'Ultimate quarterback' Noah Fifita, Arizona offense 'back to that underdog mentality'

FRISCO, Texas — The Big 12 is loaded with veteran quarterbacks this season, and the Arizona Wildcats have one of them in Noah Fifita.

The conference has nine teams that return quarterbacks who threw for 2,400 yards or more in 2024, which is nearly twice the total of any other Power 4 conference.

Fifita had 2,958 yards and 18 touchdowns, albeit tied for the most interceptions (12) in the Big 12 and struggled to score in former offensive coordinator Dino Babers’ stagnant offense, even with an elite playmaker in former Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan.

The season prior, Fifita was a breakout star in college football and set Arizona’s single-game passing record. He was the Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year in his last season under former head coach Jedd Fisch.

Fifita had the fifth-most passing yards in the Big 12 among returning quarterbacks in 2025, and Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt, who had the sixth-most, was just named the preseason Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year. Leavitt and the quarterbacks ranked ahead of Fifita were also in offenses that ranked in the top half of the Big 12; Arizona was 14th.

Arizona head coach Brent Brennan said, “I think the step back for Noah Fifita is my fault, not his.”

“We didn’t do a good enough job running the football, and we didn’t do a good enough job protecting him,” Brennan said at Big 12 Media Days on Wednesday. “We’ve made some moves in the direction of making that better right now. I think when we get to December, everybody in the conference and maybe everybody in America is going to be talking about Noah Fifita.”

One of those “moves” was the addition of current offensive coordinator Seth Doege, who Fifita called “one of a kind in so many ways and the best offensive mind I’ve been around.”

“From a mentality standpoint, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a coach, outside of my dad, that has the mindset and the belief that he has,” Fifita said of Doege. “That has definitely trickled down to the players, and that’s why we walk around with the confidence that we could be the best offense in the country.”

The respect is mutual for Doege, who called Fifita the “ultimate quarterback.”

“He’s 5-9, but he plays 6-5,” Doege said of Fifita. “He plays 6-5 because he has a warrior’s mentality, he’s got a humble and selfless personality, and he’s got the biggest heart I’ve ever met.

“You can’t break this dude, and he loves everyone on his team. You add that to the fact that he’s probably one of the more natural throwers I’ve ever been around, and is extremely accurate and can process any type of information you give him.

“On top of that, he might be (one of the) hardest workers I’ve been around in a film-room setting. His notes are elite, color-coded and the penmanship is on point. Everything you say, he’s writing down. He’s going to check you on it. If there’s a point that I forget or kind of breeze over, he’s going to check me on it.”

Since other quarterbacks, who were on more successful teams last year, are garnering more preseason attention than Fifita, “I’m keeping receipts for him,” Doege said.

“Every list that I see, he’s not on,” said Arizona’s offensive coordinator. “Top 10 quarterbacks in the country, not on. Top Big 12 quarterbacks in the league, not on. Top 30 quarterbacks in the country, he’s not on. I’m keeping those receipts, because he’s about to shock the world.”

Brennan said Fifita “is one of the cleanest throwers I’ve ever seen and I’m excited to see what he’s going to do in Seth Doege’s offense.”

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“This is a perfect fit for (Fifita) and it’s his time to shine,” said Brennan.

One of, if not the biggest, improvement in Fifita’s skillset is finding his voice to challenge the other offensive personnel and lead verbally.

“That’s been an extremely long process for me,” Fifita said. “I’ve always wanted to lead by example, and I’ve always wanted to kind of set the standard, be the first guy in runs, be the hardest worker, all of those things.

“I felt like that was more impactful than my voice. But a lot of guys have helped me, especially Coach Doege. He’s been through it and he’s super similar to me. Talking to him, picking his brain, finding different ways to to be more vocal, but not lose my identity. He’s helped me in so many ways in that phase beyond football.”

Doege was also the driving force for Fifita to attend Manning Passing Academy, an invite-only four-day camp at Nicholls State in Louisiana for the top quarterbacks, wide receivers, running backs and tight ends in college football. The camp is hosted by NFL legends Peyton Manning, Eli Manning and Archie Manning.

“He gave me some advice and told me the benefits of going,” Fifita said.

Doege attended the Manning Passing Academy in 2011 and was roommates with then-Arizona quarterback Nick Foles. Other quarterbacks were Andrew Luck (Stanford), Ryan Tannehill (Texas A&M), Brandon Weeden (Oklahoma State), Geno Smith (West Virginia), Kellen Moore (Boise State) and Kirk Cousins (Michigan State).

Said Doege: “It was a good confidence booster going into the rest of the summer because I stepped away from that thinking, ‘Oh, I can throw with any of these dudes. Toe-to-toe, I can go out there and compete.’”

Fifita said the experience at the Manning Passing Academy “was amazing.”

“I think I didn’t really know what to expect going in, but everything that I expected to get out of it, I got out of it,” he said. “More so the relationships I was able to build, learning from the Mannings, learning from Coach (Jon) Gruden and then just the relationships I’ve been able to build, with quarterbacks across the country and the Big 12 quarterbacks, was awesome. ... It was awesome to throw with the best guys in the country and and see where I was among them.”

Besides attending the high-profile camp, Fifita is “obviously mastering the scheme, so I’ll be ready for fall camp,” he said.

Time will tell if Doege’s uptempo and snappy offensive system is tailored for Fifita — and Arizona’s offensive line remains a work in progress after losing three prominent starters — but “the personnel and the staff that (Brennan has) brought in, he’s done a great job from the portal to the coaching staff and the coordinator hires,” Fifita said.

“We believe in Coach Brennan, we believe in each other and we’re excited to go prove ourselves right,” Fifita said. “We don’t shy away from last year. We know what we said was going to happen and obviously we’re light years away from what we said.

“God doesn’t make mistakes, so we learn from it, we grow from it and we’re excited at what the future holds. ... There’s definitely a chip on our shoulder now and we’re kind of back to that underdog mentality that we have, and to be honest, that’s where a lot of us are more comfortable at so we look forward to the work.

“A lot of the world doesn’t believe in what we can do, but the people in our building do, and that’s what really matters.”