Noah Fifita holding head high after rough outing at Kansas State
Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita drops back to attempt a pass during the second quarter against Kansas State Friday September 13, 2024 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. (Lynn Harrington/stayaliveinpower5)
MANHATTAN, Kan. — The Wildcats are searching for answers following a humbling loss on the road, and their quarterback is taking accountability.
After all, Arizona’s nine-game win streak has ended, and it dropped out of the AP Poll. The seven points from the Wildcats’ offense was the lowest output over their past 33 games, and that’s inexcusable to Noah Fifita. That’s why he’s eager to pick up the pieces as the Wildcats approach their bye-week.
Arizona (2-1) generated a season-low, 324 yards of total offense, and went scoreless for the final three quarters. Not to mention penalties continue to plague the Wildcats. Fifita understands there’s so much to improve on, and Friday’s loss was a measuring stick contest in his eyes.
“Obviously you never want to lose, but we have a lot to learn from, especially offensively and individually, so we’re going to watch the tapes,” Fifita said. “It’s gonna be hard to watch, but at the end of the day we’ve gotta be able to learn, reflect and find out who we are as an offense and as a team.”
Fifita showed tremendous chemistry with All-American wideout Tetairoa McMillan, who caught a game-high, 11 passes for 138 yards. However, Kansas State’s defense made Arizona one-dimensional in the second half, and forced Fifita to find other targets. Montana Lemonious-Craig caught six balls from Fifita, but no other Arizona receiver had more than two receptions.
Once the smoke cleared, Fifita completed 26 of his 42 passes for 268 yards and an interception. He was picked off by Keenan Garber in the second quarter, which shifted the momentum of the game.
“That was a coverage that we prepared for all week long, and I thought I saw the middle safety drop off on the play fake,” he said. “I thought I could hit [Malachi Riley] behind that second window, but great play by the corner falling off, that’s really all there is to it.”
Fifita has now thrown an interception in each of the first three games. Opposing defenses are going to continue to double cover McMillan, so Fifita needs more pass catchers to emerge. The redshirt sophomore wants to simplify communication on the gridiron.
A brutal Big 12 schedule looms for the Wildcats. So it’s important that Fifita and his teammates iron out all of the wrinkles during their time off, before returning to the gridiron for another road matchup against a ranked team. Fifita is up for the challenge though, and believes adversity will bring the team closer together.
“I think we’re good, coming in, there’s nobody pointing fingers, nobody’s turning on each other, and that’s a great sign,” the 21-year old said. “We understand that we have two weeks to prepare for Utah, to talk about this week, and especially to work on ourselves and get better in every situation.”
It helps that the Wildcats are familiar with the Utes, considering they beat them by 24 points last season. Everything still comes down to execution, and that falls on the shoulders of Fifita. So over the next 13 days he plans on studying film, and will work on going through his progressions.
Regardless, Fifita knows there’s still a lot of football to be played. Now it’s time for Fifita to apply his leadership skills, and get the rest of the team to rally behind him. The Wildcats are back to being the hunters instead of being the hunted, and that’s when they’re the most dangerous.
