Brent Brennan, Arizona Wildcats: Noah Fifita Brings New Look

The 2024 football season didn’t go as planned for Arizona under first-year coach Brent Brennan despite starting the year at No. 21 in the AP Poll Top 25 and welcoming back high-level talent. Injuries, poor play calling and the ball not bouncing the team’s way led to the Wildcats going 4-8 and losing 7 of their last 8 games.

This offseason, Arizona and Brennan have worked hard to clean things up, implementing coaching changes on the staff, adding talent through the transfer portal, and recruiting incoming freshmen.

Still, during Big 12 Media Days, both Brennan and quarterback Noah Fifita took full responsibility for the results of the season and made it clear that they recognized where things went wrong.

For Fifita, he had a solid year overall statistically. However, it was a disappointing season in comparison to his 2023 year where he completed 72% of his passes with 25 touchdowns and six interceptions.

 In 2024, he only completed 61% of his passes with 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions while getting sacks 28 times in 12 games.

However, a lot of the issues stemmed from the offensive scheme that former offensive coordinator Dino Babers was running. The playbook didn’t meet the strengths of Fifita and his skill set as a quarterback.

Still there is a strength to Fifita’s game that he hasn’t unlocked at this point. That strength is his quickness and running ability.

At this point in time, Fifita has rushed for (-16) yards in his collegiate career on 104 attempts. Remember though, sacks count against rushing yards in college football meaning the statistic is slightly deceiving.

“I have two years under my belt now. So using that experience, and then using coach Doege, he's super experienced. He's super smart. One of the best offensive minds I've ever been around,” Fifita said during media day. “So just learning from him, building that relationship with him. I'm trying to be the smartest, most prepared player on the field, and then try to become more of a threat with my legs as well.”

Even though he hasn’t shown it, Fifita has the ability to be a mobile quarterback and be more of a college Russell Wilson style of play when he was at Wisconsin leading the Badgers to the  Rose Bowl game.

Under new offensive coordinator Seth Doege, Fifita will be unlocking his running ability and you will see him become more of a dual-threat quarterback for the Wildcats.

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