When you think of some of the great Arizona football quarterbacks of all time, names like Nick Foles and Willie Tuitama come to mind. Now, there is only one name that comes before both of those Wildcats legends, and that name is Noah Fifita.<\/p>\n
When Fifita came in for an injured Jayden de Laura in 2023 against Stanford, all fans were hoping for was to leave Palo Alto with a win. Fifita took care of the ball and helped get Arizona the win.<\/p>\n
Absolutely no one thought that Fifita could become a generational quarterback for the Wildcats. Since that Stanford game, he has led Arizona to an Alamo Bowl win, a Holiday Bowl appearance, and has broken the Arizona career passing touchdowns record.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a rarity for a college football player to choose one school over and over again. With the transfer portal and NIL, many players choose to leave a school for \u201cgreener pastures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fifita has created his own green pasture in the Tucson desert, and that\u2019s something head coach Brent Brennan thinks separates Fifita from any other player in the nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s amazing to be in a situation where you have a Heisman caliber candidate quarterback returning,\u201d Brennan said. \u201cI think that\u2019s one of those things that doesn\u2019t get talked about enough, is that this young man continues to choose the University of Arizona, and he\u2019s done it time and time again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every season has brought statistical improvements for Fifita. While there may have been a dip in on-field results in 2024, that only motivated him to keep getting better.<\/p>\n
Finally having a coordinator for multiple seasons with Seth Doege does bring a confidence for the offensive gameplan, something that Fifita may not be used to.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been able to play more confidently, I\u2019ve been able to play faster,\u201d Fifita said. \u201cGuys today were telling me that the ball is getting out super fast, and to be honest, even I didn\u2019t really realize that. Just playing in the offense, playing in a scheme, trusting coach Doege\u2019s coaching points allows you to play free and at the end of the day the scheme just works.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout last season, Doege said on many occasions that he had never seen any quarterback pick up on a new system as fast as Fifita did. Going into this season, there is almost no doubt between the duo of how much production this offense can create.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur relationship is about as tight as it can be,\u201d Doege said. \u201cI completely trust him. You know, we\u2019re talking some elite level football right now with each other, which is a ton of fun. He\u2019s the best quarterback I\u2019ve ever been around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doege knows that the leadership position Fifita is in did not just fall into his lap. It was earned through hard work, dedication to the game, and a mindset of always trying to be better.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis kid\u2019s really special because he\u2019s so talented, and he\u2019s so talented because he\u2019s worked at it,\u201d Doege said. \u201cHe\u2019s earned that right to be called talented. Our chemistry is like I said, I think it\u2019s unmatched. I trust him completely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coming off a 3,228-yard and 29-touchdown season, Fifita aims to keep improving as he\u2019s done every season in Tucson. One of the biggest improvements he\u2019s made is in his leadership and that leadership will be needed to mesh with the new players brought in over the offseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think every player, every person, has a chance to grow and improve,\u201d said Brennan. \u201cI think if you don\u2019t have that mindset, you\u2019re playing the wrong game. We have new tight ends, new running backs and new receivers, and so there\u2019s a lot of chemistry that needs to be built up there too.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Fifita can continue his improvement trends, it might lead to something that Foles, Tuitama, or any other Arizona has ever done. The promised land of the Rose Bowl has forever eluded the Wildcats, but it could be a legacy cementing accomplishment for the senior quarterback.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want my legacy to be a Big 12 championship and Rose Bowl,\u201d said Fifita.<\/p>\n
However, in typical Fifita fashion, he did not make things about himself. He makes everything team oriented and \u201cRedline\u201d focused.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Arizona, and there\u2019s a reason I\u2019ve chosen, I mean, we\u2019ve chosen as a team to stay, this day and age the transfer portal is real for players and for coaches at the end of the day,\u201d said Fifita. \u201cEverybody\u2019s had an opportunity to leave, and everybody\u2019s either chosen to come here or chosen to stay here. So it\u2019s not just about me, it\u2019s about this team, the coaching staff and the players, but what we have is special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you think of some of the great Arizona football quarterbacks of all time, names like Nick Foles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[52664,7,49,48],"class_list":["post-837294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-arizona-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116302315948956042","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}