theintermountain
MORGANTOWN — When Big 12 football media days rolled around last summer, Arizona's communications team made sure everyone had quarterback Noah Fifita's credentials in hand, a not-so-subtle nudge for Heisman Trophy voters to keep him in mind come December.
Placing such lofty expectations on a quarterback might seem like a heavy burden, but the résumé distributed in July was far from hollow. Following the 2025 season, Fifita earned AP first-team All-Big 12 honors and was named preseason All-Big 12. He amassed 3,228 passing yards and 29 touchdowns, establishing himself as one of the premier quarterbacks in the conference.
This season, Fifita is performing at a similar clip. He ranks second in the Big 12 with an average of 283 passing yards per game and leads the league with 13 touchdown passes. As West Virginia prepares to face him, Fifita stands out as one of the best quarterbacks the Mountaineers will encounter for the remainder of the year.
"I think he's one of the best in college football," WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez said. "I thought that for the last couple years, just watching a few games that I watched. We didn't play him last year, but he's just been a phenomenal player. If you talk to anybody out there in the program, he's been phenomenal for their program, too."
West Virginia's defense has struggled since the start of Big 12 play, allowing 500 yards of offense in back-to-back games. Against Oklahoma State's Drew Mestemaker, currently the conference's top quarterback, the Mountaineers surrendered 389 passing yards and three touchdowns. Slowing down Fifita may prove even more difficult.
While Fifita's yardage and touchdown numbers are impressive, his consistency is what makes him so challenging to defend. He boasts the highest completion percentage in the Big 12 and the eighth-highest in the nation, though he has also thrown three interceptions. Fifita excels at both easy throws and intermediate to deep passes.
"He was throwing completions for 40-yard bombs consistently," defensive coordinator Zac Alley said. Arizona hasn't run the ball as efficiently, ranking 13th in the conference in rushing. Kedrick Reescano leads the Wildcats with 61 attempts for 218 yards, but the rushing stats don't jump off the page because Fifita usually throws.
"The quarterback is such a special player back there that if they've got the option between running it again or throwing it, they would rather throw it because he's really good," Alley said. "I think that's probably part of why, maybe early in the year, they didn't run the ball because they didn't have to."
The Wildcats did have a field day against Cincinnati, rushing for 238 yards with three different running backs. That game tape showed Alley what not to do. He noticed Arizona used various formations and personnel groupings to set the edge and attack the perimeter of the defense. If Alley commits extra defenders to stop Fifita, the trio of running backs could exploit the outside.
The secondary will need to shed blocks and make tackles in space. "I think Cincinnati in the last game, they missed a couple tackles, got beat on the edge a few times, so it snowballed on them a little bit," Alley said. "I feel like they were able to continue to run it on them because it snowballed on them from the start."
West Virginia's defense must deliver a respectable performance on Saturday, and it's unfortunate for Alley that he faces one of the conference's top quarterbacks. Fortunately for the Mountaineers, Arizona will be without three of its receivers, which could make Fifita's task more difficult. Nevertheless, if the defense fails to show improvement, Alley's job security will be under intense scrutiny. A well-designed game plan to contain Fifita and upset Arizona could buy him more time.
"My job is to make sure that we put our guys in a position to win," Alley said. "To lead young men, to lead my staff and to give us a chance this coming Saturday."
Originally reported by theintermountain.