Arizona Wildcats 'more hopeful' for QB Jayden de Laura to start at No. 9 USC

There is “no change at this point” to the status of Arizona quarterback Jayden de Laura, who is nursing an ankle injury and remains questionable, as the Wildcats prepare to face ninth-ranked USC in Los Angeles on Saturday, according to UA head coach Jedd Fisch.

De Laura suffered an ankle injury at the end of the third quarter at Stanford two weeks ago and was replaced by second-year backup Noah Fifita, who quarterbacked the Wildcats to a come-from-behind win in Palo Alto.

With de Laura out in last Saturday’s 31-24 loss to No. 7 Washington, Fifita started his first game at Arizona and became the first UA quarterback to make his first collegiate start against a Top-10 team since Richard Kovalcheck in 2004. Fifita ended the contest completing 27 of 39 passes for 232 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.

In a limited role, de Laura returned to practice this week and participated in 7-on-7 and individual drills, but didn’t run a team period as of Thursday afternoon, according to Fisch.

“So I guess I would say it’s more hopeful than last week at this point in time,” Fisch said. “(In) last Wednesday’s practice, he didn’t participate at all; he was off to the side. This Wednesday, he participated in 7-on-7 and (individual drills), so we’ll see what (Thursday) brings and we’ll see if we get any closer to being able to play. We’re preparing both quarterbacks to play — to start. Meeting with both of them, going through the game plan with both of them.”

Fisch said Fifita “has been taking a majority of the team reps at this point,” but didn’t rule him out for Saturday due to de Laura’s four years of experience as a starter.

“As I’ve said, Jayden has had 32 starts under his belt, so he can take less reps and still be prepared,” Fisch said.

It’s 31 more starts than Fifita. However, if Fifita, a Los Angeles-area native, starts on Saturday, he’s had one week to reflect on his performance against Washington and absorb the constructive criticism from Fisch and other offensive coaches. The postgame evaluation period for a starter is a stark contrast to a backup either filling in for the injured starter in the fourth quarter or playing in garbage-time minutes at the end of a blowout win or loss.

“It is different when you go into a game, when the game is out of hand, one way or the other,” Fisch said. “Now he’s sitting there and evaluated on a 77-play game, where it was a 31-24 game, where he wound up throwing (39 passes) ... It’s a lot more stringent grading. Now you’re sitting there and no longer in that backup seat where you’re watching saying, ‘Oh, yeah, Jayden’s drop wasn’t good there. Yeah, I wouldn’t have thrown it there,’ or whatever it might’ve been. You’re being told, ‘You need to correct your drop here or we need to change your read here.’

“He’s been fantastic (and) absolutely coachable as anybody I’ve ever coached,” Fisch added. “Willing to learn, willing to work on his craft and be really willing to take all of the coaching from all week long of what we were able to show him and all the reps he got in practice on Tuesday and Wednesday, and be able to really help him become a better quarterback for Saturday night.”

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‘Expect a lot more Justin Flowe’ at USC

After ascending into the starting lineup after a 12-tackle performance at Mississippi State and emerging as one of top tacklers in the Pac-12, Arizona “Mike” linebacker Justin Flowe “got hurt against Stanford” and only played five total snaps against Washington.

“We thought we’d be able to play through some of it, but he wasn’t able to practice (last) Tuesday and Wednesday,” Fisch said of Flowe.

Against Washington, a pass-centric offense like USC, the Wildcats used their “dollar” package on defense, a 3-1-7 scheme that uses more defensive backs to matchup with high-end receivers and passing attacks. In the dollar package, which was used about 40 snaps according to defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen, Arizona’s lone linebacker has mostly been sophomore Jacob Manu. Daniel Heimuli logged 33 snaps at linebacker against his former team last week, while freshmen Kamuela Ka’aihue and Taye Brown played a combined five snaps.

Fisch said, “I would expect a lot more Justin Flowe” at USC this week.

“What we did in the dollar package along with him not being able to practice Tuesday or Wednesday made it a real challenge,” Fisch said. “We tried to get him a little bit against Washington, but we were still working through a couple things, so he’s 100% healthy.”

Extra points:

Fisch opened up his news conference on Thursday addressing the one-year mark since the killing of UA professor Thomas Meixner, who was shot in the Harshbarger Building on campus. Said Fisch: “I just want to take a moment to remember Dr. Meixner as a man who left an incredible impact on the University of Arizona. I just wanted to mention personally my thoughts and Arizona football’s thoughts go out to his family, friends and students. Obviously a tough time for the university and for Dr. Meixner and his family.”

Fisch, on facing “two of the top (three) offenses in college football” in back-to-back weeks between Washington and USC: “We’re not talking about after Week 1 or 2, we’re talking about through Week 6 that they’re in those statistical areas. You gotta keep the points down. You gotta get one more point than they do, however that happens, whatever the goal’s going to be to get that down. We’re not afraid to try and out-score somebody offensively and we’re also not afraid to try and hold them down to a certain number and see if we can get one more point higher than they can.”