'Great coach, great person' Lyle Moevao making strong impact on Arizona's quarterbacks

Lyle Moevao joined Brent Brennan’s staff at Arizona as an offensive analyst. That was his title for several months until the NCAA Division I council ruled in June that college football teams can have analysts available to “provide technical and tactical instruction” to players during practices and games.

That’s when Moevao’s title changed from analyst to quarterbacks coach, though he and other Arizona analysts are prohibited from recruiting on the road. There is no cap for the number of analysts on each team.

Moevao’s tasks as Arizona’s QB coach are “more on the field” and to work with new protégé Noah Fifita, Brennan, offensive coordinator Dino Babers and passing game coordinator Matt Adkins, who’s also the Wildcats’ tight ends coach.

“Now it’s more being on the field and I can be more one-on-one with these guys and Coach Babers doesn’t have to be present anymore,” Moevao said.

Added Moevao (pronounced moy-vow): “The more you can get young coaches involved, it’s awesome. ... You’ve got so many guys going for these positions at this level, especially the Power 4 level. So many people are going for those positions, and now we’ve got the opportunity to be able to expand that number and get more and more guys an opportunity to get hands-on (experience) on the field.

“I mean, that’s really where the true coaching takes place. We can sit back with a control in our hands and show you examples and teach off what we just saw. But until it’s live and live bullets are flying and you gotta be able to give that guy a coaching point in the moment about technique, assignment, alignment, whatever that is, that’s when you truly find out, ‘Am I a good coach or do I have some work to do?’”

The 37-year-old Moevao played quarterback at Oregon State from 2006-09 and passed for 3,410 yards and 21 touchdowns. Moevao quarterbacked the Beavers to a win over No. 1-ranked USC in 2008, while the last pass attempt of his college career was in a loss to Arizona in 2009, in the same game quarterback Nick Foles started his first contest at the UA.

“He played at the highest level, where I’m at, so he knows the tricks of the trade and he’s helped me out a lot,” Fifita said of Moevao.

After playing professionally in France and Japan, Moevao dove into coaching.

From 2013-16, he was a graduate assistant coach at Oregon State under Mike Riley and Gary Andersen, while Brennan was the Beavers’ wide receivers coach. Moevao was a defensive analyst under Brennan at San Jose State for the last three years, before coming to Arizona.

Moevao, Fifita and the rest of the Arizona offense working together “was trial and error” in the spring, as they married offensive concepts from last year’s UA playbook with incoming ideas from Brennan and Babers. The goal: “trying to see what we’re good at, what our guys can pick up, what they understand and going from there, planning for fall camp.”

With the roster finalized in training camp, Arizona has experimented its wide variety of offensive formations. There have been moments of brilliance, but there have also been dropped passes, plays blown up at the line of scrimmage, turnovers — growing pains. With time, along with the addition of injured star wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, the Wildcats have performed better offensively in training camp.

“There’s going to be a timeline of these guys learning how to adjust to whatever we have drawn on paper,” Moevao said. “Then you present a defense, and there’s going to be adjustments that have to be made. Early on, you saw that adjustment period.”

Learning what works and what doesn’t helps with a quarterback like Fifita, who Moevao said is “always one step ahead.” Fifita said, “the relationship we’ve built off the field allows us to have a lot of fun on the field.”

“Just a great coach, a great person and we’re excited to have him as our leader and play for him,” Fifita said.

Having that personal relationship between coach and player “definitely brings another level of trust, camaraderie and chemistry within the staff and the players,” Moevao said.

“But at the same time, it hasn’t felt different since Day 1. Our goal from Day 1 was to build the relationship part of it before anything. Guys aren’t going to trust you on the field until they trust you on a personal level.”

Arizona backup QB competition an ‘open trial’

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The four quarterbacks behind Fifita — redshirt freshman Brayden Dorman, walk-on Cole Tannenbaum, San Jose State transfer Anthony Garcia and Northern Arizona transfer Adam Damante — “are all doing a good job of battling it out” for the backup quarterback role, Moevao said.

“They’re all doing a great job of taking the coaching and getting the extra time in, coming in and meeting. They’re taking advantage,” he added. “There’s obviously some improvements to be made with the other four, but you’re seeing flashes of them playing, every single one of them from time to time. ... I told those guys from Day 1, I’m going to be full transparent.”

For Fifita, who spent the first year and a half as the backup to Jayden de Laura, “it’s weird being the old guy in the room,” the junior quarterback said.

“They’re really supportive and open to my advice and what I see,” Fifita said. “They’re helpful for me when they’re on the sideline. You also see the swagger they’re starting to get in Week 3 of camp. I’m excited for all of them. They all have what they’re really good at and they all bring something special to the team.”

Moevao said Arizona’s backup quarterback battle has been an “open trial,” but after the Wildcats reached their 10th practice of training camp earlier this week, the UA coaches wanted to “start locking it in, because the closer we get to New Mexico, we gotta start shaping up who’s up next. They’re all approaching it amazingly,” according to Moevao.

The two who appear slightly ahead of the pack are Tannenbaum and Dorman, who signed with the Wildcats as a four-star recruit from Colorado last year.

The 6-4, 201-pound Tannenbaum, a redshirt sophomore who played at Oaks Christian High School in Los Angeles, “has done a really nice job,” Brennan said last week.

“It started in the spring and has continued to now,” Brennan said.

When Moevao first started working with Arizona’s quarterbacks, Tannenbaum “was very shy, very quiet, and I think it was just part of the transition of getting to know the staff, Coach Brennan, who his position coaches were going to be,” Moevao said.

“So it took a little bit of time to get to know Tannenbaum,” he added.

With two weeks until the season opener, “he’s so comfortable with it,” Moevao said.

“Processing knowing where he’s going with the ball and understanding the defense, a lot of that stuff is starting to speed up pre-snap. Post-snap, he’s reacting and making decisions,” said Arizona’s quarterbacks coach.

QB1 has noticed “a certain swagger and moxie you wouldn’t expect (Tannenbaum) to have,” Fifita said.

“He plays really fast and doesn’t hesitate, and then he throws a pretty good ball,” said Fifita.

“I’m a big fan of Cole. ... He’s a really special person and you can see him gaining more swagger and gaining more confidence on the field.”

Extra points

• Moevao, on the advantages of New Mexico facing Montana State in Week 0 before Arizona’s season opener on Aug. 31: “Any time there’s a game before yours as the first game of the season, it always gives you something that’s more recent. ... To be able to have that in our hands going into the first week is definitely something we’ll use.”
• After practicing at Arizona Stadium on Saturday night, the Wildcats will take Sunday off before holding practice the next four days in the morning.