U of A QB Noah Fifita eager to prove himself after ‘extremely poor’ 2024 | Michael Lev

Is it possible to be a proven starter but still have something to prove?

That’s 2025 in sum for Noah Fifita.

The redshirt junior is, indisputably, Arizona’s starting quarterback, team leader and program spokesman.

He also is coming off a season that didn’t go the way he or anyone wanted.

During the UA football team’s Media Day on Tuesday at the Cole and Jeannie Davis Sports Center, I asked Fifita to assess his performance in 2024. He was blunt.

“I think I played extremely poor,” Fifita said. “A lot of the struggles that we had as a team ... I put that on my shoulders. It’s giving me that edge, giving me that drive to go make it right this year. But I for sure did not play up to par, to my standard or to what the team needed to win.”

Fifita is a young man of the highest character. I didn’t expect him to point the finger anywhere other than at himself. But it’s still refreshing to hear. It’s easy to make excuses and blame others.

Off schedule, off kilter

Fifita was thrust into a difficult situation last season. Brent Brennan made a mistake by hiring Dino Babers as offensive coordinator. Babers did not set up Fifita to succeed, installing a slow-paced offense that lacked direction.

Fifita also lost many members of the supporting cast that helped him thrive in 2023, when he was named Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year.

As last season progressed, Fifita regressed. Arizona didn’t have enough weapons aside from Tetairoa McMillan. The offensive line was banged up and in a constant state of flux. The run game was insufficient.

Football offenses strive to be “on schedule” as much as possible — gaining yards to set up manageable down-and-distance situations. The 2024 UA offense was constantly off schedule, if not off altogether.

One example: Fifita had 70 pass attempts last season when facing third-and-7 or more. The year before, he had just 49.

Fifita also had better answers to the test in 2023: He completed an astounding 73.5% of those passes when needing 7-plus yards on third down. Last year, that figure dropped to 41.4%.

At Big 12 Media Days in Frisco, Texas, earlier this month, Brennan blamed himself for Fifita taking a step back. Brennan reiterated that stance Tuesday.

“I think where Noah was at last year, that was my fault,” Brennan said.

In Frisco, Brennan cited the lack of a running game and poor pass protection. On Tuesday, he mentioned not putting “enough speed on the field to help offset the triple coverage going to T-Mac” — who, Brennan astutely observed, served as something of a security blanket for Fifita. He unquestionably locked in on McMillan and forced the ball his way too often.

What did Fifita think about Brennan taking the fall for him? He understood it but didn’t necessarily agree with the premise.

“I appreciate that,” Fifita said. “He’s a leader of men at the end of the day, and that’s why we’re all going to follow him.

“But ... me being a leader myself, I do take responsibility for that. I gotta be able to put Coach B in the best position to succeed, as well.”

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Breaking bad habits

After a phenomenal start to the 2024 season — 422 passing yards and four touchdowns in a 61-39 victory over New Mexico — Fifita and the offense fell into a rut. The quarterback who could do no wrong in 2023 adopted some bad habits.

Instead of stepping up in the pocket, Fifita began to bounce and drift backward. He held onto the ball far too long.

Average time to throw (TTT) is an important stat when it comes to effective quarterback play. It’s a measure of how quickly a QB is reading the defense and getting the ball out. Generally speaking, the lower the number, the better.

Fifita’s TTT jumped from 2.55 seconds in 2023 to 3.14 last year. That difference — 0.59 seconds — might not seem like a lot. In football time, it’s an eternity.

Fifita also threw twice as many interceptions last year as the year before, tying for the Big 12 “lead” with 12.

These are the areas Fifita has worked on with new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Seth Doege, who instantly bonded with his new protégé and pumped life into the offense with a diverse, fast-paced scheme.

Take care of the ball better. Get it out of faster.

“Letting my guys make plays,” Fifita said, “trusting the scheme around me and just trying to play within the system — less broken plays.”

Playing in an aimless system a year ago, Fifita posted one of the strangest stats you’ll ever see: He led the nation with 37 throwaways, according to Pro Football Focus. In other words, about three times per game, Fifita felt he had no other choice than to chuck the ball out of bounds.

I asked Doege, a former quarterback, what he made of that. Mind you, Doege wasn’t here last year. As he pointed out, he didn’t know what was being asked of Fifita, how he was being coached or what his progressions were supposed to be.

Doege’s biggest takeaway regarding the throwaways was that Fifita was trying to minimize negative plays. Instead of taking a sack behind a shaky offensive line — or, worse, throwing an interception — he at least could get the offense to the next play with minimal damage.

‘Gotta go prove it’

Even without all the context, Doege watched all of Fifita’s film from 2024. One particular play popped out: An absolutely perfect pass to McMillan on a deep crossing route against New Mexico.

“I remember thinking, ‘Man, it took me years — like, professionally — to feel comfortable ripping that throw,’” Doege said. “And he’s doing it, what, his second year, third year of college?

“That right there told me, ‘OK, this guy is exactly who I think he is: He’s extremely talented.’ ”

Doege is a big believer in Fifita, saying earlier in the offseason that “he’s about to shock the world.” Brennan said everybody in the Big 12 — “and maybe everybody in America” — would be talking about Fifita come December.

That all sounds great, and every Arizona fan hopes it happens. That would mean Fifita has had a bounce-back season. And as he goes, so go the Wildcats.

But it’s just rhetoric for now. Fifita knows he has to get it done under the lights.

“We’re all in a mindset and mentality that we have the pieces and we have the belief to do what nobody in the world, outside of our facility, outside of our city, thinks we could do,” Fifita said. “We truly do believe it. (But) at the end of the day, we could say all we want to say. We gotta go prove it.”