How Arizona's Noah Fifita became one of the best quarterbacks in college football
By Mason Duhon
Territorial Cup records galore
In the final week of the regular season, Arizona took to Tempe to play Arizona State. In what felt like a moment of vengeance for the 70-7 loss in 2021, Fifita and the Wildcats laid the wood to the Sun Devils in a 59-23 demolition derby.
Fifita put on a clinic, to say the least. He completed a season-high 30 of his 41 passes (73.2%) for an Arizona single-game record 527 yards and his second five-touchdown game of the season. It was only the third time in program history that a quarterback passed for over 500 yards and the first time since 2014. McMillan, his top target, finished with a Territorial Cup-record 266 yards and one touchdown — good for the second-most single-game receiving yards in Arizona program history.
The win moved the Wildcats to a final record of 9-3 (7-1 in Pac-12) and set them up for one of the better bowl games closer to the end of December.
Bowl game-winning quarterback
The selection committee allocated Arizona the No. 14 spot in the College Football Playoff rankings and a bid to the Alamo Bowl, where their opponent would be No. 12 Oklahoma.
The Wildcats struck first, and the cushion quickly became extremely necessary. After jumping out to a 13-0 lead a few minutes into the second quarter, the Wildcats went cold for most of the second quarter and the entirety of the third. However, an 87-yard fumble return touchdown by free safety Gunner Maldonado jolted Arizona awake again, and it was all Arizona from then on out.
In the fourth quarter, Loop kicked a field goal to knot the game up at 24-24 before a 57-yard bomb from Fifita to Jacob Cowing broke the game wide open and gave Arizona a 31-24 lead with 5:28 remaining. A 19-yard scoring run from Williams put Arizona ahead 38-24 with just under three minutes remaining, and that was all she wrote.
Coincidentally, of his 38 attempts (Arizona's point total), Fifita completed 24 (Oklahoma's total) of them for 63.2% completion percentage. He also threw two touchdowns, with none coming at a more opportune time than his deep strike to Cowing.