Arizona Wildcats Training Camp Talk: Noah Fifita

When Brent Brennan was looking to turn things around on his coaching staff he hired offensive coordinator Seth Doege to fix the offense and get things back on track after an underwhelming season that saw the year end for the Wildcats with a 4-8 record and an offense that struggled after the 61-point explosion against New Mexico.

The offense struggled with injuries, lack of talent in the wide receiver room (outside of Tetairoa McMillan) and playcalling from former offensive coordinator Dino Babers.

Although he has been an amazing leader and face of the program, quarterback Noah Fifita wasn’t as vocal as Brennan and the rest of the staff would’ve liked him to be.

Brennan pointed to times where the team could’ve used a voice on the field to help recollect the team after a tough sequence, or loss that seemed to spiral out of control down the stretch of the season.

Both Brennan and Doege set the tone in spring practice by challenging Fifita to become that leader on the field by becoming an extension of the coaches on the field.

Throughout camp, Fifita took the challenge head on and became more of that leader the coaches were looking for on the field.

When talking to the media, Doege stated that there were times the offense wasn’t clicking and he went to go talk to the first-team unit but when he got close to the huddle, Fifita told him that he had things under control and would get everything in order.

After that, the offense would have its best drive of the day and started to click the rest of camp. This is exactly what the coaches have been looking for from Fifita as a leader in the huddle.

While watching training camp, you can see Fifita being more confident in that leadership role and helping his teammates on the details of the offense.

He has always been a leader off the field but is clearly growing into the leadership role that all starting quarterbacks need in order to get to the next level.

However, there are areas of his game that we will need to see in live action before saying that Fifita has taken drastic steps in these three skill sets.

Three Areas of Fifita’s game to watch:

Running the Ball

• One thing Fifita talked about working on during training camp was his running ability and getting more involved in the running game. In his career, he has rushed for (-16) yards for his career, the rushing attack hasn’t been apart of his game.

• Now, Fifita has been working on his running game in camp, but until you see it on the field you just simply don’t know how he is going to react in the middle of games, or if he would go away from trying to run the ball.

• Again, he won’t turn into a Pat White, or Khalil Tate, that isn’t Fifita’s game. But, the ability to hit the defense with a 10-yard gain here and an 8-yard gain there would be massive for the offense.

Finding Another Top Target

• Over the past several years Fifita has had his best friend and top target Tetairoa McMillan on the field as a security blanket to help the offense run and the duo helped the program get to the Alamo Bowl during the 2023 season.

• This will be the first year the two haven’t played on the same team with McMillan now playing in the NFL for the Carolina Panthers.

• Arizona has brought in a ton of talent at the receiving position through the transfer portal and the 2025 recruiting class. We have seen throughout camp Fifita has got more comfortable with his new weapons.

• However, until we see it live and in action, it is hard to say who is going to be his top target and if they can grow the connection stronger over the course of the season.

Field Vision

• Last season there were times where Fifita missed wide open guys over the middle of the field, or saw the opening too late and threw an interception. Now, a lot of those issues came because of the lack of talent in the receiving room and the poor offensive scheme.

• Still, like the running game, you need to see Fifita improve in this area in live in-game reps against opponents other than the Wildcats’ first team defensive unit.

Please be sure to share your thoughts on what you will be watching when it comes to Noah Fifita's overall game. To do so, follow us on X account by clicking on the link.