'Unfinished business:' Arizona star QB Noah Fifita, WR Tetairoa McMillan announce return to Wildcats

The lights went dark at McKale Center after the first media timeout of Arizona basketball’s battle against UCLA on Saturday, and a spotlight shined down at center court.

A video began playing on the McKale Center video board. “Loyalty, legacy, family, home” were said over a clip of a UA football helmet and then an aerial shot of Arizona Stadium.

They’re back.

Arizona star quarterback Noah Fifita and star wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan announced in the video their return to the Wildcats for the 2024 season.

“Tucson we have unfinished business,” Fifita said. “We’re running it back,” McMillan said.

Together, they said, “Bear Down!”

Much of Arizona’s entire football team, including Fifita, McMillan and new head coach Brent Brennan, ran out to center court and hyped up the McKale crowd. “U of A” chants echoes throughout the arena.

Brennan, wearing a red UA bomber jacket, assistant coach Duane Akina, offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea, linebacker Justin Flowe, defensive back Treydan Stukes and other UA football players chanted “U of A” back toward the Zona Zoo.

Earlier in the day, Stukes and safeties Gunner Maldonado and Dalton Johnson released a video together to announce their decision to stay, which included a clip of Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie “Wolf of Wall Street.” The clip showed DiCaprio’s character, Jordan Belfort, telling his company, Stratton Oakmont, “I’m not (expletive) leaving! ... The show goes on!” 

All-Pac-12 linebacker Jacob Manu, who became the first Arizona player to lead the conference in tackles since Scooby Wright in 2014, also announced his return to Arizona on Sunday. 

Fifita, who was also the Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year and Football Writer’s Association of American National Offensive Freshman of the Year, concluded his first season as Arizona’s starter with 2,869 yards, 25 touchdowns and six interceptions while completing 72.4% of his pass attempts. The Huntington Beach, California native is the only UA quarterback in program history to complete over 70% of his passes in a season.

After taking over for the injured Jayden de Laura during Arizona’s come-from-behind win at Stanford to begin Pac-12 play, Fifita went 7-2 as the starter, including a seven-game winning streak to end the season; the two losses to Washington and USC were by a combined nine points. Fifita stamped his breakout regular season with a school- and Territorial Cup-record 527 yards through the air along with five touchdowns in a blowout win over rival ASU in Tempe.

In Arizona’s win over Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl, Fifita passed for 354 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, the second-most passing yards in a bowl game in program history.

McMillan, who is the highest-rated signee in Arizona football history in the modern recruiting era, will enter his third season as Arizona’s starting wide receiver.

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McMillan ended his sophomore campaign with the second-most receiving yards (1,402) in a season by a UA receiver. McMillan’s career-high happened in the 2023 Territorial Cup game, an 11-catch, 266-yard, one-touchdown in a 36-point win over Arizona State. McMillan was a second-team All-Pac-12 selection and received third-team Associated Press All-American honors.

Together, Fifita and McMillan will enter the 2024 season, the program’s first year in the Big 12, as one of the top quarterback-receiver tandems in the country.

Fifita and McMillan came to Arizona together in 2022, along with Servite High School (Anaheim, California) teammates in Manu and tight end Keyan Burnett, as part of the first official class under then-head coach Jedd Fisch, who’s now at Washington.

McMillan, Fifita, Manu and running back Jonah Coleman, who entered the transfer portal and took an official visit to Washington on Friday, attended the Arizona basketball game on Wednesday against USC and sat courtside next to longtime booster Humberto Lopez, the owner of HSL Properties, and Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant. Lopez and the quartet of Arizona players also had dinner at Fleming’s, a renown steakhouse in Tucson.

At the game on Wednesday, Fifita, McMillan and Brennan posed for a picture near Arizona’s tunnel at McKale Center. On Friday, McMillan and Fifita made an appearance at HSL’s “Stuff the Bus” food drive, which generated well over 50,000 pounds of food, and signed autographs for fans.

“That’s what’s been really cool is watching them demonstrate that leadership,” said Brennan.

When Brennan was first hired, his goal was “just trying to give them a chance to get to know me,” he said.

“They have no idea (who I am), so why are they going to say, ‘You’re our guy!’ Right? We’re trying to get to know each other on a personal level. They are really, really, impressive young men,” Brennan said of Fifita and McMillan. “I can see why the community loves them so much. Everyone loves good players, but guys like that who are really good players and really good guys, those are the ones fans remember for generations. Both of those guys have great personality, they’re fun to be around. That part has been fun.

“I’ve been doing that with the team as much as I can,” he added. “I’m just trying to find ways to connect and basically give them a sense of I have a plan for us. I have a vision for how I this is going to go, and it’s going to be deeply rooted in us caring about each other, like this team did last year and doing the work together.

Brennan cited the words of legendary former Arizona coach Dick Tomey, one of his closest coaching mentors in what’s helped propel him to try and connect with those on his UA roster right out of the gate.

“Coach Tomey said, ‘Do the work together, stay together,” Brennan said. “This team really cares about each other, so I’m just trying to get a sense of who I am and trust that I’m the right guy to work with them to continue to build the team and build the program.”