Arizona OC Seth Doege 'a lot more confident' in the Wildcats offense in Year 2

Last July was no time for vacation for Arizona offensive coordinator Seth Doege. Then a first-year play-caller at Arizona, the young offensive mind was hired to revive an Arizona offense led by quarterback Noah Fifita. 

Following an All-Big 12 season by Fifita and the UA offense finishing in the top half of the conference, Doege isn't as restless this summer. 

"It's a little bit of a different feeling, especially coming up on July when most of the coaches get a little bit of a break," Doege said. "Last year, I was just trying to get an offense in and was auditing everything you're doing because you didn't know if it fits the personnel that we have, constantly meeting with the quarterback to make sure he's comfortable. It's not that we're not doing that, but it feels a little different.

"I feel a lot more confident going into Year 2, just because of Noah coming back and how he's operating right now, and how we're able to retain a lot of our players from entering the transfer portal — and then we brought a bunch of transfers in. We don't have to reinstall everything, it's just adding and subtracting and finding out what works. It's been a good offseason. I'm excited about the direction it's going."

It's also Year 2 for Arizona's offensive staff, which returns a majority of the coaches from last season. Offensive line coach Josh Oglesby and wide receivers coach Bobby Wade are entering their third season at Arizona, and tight ends coach Josh Miller, Doege's longtime colleague at multiple stops, is going into his second season.

Arizona running backs coach Lyle Moevao, who was an offensive assistant for the first three years, replaced Alonzo Carter, who is now the head coach at Sacramento State. Moevao was Carter's assistant last season.

With the gang back together, "I feel like I can delegate some of the responsibility and not take all of it," Doege said.

"Those guys are really good coaches, so that's going to make us way more efficient," he added. "Those guys know what I'm trying to get out of the scheme. Now, there's still going to be long nights because I'm a perfectionist when it comes to making sure the plan is exactly right for Noah.

"I want him to have an answer for every play — and sometimes it takes a while to find that answer. When I find that answer, I move on. I take it personal and put a lot of pride into what I do and give him the answer to every little thing that we're doing on game day, so he doesn't feel stuck and he has an answer for each play.

"I'm not always right either. It's an imperfect game coached by imperfect individuals and played by imperfect individuals, so we're going to make some mistakes. But I'd rather work and not make one rather than going home and figuring it out on the fly."

Doege recently joined "Spears & Ali" on ESPN Tucson ahead of the Fourth of July weekend to discuss the current state of Arizona's offense heading into the 2026 season — and why Fifita deserves more national attention.  

Considering all three coordinators are returning, and most of the offensive staff is back, how much does that benefit the team camaraderie and the scheme in all three phases of the game? 

A: "There's a competitive advantage when you have camaraderie and chemistry amongst the team, and that happens when you bring guys back, whether it's coaches or players; Coach Brennan did a great job with that.

"A lot of coaches decided to stay when it seems like everybody on the staff had an opportunity to leave. Everybody chose to stay. That, to me, says a lot about the direction of the program and why we want to work for Brent Brennan.

"That trickles down to the players and the players feel magic in the building. There's magic in the building because there's true trust and love in that building right now — and confidence. The competitive advantage is bringing back Year 2 players in a Year 2 system, whether it's offense, defense or special teams. That's a competitive advantage. Why? Not many teams in the country get to do that.

"Either a coach leaves and there's a new scheme or there's a mass exodus of players, and you're bringing in a bunch of transfers, which are very talented players, but you have to teach a new scheme. It can be as simple as a new offensive line coach teaching a new way to step.

"It seems like we have a lot of confidence in the building right now with the direction and belief in what we're doing schematically and the edge and culture we're creating under Coach Brennan. It's been awesome."

What did you think of Fifita winning two competitions at the Manning Passing Academy last week?

A: "I made a tweet that said, 'Are we surprised he won the accuracy competition? Because I'm not.' Here's my thing, and I don't want to get too much on a rant: there's a feed on your social media and my feed has all of these national names — and I'm sure they're talented — but they're talking about how great of a day they had throwing the football in shorts and T-shirts.

"Put some pressure on somebody and see who wins the competition. My money is on Noah Fifita, and guess what? He wins it. That guy is different. In my opinion, he doesn't get the national attention he deserves. This guy is a Heisman Trophy candidate, there's no question about it. There's only one guy selected first-team All-Big 12, and that was Noah Fifita, and I feel like people forgot about that.

"I feel like I'm ranting, but I want to protect this guy because I feel like he's getting disrespected half the time. ... On the other end of that, that keeps our edge. He's been backed in the corner his whole life. That's when he plays his best, when he feels like no one believes in him, because no one has believed in him his entire life. Well, good. Keep not writing about him. Keep writing about these other dudes that haven't done anything just because they're big and pretty. We'll show you." 

Fifita getting overlooked by national college football media, does it boil down to his height?

A: "People look at him and they see a 5-8 quarterback. 'Well, he can't be that good.' Guess what? Turn the tape on. I can't tell you how many times I get text messages and compliments I get from former colleagues, guys in the business, OCs, guys that I know that turn on the tape and are studying us or they just want to see what Noah is like. I get a ton of text messages that say, 'Hey, man, your quarterback is a freaking dog.' He's a warrior. That's the best way to describe him, he's a warrior." 

How do you feel about the current state of the offensive line?

A: "I feel like we don't talk about those guys enough, because that's probably going to be one of the strengths of our football team. We had 57 guys power-clean over 300 (pounds). That's a strong football team, and it was led by the O-Line and D-Line.

"(Right guard Alexander Doost), not only does he power-clean 405 (pounds), he weighs 335 pounds and is broad-jumping 9 feet-plus, and he's running the best I've ever seen him run. You should see how he leads on conditioning days and in the weight room. He's a brand-new person, and I know why he does it, because he's a great teammate. 

"(Offensive tackle Matthew Lado) is now 325 pounds and is moving incredible weight he couldn't even tough last year. (Washington center transfer) Zach Henning dropped his ass to the floor to catch a 350-pound power clean and looked extremely flexible. That guy is an athletic freak, too. 

"(Left guard Rhino Tapa'atoutai) is weighing 325 pounds and moving around well. Oglesby does a tremendous job with those guys, and I'm excited about them. We're in a healthy spot. When we decide who our starting five are, we're going to be really talented there.

"We also have some young guys that are developing into their own and will shock some people. ... We need to get to camp and see how they operate as a unit, which is really important. From my standpoint and my evaluation so far, I'm excited about the group and where they're going." 

How do you feel about Fifita's supporting cast at running back, wide receiver and tight end?

A: "I'm super confident in them. I think we can be really explosive. (Running backs Kedrick Reescano and Quincy Craig) were limited, and now you see those two running around, and we have two explosive and powerful running backs that we feel confident in. 

"(Illinois transfer tight end Cole Rusk) and (redshirt senior tight end Tyler Powell) and (Southern Miss transfer tight end transfer Shane King) — we call him "Suge" — is emerging as an athletic freak. We're developing some depth at the tight end position.

"The wideouts can be freaky. I know Noah is excited about the wideouts. ... Noah is extremely confident in (Tre Spivey), (Gio Richardson), (Chris Hunter). Then you have guys like (sophomore Isaiah Mizell), who has made a huge jump from his freshman year to what he is now. He's night-and-day a different person. He's got elite speed, and I don't know if anyone in the country — not just in the Big 12 — can run with him.

"(West Virginia transfer) Rodney Gallagher is a freaking dog. He's the perfect slot player. He's good in space, explosive, hard to tackle and tough as they come. ... We have some special talent in that receiver room. I'm really excited.

"It's the first time I've been excited about a receiver room since I was at USC, and that was with Michael Pittman, Amon Ra St. Brown, Drake London. We had some real ones in that room, and I'm not saying we have a bunch of first-rounders in our room, but we can be very, very explosive."