Miles Smith Reportedly Resigns at Desert Ridge After QB's Audible Sparks Player Revolt

One play changed everything at Desert Ridge High School. Three weeks after senior quarterback Gunner Brewer changed a play in the huddle — and was kicked off the team for it — the coach who removed him is reportedly gone too. Kolby Marting of 12News reported Monday that Desert Ridge head football coach Miles Smith has announced his resignation, and that his father, former NFL head coach Lovie Smith, who was volunteering on his son's staff, also won't return to the team.

The corroboration arrived quickly, along with a reason to keep the word "reportedly" in this headline. A Desert Ridge player's parent confirmed the resignation to the Arizona Republic on Monday — "My son called me while in practice that both coaches resigned," the parent said. But Dawn Mackay, chief communications and community engagement officer for Gilbert Public Schools, told the Republic that as of Monday evening the district was "unable to comment as no official resignation has been received." Two directions of reporting point the same way; the paperwork, by the district's own account, has not caught up.

The play that started it

The chain of events began on October 2, in a 14-12 win at Vail Cienega. Brewer told Griffin S. DeMarrais of KTVK 3TV in Arizona that the play sent in was designed for him. In the huddle, he decided the running back gave Desert Ridge the better chance. "I basically got the play, but in the huddle, I was thinking to myself like... I have a running back who can run the ball better than me, so I'm gonna trust in my guy," Brewer said. "So, I changed the formation to put him in the backfield with me, and for him to run the ball." The Jaguars won the game.

Brewer added that his offensive coordinator had previously given him permission to change plays. The Arizona Republic's reporting adds the wrinkle: changing plays had been permitted under the team's previous offensive coordinator, who was dismissed at the end of September. Nobody, Brewer said, ever told him the audible was off-limits. "I never expected it," he told the Republic. "I never got told it was bad to call an audible. Never had a one-on-one meeting that it was bad. Basically, all that happened, I'm disappointed because I wanted to finish my senior year."

A dismissal, then a walkout

On October 5, Smith removed Brewer from the roster. According to Brewer's mother, Marie Brewer, speaking to the Arizona Republic, Smith told her son he had disrespected him: "He said, 'Hey, I felt like you disrespected me, and I can't have that on my team. You're off. Get your stuff and go.'"

What happened next turned a discipline story into a program crisis. At an October 7 team meeting, according to the Republic's reporting, a player stood up and asked everyone who wanted Brewer back on the team to raise a hand. A group of players did. A coach responded that if they didn't like the decision, they could leave — and 12 players walked out. All 12 were suspended for the remainder of the season. Five of them are seniors, which means their high school careers ended in that room.

Brewer, for his part, has not walked away from the teammates who walked out for him. He came to Desert Ridge's October 15 game against Corona del Sol to support them, speaking with reporters outside the stadium after athletic director Kevin Swann turned media away from covering the game, according to the Republic. "I've been here for four years," Brewer said. "My brother went through here. I love the community. The community's got my back. Gone through three coaches in four years. I can't give up on my brothers. I want to support my brothers." The season he lost was a real one: through six games, Brewer had completed 101 of 203 passes for 1,212 yards and nine touchdowns, with 359 rushing yards and six more scores, according to the Republic's reporting.

A famous father on the sideline

Hovering over all of it is the surname. Miles Smith was hired as Desert Ridge's head coach last December, and his father Lovie — who coached the Chicago Bears to a Super Bowl appearance and later led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Houston Texans — joined the program as a volunteer assistant. It was set up to be the feel-good version of this story: a Super Bowl coach spending an autumn on a high school sideline in Mesa, helping his son rebuild a program that went 0-10 in 2025. Instead, according to USA TODAY's account of the turmoil, the situation drew further attention on October 9, when Lovie Smith was involved in a heated confrontation with a football booster before a game against Mesa Red Mountain.

What happens to the players now

The biggest question left in Mesa is not about the coaches. It is about the kids. A source told 12News that "the administration wants to allow some of those kids who were dismissed to be able to return this season and play again." Mackay, the district spokeswoman, told the Republic that individual meetings are being held between student-athletes and site administration to determine, in this case, the length of separation from team participation. Desert Ridge is scheduled to play at Gilbert Highland on Friday, according to USA TODAY. Who coaches the Jaguars that night — and whether any of the sidelined players, Brewer included, are back in uniform — remains unanswered.

Miles Smith has not responded to the Republic's requests for comment, and neither has the school's principal or its athletic director. So the public record, for now, ends where it began: with a quarterback who trusted his running back, a locker room that trusted its quarterback, and a program that has spent three weeks learning what that trust cost everyone involved. Previously will update this story as the district confirms the coaching change and rules on the players.