Over the next few days, the Star is asking three lingering questions surrounding the Arizona Wildcats football program entering the summer after the UA wrapped up its spring practice schedule on April 15. Up next: What’s next for quarterback Jayden de Laura after a productive first season?
The 2022 college football season in the Pac-12 was the year of transfer quarterbacks shining at their new destinations.
But Arizona’s Jayden de Laura, who transferred to the UA after two seasons at Washington State, was an outlier compared to his fellow quarterback transfers in the conference. He didn’t have prior experience working with anyone on Arizona’s staff.
Heisman Trophy-winning USC quarterback Caleb Williams reunited with former Oklahoma boss Lincoln Riley. Oregon quarterback Bo Nix returned to work with former Auburn offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham (who’s now Arizona State’s head coach). Washington’s Michael Penix, who finished with the eighth-most votes for the Heisman, played under UW coach Kalen DeBoer at Indiana. Cameron Ward, de Laura’s replacement at Washington State, took his talents to Pullman to play for ex-Incarnate Word head coach Eric Morris (who’s now the head coach at North Texas).
Arizona coach Jedd Fisch, left, talks with quarterback Jayden de Laura during a timeout in the first half of the Wildcats’ game against Colorado last October.
“These guys are all in their second and third years together,” UA coach Jedd Fisch said. “This was our first, we had one spring and fall coming off of a pretty bad year the year before and the year before and the year before that. So we had to build a lot of things up together.
“Now I feel like we’re in a place that we can now take this program and take this team and build it to be even better, and let Jayden really, really blossom.”
To make matters dicier, de Laura had to adjust to Fisch’s pro-style offense, which requires taking snaps under center and throwing passes to tight ends — nothing like the run-and-shoot offenses de Laura quarterbacked at Washington State and St. Louis High School in Honolulu. When de Laura first practiced with Arizona, “probably the first week I couldn’t even remember one play,” he said.
“Last year, I couldn’t really repeat the plays back to Coach Fisch, and he would say the play like three or four times,” de Laura said.
Yet, de Laura passed for 3,685 yards — third most in the Pac-12 behind Williams and Penix — and 25 touchdowns. His yardage total in 2022 ranks third in program history behind Nick Foles and Anu Solomon. Arizona had the sixth-best passing offense in college football last season. So why isn’t de Laura receiving more recognition as one of the top quarterbacks in the Pac-12 or nationally?
“If there’s six quarterbacks in the Pac-12 that are being talked about more than Jayden, that doesn’t add up to me,” Fisch said. “But it’s OK.”
Quarterback Jayden de Laura cocks to throw while working with the receivers at the University of Arizona spring practice session on March 30, 2023.
The aforementioned transfer quarterbacks all went to bowl games and had winning seasons; de Laura and Arizona (5-7) did not.
“I think it comes down to, you gotta win,” Arizona quarterbacks coach Jimmie Dougherty said. “You gotta win on the big-time level to get that real respect in the country, and that’s what we’re after; that’s what he’s after, and he knows he has a big part in that.
“That’s really the job of the quarterback is to lead us to victories. With those wins will come that respect in the country.”
De Laura said “this last season was for me to figure it out.” And boy, did he learn the hard way sometimes. But he learned.
He learned to utilize his legs and run for first downs when the opportunity strikes. After rushing for net of minus-31 yards in the first two games, de Laura ran for 50 yards against North Dakota State.
After a mistake-filled game at Utah, de Laura led the Wildcats to an upset win over No. 12 UCLA at the Rose Bowl, throwing a pair of TD passes.
The following week, de Laura tossed a career-high four interceptions in a loss to Washington State in Tucson, the first meeting between de Laura and his former team.
After an ebbing and flowing season, “I just want to show everybody that I’ve mastered this offense and that I can coach you without Coach Fisch being out here,” de Laura said.
Blue Team quarterback Jayden de Laura, right, shovels a pass under pressure from Red linebacker Justin Flowe during Arizona’s spring football game at Arizona Stadium on April 15. Flowe is a former five-star recruit and defensive side transfer from Oregon this offseason.
“That’s my main goal, and that comes with sacrificing time outside of the building and being inside watching film.”
Part of de Laura’s evolution as Arizona’s quarterback is the roughly 30 pounds of “body armor” he’s added since coming to the UA in January 2022. Last spring, he weighed 182 pounds; he’s now up to 210. Even with the added weight, de Laura bolted for multiple 20-plus-yard runs during Arizona’s spring practices.
“The weight feels amazing,” de Laura said. “I took off on one (run in practice). I felt like I was moving. I feel like it’s going to be kinda scary for (defensive backs) now, because I wasn’t really scared of contact, and now I feel like I have something extra behind me coming through. ... I’m running faster at this weight than I was before.”
If de Laura is unable to perform, second-year quarterback Noah Fifita is waiting in the wings, with 6-5, 210-pound freshman Brayden Dorman at third string.
“You never know when that time is going to come. None of us have a crystal ball, and you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Dougherty said. “With Noah, he’s always just kind of been a special kid. Like I’ve told you guys before, he’s ahead of his time in terms of football IQ and his savviness, his calmness, his poise, things like that.
Noah Fifita winds up as the quarterbacks take their reps at the University of Arizona spring practice session on March 30, 2023.
“Coming in from Day One, he just had that ability. As he’s grown up and matured and learned the offense better, it’s only gotten better and better for him. I keep stressing to him: ‘You don’t know when your time is going to come, but make sure you’re ready if — and when — it does.’ ... Everybody has gotta be ready when that opportunity comes.”
Until it’s their time, Fifita and Dorman continue to learn under de Laura, who’s hopeful to take flight in 2023 now that he’s settled into Arizona’s system and life in Tucson.
“I’m not going to boost my own ego, but I feel like I’ve done way better than I did last spring,” de Laura said. “I feel way more comfortable than I did last season and (last) spring.”
Next month, de Laura and his dog — an American bulldog-terrier mix named “Ali’i,” Hawaiian for king or supreme ruler — will trek to Huntington Beach, California, to train with the “3DQB” program. He then will return to Tucson to brave the summer conditions in Arizona and prepare for the ‘23 season. Continuing to strengthen the relationship with his receivers, tight ends and running backs is, well, personal, as they say around the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility.
“The dialogue we hear now on the sideline and in practice wasn’t happening a year ago, so that’s how you know you’re getting over the hump,” Dougherty said.
“We’re close.”
Arizona linebacker Justin Flowe, who transferred from Oregon, and quarterback Jayden de Laura discussed the Wildcats' spring game, how the team bonded over the last month, and offseason plans.
Quarterback Jayden de Laura has mastered Arizona's offense after one season in the Wildcats' system.
