Heartbroken. Disappointed. Anxious about what was to come next — whether it was to be in Tucson or somewhere else, maybe even Seattle.
Those were among the emotions Arizona football players felt when former head coach Jedd Fisch signed a seven-year contract at Washington, leaving the UA after rapidly turning the Wildcats from a downtrodden program into nationally relevant in three seasons.
“That was the longest day of my life,” Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita said. “That was the longest day of my life — longest day since I’ve been in Tucson; hardest day emotionally.”
In a documentary released Monday titled “Unfinished Business: Nalo and Kolo” on the “Game Network“ app, Fifita and his running mate, UA wideout Tetairoa McMillan reflected on Jan. 14, the day Fisch accepted the UW job.
They called it an “emotional rollercoaster.”
“Nalo” is McMillan, Arizona’s star wide receiver; Nalo is short for McMillan’s hometown of Waimanalo, Hawaii; he lived there before moving to Southern California, where he teamed up Fifita in middle school with the Orange County Buckeyes and again in high school at Servite High School. They’d since become one of the top quarterback-receiver tandems in college football, leading Arizona to a 10-3 record and Alamo Bowl win in 2023.
Noah Fifita, left, and Tetairoa McMillan could light up Big 12 defenses in their first year in the new conference.
Fifita is nicknamed “Kolo,” for Kolomotu’a, Tonga, where his side of the family of his father, Les Fifita, moved from.
McMillan said Fifita took the news of Fisch leaving “a lot harder than I took it,” because Fisch was one of two Power 5 schools — the other being Cal — to offer the 5-10 quarterback during the 2022 recruiting cycle.
“Coming out of high school, (Fifita) was under-recruited, and not many people took a chance on him, and coach Fisch was one of the few that actually believed in him, believed in his talents and decided to recruit him and take him under his wing,” McMillan said in the documentary. “I think the fact that Kolo stayed loyal to him and everything unraveling the way it did, it really broke his heart.”
Added McMillan: “We’re not mad at the decision he made. At the end of the day, it’s a business. You gotta take care of your family. ... We rather have you be loyal to them than loyal to us. ... There’s no hate. It’s always love over here.”
Ditto for Fifita.
Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita, left, and coach Jedd Fisch talk over the plan for a 2-point conversion just before the end of the third quarter as the No. 14 Wildcats mounted their second-half comeback en route to a 38-24 win over No. 12 in Thursday’s Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.
“I know (fans) have been getting on coach Fisch. They’ve been talking a lot of crap on social media about him, but I have no hard feelings towards coach Fisch or his family,” the Arizona quarterback said. “They believed in me when nobody else did, so I still have a lot of gratitude toward them.”
Fifita’s knee-jerk reaction to Fisch bolting for Seattle was to follow his head coach. Most of the Huskies starters on offense are either preparing for the NFL Draft or transferring. Fifita and McMillan would’ve easily slid into starting roles at UW — especially McMillan, who is expected to be among the top wide receivers in the 2025 NFL Draft.
“I told T-Mac, ‘I think I’m going to Washington with coach Fisch.’ That’s what we talked about, that we’re in it together. ... My initial thought was that it was a no-brainer to follow him,” Fifita said. “From the team meeting on, I wanted to stay. Everything in my heart was telling me to stay.”
Decisions had to be made, and McMillan and Fifita had less than a month to determine their future for the 2024 season with the 30-day transfer window opening up.
Arizona football players Jonah Coleman, left, and Jacob Manu take a selfie as Tetairoa McMillan watches the acton on the court during the Arizona men's basketball game against USC Jan. 17 at McKale Center.
McMillan and Fifita faced lucrative NIL deals that could’ve made them among the top-paid college football players nationally.
“If you really look at it and take a step back, me and him could’ve probably made the most money in NIL if we entered the portal,” McMillan said.
Les Fifita told 247Sports.com that Alabama expressed interest in Fifita and McMillan joining the Crimson Tide as a package deal under first-year head coach Kalen DeBoer, who recruited the two players when he was the head coach at Fresno State, despite the two never entering the transfer portal.
“Nobody hit us up directly because that’s illegal, but from hitting my dad to hitting representatives and people that I know, we got big-time deals, some big-time opportunities,” Noah Fifita said. “It was never about money for me. We said it all week, if it was about money, we would’ve been gone a long time ago, because we were getting calls, we were getting opportunities midseason, really.”
From the time Fisch left to the days after former San Jose State boss Brent Brennan was named head coach at Arizona, Fifita and McMillan weren’t reclusive; they were very much in the public eye, attending an Arizona-USC men’s basketball game at McKale Center and sitting courtside with prominent UA booster Humberto Lopez of HSL Properties, not far from Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant.
Fifita, McMillan and Brennan took a photo together at McKale Center that night, showing a positive sign the quarterback and receiver weren’t leaving. Two days later, as shown in their nearly 15-minute documentary, Fifita and McMillan went to a “Stuff the Bus” food drive at the HSL Properties office to sign autographs and promote the event, which raised over 50,000 pounds of food.
“The support, the messages we got from the Tucson community, I don’t think we really realized how much I love Tucson, but also Tucson loving us, until this predicament,” said Fifita.
The ending of “Unfinished Business: Nalo and Kolo” captures the moment at the Arizona-UCLA basketball game, when most of the UA football team, led by Fifita and McMillan, walked on the McKale Center floor during a media timeout to announce their decision to return, along with standout linebacker Jacob Manu and offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea. Before they walked out, a video with “loyalty, legacy, family, home” narrated by Fifita and McMillan was played on the McKale Center video board. Fifita flashed his phone at the documentary camera, which had a fortune cookie tag from Panda Express cased on the back of the phone that read, “You don’t need to travel far to find the satisfaction you’re looking for.”
They’re staying: Arizona star quarterback Noah Fifita gestures to the crowd after a video featuring himself and teammate Tetairoa McMillan airs on the McKale Center video board during a Jan. 20 UA men’s basketball game.
“The reason I wanted to stay is because I’m real comfortable here,” Fifita said. “I didn’t want to change, I didn’t want to move houses. This is close enough to where my family can drive but far enough to where I can still have an individual life and (be) independent. I don’t think I realized how much I love and appreciate Tucson until this moment.”
By the time their careers are finished at Arizona, they’ll forever have a part in UA football lore.
“To be honest with you, as soon as I heard the news, my heart immediately told me to stay. ... I think we started something good over here. We engraved our talents over here, we engraved the culture over here,” McMillan said. “So as soon as I heard the news, even after (Fisch) spoke to the team about leaving to U-Dub, my mind never changed with what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go.
“We decided to stay loyal because that’s just the way we grew up. Loyalty means everything, family is everything and without them, you can’t find happiness.”
New Arizona football coach Brent Brennan discusses his initial impressions of QB Noah Fifita and WR Tetairoa McMillan (Video by Justin Spears / Arizona Daily Star)
