Arizona football training camp preview: quarterbacks

Arizona officially begins preparation for its second season under head coach Brent Brennan when the Wildcats kick off fall training camp on Wednesday, July 30.

Leading up to training camp, the Star is providing a position-by-position preview. Up first: quarterbacks.

Position coach: Seth Doege

Returners: Noah Fifita (R-Jr.), Mason Bray (R-Fr.)

Departures: Brayden Dorman, Anthony Garcia, Adam Damante

Newcomers: Braedyn Locke (R-Jr.), Sawyer Anderson (Fr.), Luke Haugo (Fr.)

The rundown: For the first time since Fifita was in the seventh grade, he’ll go through a football season without his longtime teammate and best friend Tetairoa McMillan, who is preparing for his rookie season with the Carolina Panthers after a historic career with the Wildcats.

Arizona prioritized speed at wide receiver in the transfer portal and the 2025 recruiting class, and “the personnel and the staff that (head coach Brent Brennan has) brought in, he’s done a great job from the portal to the coaching staff and the coordinator hires,” Fifita said.

Although the Wildcats will be without one of the program’s all-time offensive weapons in McMillan, Brennan said of Fifita, “With the pieces that we’ve been able to put around him, he’s got comfort with knowing he can distribute the ball evenly all over the field.”

However, the new offensive play-caller could be the reason Fifita emerges as one of the top passers in the quarterback-riddled Big 12, which has nine teams that return quarterbacks who threw for 2,400 yards or more last season — nearly twice as many as any other Power 4 conference.

First-year offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Seth Doege — one of several coaching changes for Arizona in the offseason — takes over an offense that ranked near the bottom of the Big 12 in nearly every offensive category except for passing.

In Doege’s lone season at Marshall last year, the Thundering Herd had the fourth-best scoring offense in the Sun Belt despite having the third-worst passing offense. Marshall was fifth in the conference in offensive efficiency and fourth in red-zone offense.

Even though Doege hails from an air-raid background, Marshall had more rushing yards than passing yards last season because Doege tailored an offense to maximize the personnel, which is a stark contrast to last season under former play-callers Dino Babers and Matt Adkins.

A year after Fifita became the Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year and Football Writers Association of America Freshman of the Year under former head coach Jedd Fisch’s offensive system in 2023, Fifita’s touchdown-to-interception ratio dropped from 23:5 to 18:12 last season.

Fifita also led the Big 12 in interceptions and had the most throwaway passes in college football. His time-to-throw average rose from 2.55 seconds to 3.14 in the last two seasons.

“I think the step back for Noah Fifita is my fault, not his,” Brennan said at Big 12 Media Days in Frisco, Texas, earlier this month.

“We didn’t do a good enough job running the football, and we didn’t do a good enough job protecting him,” Brennan added. “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.”

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As a result of Fifita’s step-back season, coupled with Arizona’s 4-8 record after entering the year with Big 12 championship and College Football Playoff aspirations, the quarterback — and the Wildcats — are flying under the radar in terms of preseason recognition.

“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.”

At Big 12 Media Days, Fifita said the Wildcats “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,” said Arizona’s quarterback. “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.”

Pairing up with Doege could ignite an Arizona offense that only averaged 21.8 points per game last season, which includes a 61-point performance in the season opener. Doege is “one of a kind in so many ways and the best offensive mind I’ve been around,” Fifita said.

“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.”

Doege said Fifita, who changed his jersey number from 11 to 1, is the “ultimate quarterback” and “he’s 5-9, but he plays 6-5.”

“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,” Doege said. “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.”

Under Doege’s tutelage, Arizona’s offense will implement a no-huddle, fast-paced brand and get the ball out of Fifita’s hands in a quicker manner.

“The standard could be faster,” Doege said. “We’re trying to push it to extreme limits. If we can and we can execute it, then I think we can be really dangerous. Beating defenses to lining up, them not being able to sub and late in the game, their lung capacity isn’t the same as ours because that’s what we do every day.”

The burning question for Arizona’s quarterbacks entering this season: Who is QB2?

The most experienced option is Wisconsin transfer Braedyn Locke, who passed for 2,713 yards, 18 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in two seasons at Wisconsin.

Others in the mix include Gilbert native and Higley product Luke Haugo and Dallas-area native Sawyer Anderson, whose 14,674 yards at Parish Episcopal High School is tops in Dallas-Fort Worth history; he also had 158 touchdowns and 25 interceptions in his high school career.

Locke’s collegiate experience gives him a head start as Arizona’s backup quarterback this season.