One disputed play has now cost Desert Ridge its coaching staff. The school went 0-10 last season before Miles Smith took over, and his father, former NFL head coach Lovie Smith, joined as a volunteer assistant. Now both are stepping away, and the school is looking at bringing back suspended players, all because of how one play was handled.
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Miles was hired around December 2025 and early 2026. He also works as a history teacher at the school. Lovie, who coached the Chicago Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Houston Texans, and the University of Illinois, joined his son as a volunteer assistant. Miles had coached linebackers under his father with the Texans and at Illinois.
The flashpoint came on October 2 in a 14-12 win over Vail Cienega. On a late play meant to help seal the game, the call was for Gunner Brewer to keep the ball. He changed it and handed off to his running back, trusting the back more to pick up the yards. The play worked, but accounts describe the change as happening in the huddle or at the line, and the exact details are not fully settled.
On October 19, Miles resigned as head coach, and Lovie also stepped away from his volunteer role. Sources said school administrators wanted to reinstate at least some of the 12 players suspended for the rest of the season after they backed dismissed quarterback Brewer.
The school had not received an official resignation letter by that evening, and no full confirmation of any returns had come out. The latest moves grew from a disagreement that started with a single play call.
Brewer said the previous offensive coordinator had let him make similar adjustments. That coordinator was let go after a 56-20 loss to Mesa Westwood on September 25. Brewer added that he was never told such changes were no longer allowed.
According to Brewer and his mother, Marie, Miles saw the move as disrespect to the coaching staff and its play-calling authority. Miles has not yet explained his side.
Miles dismissed Brewer on October 5, three days after the win. Brewer and his mother said the coach told him he had been disrespectful and ordered him off the team. “I never expected it… I never got told it was bad to call an audible,” Brewer told AZ Family in an interview.
“Never had a one-on-one meeting that it was bad. I’m disappointed because I wanted to finish my senior year,” he added, saying he had not received a one-on-one warning. As a senior, Brewer lost the chance to finish his final high school season.
Brewer had played six games before the dismissal, throwing for over 1,000 yards,
Twelve players chose to walk out in support of Brewer and paid for it with season-long suspensions. At an October 7 meeting about his dismissal, offensive lineman Will Stark asked who wanted Brewer back, prompting several players to raise their hands. Parent accounts said a coach told those who disagreed they could leave. Five seniors and seven underclassmen walked out, ending their seasons early.
The bond between Brewer and his teammates stayed visible.
“They definitely had my back, and I have theirs 100%,” Brewer said in the same interview.
He kept supporting the players who remained and said he still loved the community even with his disappointment.
The fallout showed on the field. Desert Ridge lost 49-7 to Red Mountain on October 9 and 50-0 to Corona del Sol on October 15. Suspended players’ equipment was removed from lockers, and their banners were taken down. However, some of those players attended games to support.
A video from around the same time showed Lovie Smith in a heated exchange with a booster or parent over locker-room access.
“Do you understand that? Do not walk in that locker room again,” Lovie was captured saying. “You’re talking to somebody else’s kid.”
Athletic director Kevin Swann later told parents that players had a chance to share their views and confirmed the season-long suspensions, while noting underclassmen could return for winter workouts and the next season.
Reports on October 19 said administrators wanted to bring back at least some of the suspended players. That push became the reported reason Miles and Lovie chose to step away rather than accept a change to the coaching staff’s discipline decisions.
No official report has named which suspended players might return, how many could come back, or when they could rejoin. No replacement head coach has been named.