Tucson needs to rally around Noah Fifita, Arizona football in 2026 | Justin Spears

Arizona was 2-1 after wins over Northern Arizona and UTEP and an overtime loss to Mississippi State in Starkville to start the 2023 season. The Wildcats opened up Pac-12 play — the final season in the “Conference of Champions — on the road against a sub-average Stanford team.

After roaming the beautiful and scenic Stanford campus, I walked into Stanford Stadium — which doesn’t have advertisements to combat the over-commercialization of college football — and stood in the corner of the field.

Staffers from both teams walked around and set up equipment and other necessary game items. One of the first players to step on the field was backup quarterback Noah Fifita. He stretched with bands and went through his pregame routine as if he was the starter.

Stay ready so you don’t gotta get ready. And he was.

Despite Arizona being three-touchdown favorites to beat Stanford, the Wildcats were in danger of dropping the Pac-12 opener to the Cardinal before a three-game stretch against the national runner-up Washington Huskies, a USC team led by quarterback Caleb Williams and a Cam Ward-led Washington State team.

In the final drive of the third quarter, then Arizona starter Jayden de Laura suffered an ankle injury after getting tackled near the sideline. Fifita steps in during the fourth quarter and leads the Wildcats to a game-winning touchdown drive, completing all four of his passes for 47 yards. He was calm, cool and collected.

“I think the control that he showed was the most important and impressive thing," said former Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch. "I thought Noah handled himself beautifully in that situation and there was no flinch."

Fifita became the quarterback, even though Fisch went the remainder of the season with de Laura as the starter on the weekly depth chart. It was no secret: Fifita “Wally Pipped” de Laura. Fifita was the Tom Brady to de Laura’s Drew Bledsoe.

The butterfly effect of de Laura’s ankle injury led to Arizona getting a head start on the legacy of arguably the greatest quarterback in UA history. Fifita was presented with an opportunity to become the face of the franchise and he seized it. After hard-fought battles with Washington and USC, with Fifita playing well, the Wildcats rattled off seven straight wins and ended the season with a come-from-behind win over Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.

That Stanford game — that season — was just one of many moments that made me appreciate Fifita, especially considering it was my first season as the UA football beat writer.

My appreciation for Fifita goes back to 2021, when I interviewed him shortly after he committed to the Wildcats and became the backbone of Arizona’s historic 2022 recruiting class, which had five NFL players, including Fifita’s best friend and longtime teammate Tetairoa McMillan.

From that point forward, Fifita and I had a bond that was built on trust and respect. But Fifita knew, if he had bad moments, I had to write about it. Classic example: the disastrous 4-8 season in Brent Brennan’s first year at the helm, when Fifita led the Big 12 in interceptions, albeit Arizona’s offense was out of sync for most of the season under play-callers Dino Babers and Matt Adkins.

Objectively speaking, I buy into Brennan’s claim that Fifita “is the best story in college football.”

"He's an incredibly good football player, but he's also this rare human being that chooses the right things every day,” Brennan said earlier this summer. “He's a man of great faith. He's a great teammate. He's a great leader. He's super engaged in our community. He's got a nonprofit.

"He always finds ways to do extra, to give, and I think that's rare in today's day and age. I think so many kids are just taking all the time, and I get it, that's the culture, that's life. But this young man, he doesn't only kick ass on Saturdays, he kicks ass every single day of the week. He is as special as it gets."

Here’s a brief summary of Fifita’s legacy at Arizona:

• Signed with Arizona after the Wildcats’ 1-11 season in 2021.

• Led Arizona to its fourth 10-win season and ended the program’s eight-year bowl drought. In the same season, he set Arizona’s single-game passing yards record with 527 yards in the Territorial Cup.

• Stayed at Arizona despite the coaching change from Fisch to Brennan — and made the announcement during a timeout break of an Arizona-UCLA basketball game at McKale Center.

• Spurned the transfer portal again to “make amends” for the 4-8 season.

• Quarterbacked Arizona to a nine-win season and an appearance in the Holiday Bowl — a gutty performance by Fifita and Wildcats, who lost 24-19 to SMU. Fifita became third quarterback in UA history to receive all-conference first-team honors — the first in 50 years. Fifita broke Nick Foles’ record for career touchdowns at Arizona with 73.

• Started a foundation, “First Down Faith Foundation,” which hosts a football camp at Casino Del Sol Stadium every summer. The most recent football camp had nearly 100 Tucson-area boys and girls participate.

Not only has Fifita excelled on the field, he’s excelled off the field as the face of Arizona football and an ambassador of Tucson.

I’m a millennial Tucsonan, so I’ve seen several great Arizona quarterbacks over the years, including Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles, Willie Tuitama and Khalil Tate. Those guys are all-timers, but Fifita is in a class of his own considering the on-the-field success, along with Fifita tripling down despite being a hot commodity in the transfer portal in the revenue-sharing and NIL era.

Fifita chose Arizona over and over again. It’s why he’s one of five senior quarterbacks at the FBS level who stayed at the same school and never entered the transfer portal.

Will he end up in New York to contend for a Heisman Trophy? Will Arizona have a magical run in 2026? We’re going to find out over the next few months. Will this season be a launching pad for Fifita to play in the NFL? I hope so. Fifita is an easy guy to root for — and I’m not just saying that because he’s the first Power 4 quarterback I’ve interviewed that is eye level with me. Fifita has a statue-worthy career, especially if he’s leading every passing statistic in UA history after this season.

If Fifita was 4 inches taller, maybe Arizona wouldn’t need to purchase billboards to push his Heisman campaign and folks around the country would give him more respect as a Heisman contender instead of giving the Arizona star (checks notes) seventh-best odds among Big 12 quarterbacks. Reminder: he’s the reigning first-team All-Big 12 quarterback.

"In my opinion, he doesn't get the national attention he deserves," said Arizona offensive coordinator Seth Doege. "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." 

For now, Tucson needs to give Arizona football its attention. Not only is it Fifita’s last season, but it’s the 100th anniversary of “Bear Down” and the 100th edition of the Territorial Cup is also this year. Fifita is just over 800 yards away from passing Foles and becoming the school’s record holder for career passing yards.

It’s a once-in-a-lifetime season for a once-in-a-lifetime player. Showing up to home games this season is a form of love if you ask Fifita.

“True love is time,” Fifita said. “That’s what my dad taught us. To show your love for someone is to be there for them and our family has done that our entire lives, so it’s been a blessing.”

Fifita has consistently shown up for Tucson. Hopefully Tucsonans can do the same.