Arizona Wildcats Star Receives High Rating on Big 12 Quarterback Tiers
The Arizona Wildcats have plenty of confidence in their starting quarterback, Noah Fifita.
Turns out CBS Sports does, too.
Recently, the site tiered the starting quarterbacks of the Big 12 — all 16 of them.
Fifita made it onto Tier 1, which in this case is a quarterback that is among “returning players who expect to compete for All-Big 12 recognition,” according to analyst Shehah Jeyarajah.
He joined Utah’s Cameron Rising, Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Kansas’ Jalon Daniels and West Virginia’s Garrett Greene.
All, with the exception of Rising, started last season, though Daniels missed several games due injury issues. Rising missed all of 2023 with an injury of his own, but was Utah’s starter in 2022.
The rationale for placing Fifita on the first tier was pretty simple in Jeyarajah’s analysis.
When Fifita emerged as the starter last year, the Wildcats’ turnaround began. After losses to Washington and USC, the Wildcats won seven straight to end the season, including wins over Utah and Oklahoma, the latter of which was in the Alamo Bowl.
Fifita finished the season with a Top 15 passer rating, and the tier ranking also pointed to his longtime relationship with wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, whom he has played with since high school.
Arizona finished 10-3 in its last year in the Pac-12. The Wildcats were picked fifth by the media in the Big 12 preseason poll, which included three first-place votes.
Fifita is on at least three different preseason watch lists entering the regular season — the Davey O'Brien Award, the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award and the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. He was named Athlon Sports Preseason All-American and Phil Steele Third-Team All-American.
Fifita, a native of Huntington Beach, Calif., is coming off one of the best seasons in Arizona history after he set the program record for single-season completion percentage at 72.4 percent. Against Arizona State he threw for a single-game record 527 yards, followed by a 354-yard performance against Oklahoma.
That game was the second-best passing game in Arizona bowl history.
Fifita threw for 2,869 yards, 25 touchdowns and six interceptions in 2023 as he earned Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year honors.
Arizona is preparing for its season opener against New Mexico on Aug. 31.
The game will be the first under new head coach Brent Brennan, a former Arizona graduate assistant who left his position in charge of San Jose State to take over the program after Jedd Fisch left to take the same job at Washington.
MATT POSTINS