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Nov 2, 2024; Orlando, Florida, USA; Arizona Wildcats quarterback Noah Fifita (11) warms up before the game against the UCF Knights at FBC Mortgage Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mike Watters-Imagn Images Mike Watters-Imagn Images

Three Bold Observations From Arizona Training Camp

Originally posted on Arizona Wildcats on SI
By Troy Hutchison | Last updated Aug 9, 2025 9:00 AM ET

Arizona football is officially BACK in action and the long offseason is finally coming to an end as the Wildcats have opened up their 2025 training camp to get things geared up for the season with the team set to face Hawaii on Aug. 30 at home at 7:30 p.m. (MST) on TNT.

After an underwhelming 2024 season under Brent Brennan where Arizona went 4-8 after starting the year in the preseason AP Poll at No. 21 and ending the year losing 7 out of its last 8 games, the Wildcats made changes to the roster and their coaching staff.

Brennan revamped his coaching staff by hiring Seth Doege as the offensive coordinator and promoting Danny Gonzales to the defensive coordinating job. Plus, he was able to bring in defensive line coach Joe Salave’a, who is regarded as one of the top recruiters in the nation and a former Wildcat as well.

“When we go through a tough season like we did a year ago, you got to find a way to fix what was broken, fix what wasn’t working and put those pieces together,” Brennan said. “And part of those pieces are how we’re going to do things in terms of how we’re going to coach, what we’re going to do schematically and the other part is who are the players that are going to play those roles.”

The energy at practice was high, loud despite the team not even in full pads, or in shells at this point in time. The pace of play was a complete 180 from the previous season and matches the mindset and mentality that the coaching staff wasn’t to bring to the 2025 season.

Although there was no contact and players weren’t in shells, there were still takeaways to be made with what the media was able to see throughout the duration of the day.

Three Observations

Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

Punting Battle

One of the most heated battles in training camp has been for the punting job with returner Michael Salgado-Medina and Isaac Lovison, who have both had great days and poor days punting the ball throughout camp.

However, during the most recent camp day, both punters were booming the ball down field and even hitting the coffin corner with punts going 45 to 50 yards down field and had high hang-time before falling.

It’s hard to say who is winning the battle right now. However, whoever wins the position, Arizona will be in a better spot with its punters than it was a season ago.

Noah Fifita's Growth

One of the things that was a goal for this coaching staff during the offseason and going into the 2025 season was to have quarterback Noah Fifita become more of a vocal leader on the field. Fifita has been a great leader and face of the program since taking the starting job during the 2023 season. However, he wasn’t vocal enough when it came to in-game situations.

Now, throughout camp, we have seen Fifita getting everyone set up in the right position, getting everyone hurrying to the line and helping his teammates grow after a tough sequence.

There was a play where receiver Kris Hutson dropped a pass in the end zone while running red zone plays and you could tell he was down. Fifita went over to him on the sideline and was talking to him and loving on him to get him ready for the rest of practice.

The next time the Wildcats were running red zone drills, Fifita hit Hutson in the end zone with him making a phenomenal toe tapping catch for six.

It takes a true leader and teammate to help guys turn things around and Fifita is showing that ability now.

Youth in the secondary

One of the larger groups from the 2025 recruiting class is the defensive backs room where Brennan and his staff brought in Dajon Hinton, Swayde Griffin, Coleman Patmon, Gianni Edwards, Kason Brown and Elijah Brown.

What has stood out about this group is the speed and athleticism that they have brought to camp day in and day out.

Some of them were extremely underrated and have shown that they could find their way in the rotation maybe further down the road in the middle of the season.