Chuck Cecil must’ve been channeling his inner Ric Flair.
The senior defensive assistant of the Arizona Wildcats was so fired up Saturday before the team squared off against rival Arizona State that he head-butted helmeted defensive back Owen Goss in a wild pregame moment.
The Fox broadcast, which captured the initial exchange, then panned to Cecil, 60, on the sideline wearing an Arizona ball cap as blood dripped down his forehead.
“Get into it, Chuck,” the commentator said, adding as the camera showed a bleeding Cecil, “And then, the eventual result is that.”
Cecil’s efforts to hype up Arizona fell short as the Wildcats lost to the Sun Devils in the Territorial Cup, 49-7.
Arizona trailed 35-0 at halftime.
“For what this game means to everybody here and everybody in this town and everybody in the state, for us to be so unproductive today is soul-crushing,” Wildcats coach Brent Brennan said postgame, according to Arizona Desert Swarm.
Arizona State advanced to the Big 12 championship with the win.
Cecil was the safeties coach for Arizona from 2021-23 and even played for the school in the 1980s before he was selected in the fourth round of the 1988 NFL Draft by the Packers.
Cecil’s NFL career spanned from 1988-95, and he was even named to the Pro Bowl in 1992 while playing for Green Bay.
A 1987 All-American and Pac-10 defensive player of the year, Cecil’s No. 6 is retired by Arizona.
He had previous coaching stints with the Titans in various roles, including defensive coordinator.
He also had a run with the Rams as a secondary coach prior to re-joining Arizona in 2018.