If healthy, QB Jayden de Laura (ankle) will start for Arizona at No. 9 USC

If Jayden de Laura is healthy enough to practice this week, the Arizona quarterback will start in the Wildcats’ battle at No. 9 USC.

Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch said de Laura, who suffered an ankle injury in the Wildcats’ road win over Stanford, will start over Noah Fifita — who made his first career start against seventh-ranked Washington on Saturday — in Los Angeles if the hobbled second-year starter is healthy.

“Yeah I think that would be a safe statement to make,” Fisch said.

After Arizona’s 31-24 loss to the Huskies, Fisch said de Laura and running back Michael Wiley, who also suffered a lower-body injury at Stanford, are “fighting to get back on the field.”

“The plan will be similar, I think, as we talked Saturday night that we’ll evaluate Jayden from yesterday’s rehab — this morning he was in treatment,” Fisch said. “I think I saw him at 7:20 this morning in the building getting treatment done. So he was in treatment all morning, and he’ll rest (Monday) afternoon — player day off.

“And then (Tuesday) we’ll reassess him in the morning to see if he has any ability to practice, if he’s able to drop and some of those things, or we’ll use tomorrow as another rehab day.”

If de Laura is unavailable, then the Wildcats will once again rely on redshirt freshman Fifita, who completed 27 of 29 (69%) passes for 232 yards, three touchdowns and one interception in the 31-24 loss to Washington. Fisch said Fifita “played at a good level” against the Huskies, other than the first two drives (“first-game jitters,” said Fisch) and the desperation interception when Fifita attempted to flip a pass to tight end Tanner McLachlan under pressure from Washington’s pass-rush.

“For a guy that was thrown into a game that was in front of a sellout crowd, against a Top-10 team ... and completed a very high percentage of passes, he did a nice job of moving the ball and threw three touchdowns passes,” Fisch said. “I’m sure he would want the interception back, but I thought he played a very high level.”

Added Fisch: “It’s very tough to win in those circumstances, but Noah gave us a chance to do that. I’m excited about if Noah is playing this coming week, that he’ll give us a great chance to win. ... If he plays this week, then he’ll be a lot more experienced.”

Once Fifita settled in after yet another slow-starting first quarter for the Wildcats this season, he completed 10 of 12 passes in the second quarter and got into a rhythm.

One category Fifita excelled at was short passes fewer than 5 yards, completing 88% of them. In passes between 5 and 14 yards, Fifita was 12 for 17 (70%). In passes more than 15 yards, Fifita was 0 for 5 on his deep-ball attempts, including one to Montana Lemonious-Craig preceding his lone interception.

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Is it timing? Getting acclimated to the first-string receivers rather than the usual second-team unit in practice? Then again, Fifita’s top red-zone target against Washington was Tetairoa McMillan, his longtime teammate going back to Servite High School in Anaheim, California, who had two touchdown grabs on Saturday. Is it Fifita’s game experience or lack thereof?

“It’s all of those things because of the fact that he hasn’t had nearly the same amount of reps on those deep passes as Jayden has,” Fisch said. “Jayden is also a very good deep-ball thrower and has always been with us, and that’s why we’ve been so explosive throwing the ball down the field. Noah is a good deep-ball thrower. I just think what happened is you get a few reps at it, you don’t know the angle (pass-catchers) are going to take. What is the exact departure from their second-level releases? Are they going to take it high? Are they going to take it flat?

“What’s the speed that they run at? If you’re only accustomed to throwing it to the second set of receivers ... and now you’re going in and throwing it to the first set of receivers, the speed is a little bit different. ... I think we need to work through that. If he’s going to go this week, he’ll have all the reps again with the starting group of receivers, and we should be one week better in that regard.”

Fisch noted he saw “a lot of great things in the game” against Washington.

“But then in a lot of ways, I felt like we gave way too many opportunities to a good team. ... There were some opportunities in that game that, as you watch it, makes it hard to watch sometimes,” he said.

“So, I’m really excited about where we’re heading, where the program is going, what the team looks like and we know that we have a great challenge ahead of us this week, where all of our focus will be.”

Extra points

Fisch, on running back Jonah Coleman’s first-down conversion on fourth-and-short when Arizona trailed 14-0 in the second quarter, which later resulted in a touchdown: “It’s never easy to go for it on the minus 34-yard line. Those don’t turn out well if you don’t make it, right? Then you’re in a situation when you’re down 21-0. I also have great faith in our offensive line, I have great faith in our runners, I have great faith in our system and what we’re trying to do. ... That was not an easy decision, but it was a decision that I felt confident in making.”

Fisch, on Arizona facing former UA receiver Dorian Singer, cornerback Christian Roland-Wallace and defensive tackle Kyon Barrs, who all transferred to USC after last season: “Coming from the NFL, you see it all the time. Personally, I’m not going to be affected by it. ... The biggest challenge for our team is we don’t need to yuk it up before the game. We don’t need to have a big family party out there. Our job is to go there and have a business-like attitude and play good football. I’m sure Coach (Lincoln) Riley is telling his team the same thing. After the game they can FaceTime each other, because when we get in the locker room, we get rolling.”