An outside-looking-in perspective suggests maybe the Arizona Wildcats have a quarterback controversy on their hands.
On one end, the Wildcats have Jayden de Laura, a multi-year starter who has 32 games under his belt and is 8-8 as a starter at Arizona. He has been intercepted five times this season — all in the first two games, including four in Arizona’s overtime loss to Mississippi State.
De Laura
On the other end, second-year quarterback Noah Fifita, who replaced de Laura while he rehabs from an ankle injury, has two losses in two starts, albeit those were against two Top-10 teams, including a triple-overtime thriller against ninth-ranked USC, which has Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams, who Fifita out-gained by nearly 100 passing yards.
Fifita was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week on Monday for completing 25 of 35 passes (71%) for 303 yards, five touchdowns and one interception in the 43-41 loss to USC on Saturday in Los Angeles.
A plethora of fans and even some former players, including ex-UA receiver Stanley Berryhill III, who posted on X that “Noah is the hot hand and we all saw it on Saturday,” are clamoring for Fifita to start over de Laura moving forward. But during his news conference on Monday, Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch said the Wildcats will start de Laura at Washington State “if he’s 100% healthy,” he said.
“And if he is not, then Noah will start on Saturday, and that’s the way it’ll work,” Fisch said.
Fisch said the decision “is what we think is best for the program from everything that we know and do and see.”
Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita threw for 303 yards and five TDs Saturday in the Coliseum in his second career start.
“We don’t just listen to others in that decision. ... Everyone has short-term memories, everyone likes to live in the now, live in the present,” he added. “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.”
Added Fisch: “I’ve lived through a lot of these (situations). I’ve lived through situations where your starting quarterback is playing, he’s earned that position. The backup quarterback goes in, the backup quarterback plays well. The starting quarterback goes back in, plays even better than he’s ever played. I’ve seen it the other way. I’ve seen it in every way, shape or form over 25 years and 20 of them coaching quarterbacks.
“So I look forward to both of those guys getting better every single week and we’ll figure out as we go, how that process works.”
Washington State head coach Jake Dickert said on Monday that he would lean towards Fifita in this case.
“I don’t know how you don’t play the young guy. I mean, this guy has been as efficient and effective as anyone in the country over the last two weeks. He is operating the offense at a really, really high level,” Dickert said of Fifita. “They’re similar, yet different. Both can really throw the ball. (De Laura) is going to have more off-script plays and do little bit of different things, like (Washington State quarterback Cameron Ward) does, where (Fifita) really operates in the framework of the offense.
Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita throws a pass during the first half of the Wildcats' 43-41 loss in three overtimes Saturday.
“He can really run, but he takes off in normal escape patterns. ... I think they’re both really talented, they both can really throw the ball and they’re both operating at a high level. We’re preparing for both of them, but you don’t really see a drop-off with the young kid in there.”
As of now, Fisch doesn’t know “who will start this week, because I don’t know how healthy Jayden is.” Wearing shorts, a T-shirt and cleats, de Laura participated in early pregame warmups at USC and practiced scrambling and dropping back for passes.
“We’ll see. He’s healthier than he was last week,” Fisch said of de Laura. “He’s better than he was the week before.”
“We’ll let that play out as we roll into the next game.”
Extra points
Fisch, on the decision to kick a PAT in the first overtime against USC rather than go for a two-point conversion to win the game: “Our defense had no problem stopping their offense. To decide to put into my hands as the play-caller and the quarterback’s hands with a 2-point play that I knew we’d have to go to next, it didn’t seem that we didn’t need to do that in that moment of time. As an offensive coordinator, I would’ve done it, I would’ve pushed for it. But as the head coach, I gotta stand there and talk to the defense and say, ‘You guys have played better than any team this team has played in two years. You guys held the Heisman Trophy winner to 1 yard rushing and 40 yards passing in the fourth quarter, so I’m going to take it into my own hands and win or lose on play.’ I didn’t feel like that was the right thing to do.”
Fisch said the “toss-crack play” for running back DJ Williams in the third overtime period at USC, which was stuffed by the Trojans, was called up because “he ran it six times for 111 yards prior to that play in the game.” Said Fisch: “We didn’t block it right the sixth time. We had the ‘Mike’ linebacker there and we needed to block the ‘Mike’ linebacker. We busted on that one rep. If we did block it right, then we’d all be sitting here 43 all and there would’ve been a fourth overtime. ... We felt really good about that run. Looking back on it, I still feel really good about that run. I would just say we need to execute that better.”
Fifita is one of three Anaheim Servite High School players on Arizona’s roster to receive Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors. Last season, wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan (twice) and linebacker Jacob Manu received the award.
Following Arizona's 43-41 nail-biting loss to No. 9 USC in triple-overtime, the Star's Justin Spears and Michael Lev break down and analyze a wild night at the L.A. Coliseum.
