Multiple members of the 2023 Arizona football team met with Tucson media before departing for the Alamo Bowl. It just so happened that Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan had their interviews at the same time in separate areas of the Bear Down Lounge at Arizona Stadium.
Michael Lev is a senior writer/columnist for the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson.com and The Wildcaster.
Fifita, the breakout quarterback, drew a throng. Meanwhile, only a handful of reporters spoke with McMillan, the star receiver.
McMillan was asked about possibly being the top returning wideout in the nation in 2024.
“I don’t think it changes a thing,” he said.
If only that were true.
Attention is coming your way, T-Mac. Off the field and on it. Like it or not.
McMillan himself might not change. Hopefully, anyway. Sudden fame can negatively impact a young person. Being on the cover of Sports Illustrated before his junior year did Khalil Tate no favors.
Receiver Tetairoa McMillan snares a throw while running routes against the Wildcats secondary at Arizona Stadium during a spring practice session on April 2.
McMillan seems as humble and happy-go-lucky as ever. It remains to be seen whether the changing circumstances around him — more off-the-field opportunities, more scrutiny, more pressure — will have any unwelcome side effects.
This much we know: McMillan won’t have the same supporting cast in ’24.
That can be looked at in multiple ways.
McMillan has a new position coach in Bobby Wade, who just might be the perfect person to help guide him through his junior season — very likely McMillan’s last in a UA uniform.
Wade developed into an All-American at Arizona before playing in the NFL from 2003-09. He knows what it’s like to be famous. He also knows how fleeting that can be.
During a post-practice interview Saturday, I asked Wade if he had any advice for McMillan on how to handle it all.
Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan runs a route during spring football practice as position coach Bobby Wade, right, observes on April 4.
“Just stay present and just focus on each day, each moment,” Wade said. “Don’t let that moment pass. Make sure you’re enjoying your time here because you’re going to miss it when you leave, no matter where you go and what you’re about to do.
“Just soak it all in. … Enjoy your friends. Enjoy your teammates. Enjoy the attention that you’re getting now, because it could definitely change when you get to the next level.”
Barring something unforeseen, McMillan will be a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. It’s just a matter of how high he goes. He has a chance to be the highest pick in UA history, a standard currently held by Ricky Hunley, who went seventh overall to the Cincinnati Bengals 30 years ago.
Wade isn’t the only one helping McMillan become the best version of himself. It’s the trio of Wade, Brent Brennan and Dino Babers — three wise men when it comes to coaching wide receivers.
Brennan was a receivers coach before becoming a head coach. He’s helped a dozen wideouts and tight ends make it to “The League.”
Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan practices his one-hand catches as the Wildcats warm up before taking on Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio on Dec. 28, 2023.
When Brennan talks about technique — as he did with McMillan during Arizona’s first spring practice, per a video posted by UA Football — it behooves you to listen.
“I’m just trying to help him drill down on little details, little stuff I see,” Brennan said. “And the cool thing about him is, he has a really high IQ. He’s been coached well by Kevin Cummings (Wade’s predecessor).
“Bobby’s doing a great job with him also. Coach Babers has a wide receiver background. And then me. There’s a lot of eyes on that position group right now. It’s probably a harder group to be in because there’s so many people watching you.”
The pros outweigh the cons.
Babers coached receivers, running backs and quarterbacks during his first stint at Arizona. The highest-drafted UA wideout this century, Dennis Northcutt, played for the Wildcats’ new offensive coordinator.
Northcutt holds the UA single-season record for receiving yards (1,422). Wade — who also was coached by Babers — holds the season mark for catches (93) and the career record for yards (3,351).
Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan (4) hops out of the hands of Arizona State defensive back Ed Woods (10), racking up more yards after the catch in the fourth quarter of the Territorial Cup game in Tempe on Nov. 25, 2023.
All could fall this fall.
McMillan had 90 receptions for 1,402 yards as a sophomore. If you project the numbers he accumulated with Fifita — his BFF — as the starter over a 13-game season, they’d look like this: 100 catches, 1,533 yards.
Wow.
It should be noted that, at least entering last season, McMillan wasn’t the focal point for opposing defenses. Jacob Cowing was Arizona’s leading returning receiver, and it was Cowing — not McMillan — whom the media tapped as a preseason All-Pac-12 second-teamer. (The same voting body had ex-Wildcat Dorian Singer as a first-teamer so, uh, yeah.)
This year, McMillan won’t have as many weapons alongside him who have proved themselves at the collegiate level. Cowing, tight end Tanner McLachlan and running back Michael Wiley all could be selected in the ’24 NFL Draft. Left tackle Jordan Morgan — whom McMillan called the “best player on the team” in ’23 and the “heart of our offense” — could be a first-rounder.
Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, right, catches a touchdown pass in front of UCLA defensive back John Humphrey on Nov. 4, 2023, at Arizona Stadium.
Every expectation is that Arizona’s offense will hum again and that the coaches will scheme up ways to get McMillan the rock. But it will be different. McMillan is now the No. 1 player opponents will aim to muzzle.
“I would assume so,” Wade said. “I would think they’re going to try to cap him and maybe bracket him at times. And that’s where us as an offense need to make sure that we are preparing the guys around him to also have their moment and their opportunity. … We have to make sure the supporting cast is as good and ready for their moment.”
We spoke to three of them — Montana Lemonious-Craig, Kevin Green Jr. and AJ Jones — after Saturday’s practice. McMillan did not join them at the podium. He has yet to conduct an interview with local media this spring.
The other notable aspect of the pre-Alamo Bowl media session was that it was the only one McMillan participated in the entire season. It wasn’t because he was never asked.
McMillan is under no obligation to speak to us, and if he chooses not to, that’s his prerogative. He’s never been one to seek the spotlight.
But when you’re a star of McMillan’s magnitude — a legitimate candidate to win the Biletnikoff Award and maybe go down as the greatest UA football player of all time — the spotlight is unavoidable. People want to hear from you. For better or worse, they want to know everything about you.
And in the NFL? The “next level” McMillan referenced four times in that December interview? Mandatory media responsibilities. Open locker rooms. Win, lose or draw.
There’s no better place and time for McMillan to get those reps than here and now. He ought to take advantage of every opportunity.
It might not be natural. It might not be comfortable. But when you’re the center of attention — the star of a team with playoff aspirations — it’s just part of the deal.
Arizona head coach Brent Brennan talked about his first impressions of the Wildcats through two weeks of spring practices, Tetairoa McMillan's growth as a receiver, scholarship spots and transfer portal, among other topics. (Video by Justin Spears / Arizona Daily Star)
