Arizona's New OC Compares Star Wide Receiver to Future Hall of Famer
When looking at the Arizona Wildcats' roster, the best player on this team is Tetairoa McMillan.
The superstar wide receiver decided to come back to this program after Jedd Fisch left for Washington, opting to stay with his longtime friend and quarterback Noah Fifita after he put up 1,402 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns on 90 catches.
At 6-foot-4 and with hands that rarely ever drop the football, NFL teams are already fawning over the junior as he's expected to be a first round pick and potentially the first wide receiver off the board.
In the meantime, though, McMillan will try and anchor another successful season with Arizona after they won 10 games last year for the first time in almost a decade.
To do that, new head coach Brent Brennan brought in previous Syracuse head coach who was fired in the offseason, Dino Babers, to take over as offensive coordinator. It will be his second stint with the program, and he's hoping he can bring something new to that side of the ball with him back calling plays.
As he gets accustomed to his new players during this ramp up period, Babers can't help but notice just how talented McMillan is, prompting him to compare the Wildcats star to a future NFL Hall of Famer.
Arizona OC Dino Babers, on star receiver Tetairoa McMillan:
— Justin Spears (@JustinESports) August 19, 2024
“I’m not sure I’ve met anyone like him. The only person I’ve seen with a catch radius like that is Larry Fitzgerald. … I’m just telling you he’s not normal. He may be better than anyone I’ve ever coached.” pic.twitter.com/yocz0vVjKZ
He said he's coached around 40 wide receivers who ended up in the NFL, including future Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald who was at the Pittsburgh from 2002-2003, overlapping with Babers' tenure the final year.
Anytime there is any comparison to someone who had the career that Fitzgerald put together, that is quite the high praise.
It will eventually be seen how McMillan turns out in pros when he gets his shot, but Babers seems to think he might already be a better prospect than Fitzgerald was when he was in college. That's even with the first hand experience of seeing the 11-time Pro Bowler put up 2,677 receiving yards and 34 touchdowns in his two-year college career, with 1,672 and 22 of those totals coming in his final season.
There's a chance the Arizona star can exceed that output if everything clicks under Babers' new offense, and both he and Fifita stay healthy.
BRAD WAKAI