Arizona QB Jayden de Laura active for return to Washington State, start a 'gametime' decision

Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch said during his pre-Washington State news conference on Thursday that quarterback Jayden de Laura is “getting better every day” and “continuing to evolve and move around pretty good” after missing the last two games with an ankle injury.

After two impressive performances from second-year backup quarterback Noah Fifita against back-to-back top-10 teams — Fifita earned Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors for his five-touchdown performance in a triple-overtime loss to USC — Fisch doubled down. He said if de Laura is “100% healthy,” he’s the starter.

“And if he is not, then Noah will start on Saturday, and that’s the way it’ll work,” Fisch said on Monday.

“We don’t just listen to others in that decision,” Fisch later said. “Everyone has short-term memories, everyone likes to live in the now, live in the present. Noah has done a fantastic job. Having two quarterbacks is better than none. I think we’re in a very good place at the quarterback position as we move forward.”

The Wildcats “fully expect Jayden to dress this week, even if he’s at 90%.” Running back Michael Wiley, who also suffered an ankle injury at Stanford, is doubtful for Saturday while guard Raymond Pulido is out with a lower-leg injury.

“He’ll dress and be the backup. If he’s at 100%, he’ll dress and start,” Fisch said of de Laura on Thursday. “He will be in full pads and ready to go, and if not starting, (we) hope he’ll be healthy enough to be the emergency situation.”

Fisch said de Laura has been practicing in full pads this entire week and will “be a gametime decision” at Washington State, the school he quarterbacked for two seasons before transferring in 2022.

The Wildcats could conceivably start Fifita, who nearly led Arizona to upset wins in consecutive weeks, for one more game with the bye approaching next week, allowing de Laura to rehab his ankle injury for two more weeks.

Former UA great and College Football Hall of Famer Tedy Bruschi, who attended practices all week and was in Tucson to serve as the keynote speaker for the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl kickoff luncheon, said having Fifita and de Laura is “a good problem to have when you have two quarterbacks that can go out there and play well for you.”

Bruschi said he thinks “that’s a sign of Jedd Fisch and his coaching, that he can coach up Fifita while he hasn’t been playing, and all of a sudden he’s in and he’s ready to go,” adding that Fifita’s emergence is “one of those bright spots” that’s a positive development going forward with “two guys that you can count on.”

Wildcats ‘recruit the players that want to be a part of this program’

Arizona’s two most recent decommits are teammates who play their home games less than three miles away from Arizona Stadium.

The Wildcats lost five-star defensive end Elijah Rushing and three-star edge rusher Keona Wilhite. The Salpointe Catholic edge-rushing tandem committed to the UA this summer, but both re-opened their recruitment on the same week.

The 6-5, 240-pound Wilhite is expected to flip to Washington, while the 6-6, 251-pound Rushing is projected to land at Oregon.

NCAA rules prohibit coaches from publicly talking about players until the prospects, but Fisch was asked about how the program handles decommits from high-profile recruits, and Arizona’s head coach said, “I think college football is very unique right now.”

Then Fisch cited Kentucky head coach and former UA defensive coordinator Mark Stoops.

“I can promise you in Georgia, they bought some pretty good players. You’re allowed to these days,” Stoops recently said.

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“We could use some help. And that’s what they look like, you know what I mean, when you have 85 of them,” Stoops said. “I encourage anybody that’s disgruntled to pony up some more (money).”

The ever-changing landscape of college football recruiting can be exhausting sometimes.

As Fisch put it, “football is different than any other sport” and “you have to continue to recruit daily. You can’t ever not think that recruiting is over.

“You talk to all of these head coaches in other sports and they all say, ‘A verbal commitment means all the other head coaches stop recruiting them.’ In football, a verbal commitment means all the other head coaches are recruiting them harder. It’s a very different game,” Fisch said. “For some reason, commitments in football don’t mean nearly the same as commitments in college basketball or college baseball or college soccer, which is a bad thing.

“It’s a bad message to, really, the game and for their lives,” he added. “Might as well not commit and decide on signing day where you’re going to go to school.”

Fisch chalked up decommits and transfers to a nationwide trend in college football.

“Until we get this more under control as a college football infrastructure, we’re going to have this and it’s not going to end,” Fisch said. “So we just keep recruiting. We recruit the guys that want to be here. We recruit the players that want to be a part of this program. We don’t stop recruiting somebody if they do decommit. We don’t stop recruiting people that commit. When we get to signing day, we’ll find out who’s on the team.”

‘This week’s a lot bigger than football’

Fisch opened up his news conference Thursday addressing the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist group that invaded Israel on Saturday.

Here’s what Fisch said:

“Good afternoon. I want to start by expressing my deepest condolences for the people of Israel and my great concerns regarding the horrific terrorist attacks that went on last (weekend). Every day I’m blessed to coach and work with an incredible diverse population. Every day we work together and collaborate to find ways to better serve each other. We respect each other’s viewpoints and educate one another. We work daily to be better today than we were yesterday. Every day we learn more about one another, how we grew up, the livelihoods of our parents and family members, and the experiences we’ve all had in the course of the last 18 to 60 years.

“While we have different backgrounds and having experienced different things in life, coming from different socioeconomic backgrounds, with diverse religious beliefs and diverse races, none of us tolerate terrorism. What occurred on Sunday was just that.

“I’m deeply saddened and horrified that this could happen in this world. And I’m grateful to have the opportunity to mentor 110 18- to 22-year-old boys and help them grow, mature, be educated, learn to respect others and become the type of men society will appreciate.

“This week’s a lot bigger than football. While I know I have a job to do, our team has a job to do, not for one second will I not keep Israel in my thoughts and prayers. More than Israel, humanity in my prayers. I got into this profession for my love of people — all kinds of people, and I would dedicate all I have to every player who plays at the University of Arizona, to become a positive impact on society.”