Arizona Wildcats take the main stage at Big 12 Media Days

FRISCO, Texas — Arizona is one of 16 teams in Dallas for Big 12 Media Days, a two-day event that started Tuesday morning.

This year marks the first time Arizona has participated in a conference media day outside of Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

The Pac-12 hosted its media day in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, with the Big 12 hosting the 16-team media days at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas last year. The Big 12 previously held its media days at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the home stadium of the Dallas Cowboys.

The current version of Big 12 Media Days is held at “The Star” in Frisco, Texas, known as the Cowboys’ global headquarters.

Arizona will take the main stage on Wednesday, along with Houston, Kansas, TCU, Utah, Oklahoma State, Colorado and West Virginia, which is now led by former UA head coach Rich Rodriguez.

Current Arizona head coach Brent Brennan, who’s entering his second season at the helm after posting a 4-8 record in 2024, will be joined by six Wildcats on Wednesday: quarterback Noah Fifita, offensive lineman Rhino Tapa’atoutai, defensive end Tre Smith and defensive backs Dalton Johnson, Treydan Stukes and Genesis Smith.

Fifita is the only Arizona player returning to Big 12 Media Days; he was joined by former UA receiver Tetairoa McMillan, linebacker Jacob Manu and safety Gunner Maldonado.

Last season, Arizona was one of seven teams in the Big 12 to fail to qualify for the postseason, after entering the year with potential conference championship and College Football Playoff aspirations following a 10-win season and a win over Oklahoma at the Alamo Bowl.

This year? Even though the Big 12 isn’t rolling out a preseason media poll, the Wildcats are widely considered a bottom-feeder, but look to silence the doubters this season like other underestimated teams in the past, like Arizona State, which went from voted last in the Big 12 to winning the conference and earning a spot in the College Football Playoff.

As Arizona enters the spotlight on Wednesday, here’s an in-depth look at its six player representatives and where they stand heading into the 2025 season.

Noah Fifita

Position: Quarterback

Year: Redshirt junior

The rundown: The face of Arizona football will have his fourth offensive play-caller in three seasons this year. In the early stages of Fifita’s career at Arizona, the quarterback thrived under former head coach Jedd Fisch, who was the Wildcats’ offensive play-caller.

Last season, Fifita had a sophomore slump under offensive coordinator Dino Babers, who was replaced by passing game coordinator and tight ends coach Matt Adkins four games into the season.

Under Fisch, Fifita was the Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year and Football Writers Association of America Freshman of the Year in 2023. Fifita is the only Wildcat in school history to have a completion rate (73.6%) higher than 70%, which he set in ‘23. He also set Arizona’s single-game passing record in ‘23 with 527 yards against rival Arizona State.

Last season, Fifita’s touchdown-to-interception ratio dropped from 23:5 to 18:12. Fifita also led the Big 12 in interceptions and had the most throwaways in college football.

Fifita, under the direction of first-year offensive coordinator Seth Doege and his uptempo system, looks to turn around an offense that ranked 15th in the Big 12 in scoring offense (21.8 points per game) and 14th in total offense (354.5 yards per game).

Fifita will also quarterback an offense without longtime teammate and wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, but Doege said Fifita “has a lot of confidence in” returning starter Chris Hunter III and transfers in Kris Hutson, Javin “Nunu” Whatley, Tre Spivey III and Luke Wysong, along with rising underclassmen in Brandon Phelps and Devin Hyatt, among others.

“With the pieces that we’ve been able to put around him, he’s got comfort with knowing he can distribute the ball evenly all over the field,” Brennan said of Fifita in April. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the receivers, (running) backs or the tight ends, he’s got confidence and an extremely high level of comfort with who he’s delivering the ball to.”

Dalton Johnson

Position: Strong safety

Year: Redshirt senior

The rundown: Following a plethora of injuries in Arizona’s defense, Johnson’s role evolved into a safety-linebacker hybrid in 2024. Johnson, who was an All-Big 12 honorable mention, had a team-high 94 tackles to go along with two pass deflections and two forced fumbles.

Johnson started 24 games in the last two seasons and enters this season as a third-year starter. Johnson is the only member of Arizona’s 2021 recruiting class still on the team.

Genesis Smith

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Position: Free safety

Year: Junior

The rundown: Smith turned into one of Arizona’s most valuable defensive players last season and started at three different positions for the injured Maldonado, Johnson and Stukes in the UA secondary.

Smith signed with the UA out of Chandler Hamilton High School and was a contributor for an Arizona team that won the Alamo Bowl. Smith’s first interception as a Wildcat was in the Alamo Bowl.

But Smith became a mainstay in Arizona’s defense last season, logging 63 tackles, six pass breakups, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. Smith was named the Co-Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week following Arizona’s win over Houston.

In his third season at Arizona, with game experience, the 6-2, 203-pound Smith is in line to potentially become Arizona’s most productive defensive player.

Tre Smith

Position: Defensive end

Year: Redshirt senior

The rundown: Smith was one of several players to follow Brennan from San Jose State last year.

Smith was arguably Arizona’s top pass-rusher with 28 quarterback hurries; the second-most was former defensive lineman Ta’ita’i Uiagalelei with 18. However, Smith only had 4.5 sacks and struggled to convert pressure into sacks. New Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said Smith had innate ability to “bull-rush and be a bull in the China cabinet and just destroy everything in his path.

“Now we’re giving him some tools and some counter moves to do those things,” Gonzales said.

With renowned defensive line coach and UA legend Joe Salave’a in his first season at Arizona, Smith could turn more pressures into sacks in his last year at Arizona.

The Mesa native is one of three in-state representatives for Arizona at Big 12 Media Days, along with Genesis Smith and Stukes.

Treydan Stukes

Position: Defensive back

Year: Redshirt senior

The rundown: Luckily for Arizona, the four-game redshirt rule preserved an additional season for Stukes. The senior nickel back missed the final eight games of the season due to a knee injury he suffered against Utah. Arizona’s most experienced defensive player is entering his sixth season with the program. Stukes and Johnson are the only two players on Arizona’s roster who were recruited by the Kevin Sumlin regime.

Stukes, Johnson and Smith, who all entered the transfer portal in December and returned to the UA, have combined for 4,550 defensive snaps during their careers at Arizona and will be the leaders of Arizona’s defense this season.

Rhino Tapa’atoutai

Position: Offensive line

Year: Redshirt sophomore

The rundown: Tapa’atoutai was thrusted into the starting left tackle role last season following the loss of multi-year starter Jordan Morgan, who graduated and became a first-round NFL Draft pick, and sophomore Raymond Pulido, who left the team for personal reasons.

Before suffering a season-ending knee injury against Colorado, Tapa’atoutai allowed just two sacks in 243 pass-blocking snaps, albeit surrendering a team-high 16 quarterback pressures, according to Pro Football Focus.

After missing spring practices for rehab, Tapa’atoutai is expected to be one of Arizona’s top offensive linemen as a second-year starter this season, after the Wildcats lost starters in tackle Jonah Savaiinaea, center Josh Baker and guard Wendell Moe, who transferred to Tennessee.

With the additions of transfer tackles Ty Buchanan (Texas Tech) and Tristan Bounds (Michigan), Doege didn’t rule out the 6-5, 315-pound Tapa’atoutai potentially moving inside to guard.