 2004 to 2012 and took Chicago to Super Bowl XLI. He went 8-24 in two seasons in Tampa Bay, 17-39 in five seasons at Illinois and 3-13-1 in his only season as Texans head coach.

On October 2, Brewer helped Desert Ridge to a 14-12 win at Vail Cienega. During that game, he called an audible and changed a play at the line. Three days later, he was off the team.

His mother, Marie Brewer, told The Republic what Miles said to her son was along the lines of: “Hey, I felt like you disrespected me, and I can’t have that on my team. You’re off. Get your stuff and go.”

Brewer shared the team’s former offensive coordinator had allowed him to check plays. “I never got told it was bad to call an audible,” Brewer said. “Never had a one-on-one meeting that it was bad.” Through six games, he had completed 101 of 203 passes for 1,212 yards and nine touchdowns, and run for 359 yards and six more scores.

At a team meeting on October 7, offensive lineman Will Stark asked who wanted Brewer back. According to parents, a group raised their hands and a coach told them they could leave if they didn’t like the decision. Twelve players walked out. All 12, including five seniors, were suspended for the rest of the season. Swann disputed that account in a letter to parents. He said no one was told to leave and that a group chose to walk out after the meeting broke into position groups.

Things got uglier from there. A video posted October 12 showed Lovie Smith confronting a booster who had allegedly gone into the locker room and photographed equipment, with his son holding him back. “Do not walk in that locker room again,” Smith told him. “You’re talking to somebody else’s kid.”

On the field, Desert Ridge lost 49-7 to Mesa Red Mountain and 50-0 to Tempe Corona del Sol. The Republic was denied access to cover the Corona del Sol game.

Every staff has rules on who can check out of a play. Those rules have to be taught, repeated and coached before they’re enforced. If Brewer’s account is accurate and nobody told him the green light was gone, removing a four-year senior starter coming off a win was always going to split a locker room, and it did.

Desert Ridge (2-6) plays at Gilbert Highland (AZ) on Friday, October 23, and closes with Mountain View. It’s still unclear whether the 12 suspended players will be allowed back with this recent coaching change, but a recent report from Kevin McCabe says part of the reason behind the resignation of Miles is that the school administration wanted him to allow five players who walked away from the team to be welcomed back, undermining his authority.

Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.