Tag: Tetairoa McMillan

USC will not face Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan at Washington next year

USC won’t have to play Noah Fifita or Tetairoa McMillan in 2024 as members of the Washington Huskies. That’s #B1G.

Arizona Wildcat football fans have a lot to celebrate today. The Pac-12 Freshman Offensive Player of the Year, quarterback Noah Fifita, and sophomore Second Team All-Pac-12 selection Tetairoa McMillan will be returning to Tucson to play for new head coach Brent Brennan in 2024. Fifita and McMillan explain in a tweet below from Arizona Football, “Tucson we have unfinished business. We runnin’ it back!”

This means that Trojan fans, Lincoln Riley, and D’Anton Lynn might also be celebrating today with the Wildcats. These prime Arizona players will not follow Jedd Fisch, the head coach who recruited them both out of Servite High School in Anaheim, to Washington next season. USC is scheduled to play its (soon-to-be) former Pac-12 opponent in a conference game in the Big Ten on November 2, 2024, in Seattle.

247Sports shared a conversation with Les Fifita, Noah’s father, in which he explains that McMillan and his son had thoughts of leaving, but it was not where everyone was expecting.

“We’ve known Kalen DeBoer for a long time and he loved Noah when he was at Fresno State,” [Les Fifita] said. “He recruited him hard when Noah was at Servite and they wanted both boys at Alabama.

“It’s ’Bama, we had to listen. But, end of the day, both kids felt like they had unfinished business here. Plus, it’s a family here — it really is. We want to keep this thing together and we know the whole team couldn’t go to ’Bama just like the whole team wasn’t being recruited to Washington. This is the best move for everyone and, with Noah and TMac and the core staying, we think we got a great shot to keep everyone else here as well.”

The Wildcats have their dynamic passing duo back for their first year in the Big 12. Fisch will continue to search for a replacement for Heisman runner-up Michael Penix, who is off to the NFL, and Will Rogers, the transfer from Mississippi State who entered the portal again when DeBoer left Washington. Most importantly, the Trojans will not face the trio of Fisch, Fifita and McMillan in 2024, a combination that took USC and Riley to triple overtime last October in the Coliseum.

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Arizona star quarterback and receiver will go to Big 12, not Big Ten, in 2024

A lot of people thought Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan were going to Washington and the Big Ten. Nope.

The news hit like a thunderbolt on Saturday in the midst of the NFL playoffs and college basketball action: Arizona football will retain its star quarterback and top wide receiver. New coach Brent Brennan has to be elated that Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan will stay in Tucson for the 2024 season. They won’t follow Jedd Fisch to Seattle to play for the Washington Huskies.

The dominant question in college football right now is whether Jim Harbaugh will leave Michigan for the NFL. The second big question is how the rosters at Alabama, Washington, and Arizona will change after the coaching changes at each school, part of the domino effect initiated by Nick Saban’s retirement.

Fifita and McMillan staying at Arizona is a big domino which will affect how Washington tries to address the quarterback spot for next season. The sorting-out process in which Arizona players decide whether to stay in Tucson or go to Seattle to play for Fisch and the Huskies is not done, but we just saw a very big development within that larger story.

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Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan are set to return to Arizona

Two big names are returning to Tucson for the 2024 season.

On Saturday it was reported that Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan would be returning to the Arizona Wildcats in 2024. This is a major victory for the Wildcats and new head coach Brent Brennan. The news was reported by Greg Biggins of 247Sports.

It was widely speculated that the two All-American players might enter the transfer portal and potentially follow their head coach to Washington. McMillan was named third-team All-American by the AP for his efforts this past season. Quarterback Noah Fifita was named freshman All-American by the FWAA.

Both will be crucial to the success of the Wildcats as they head into their first season in the Big 12. They will join Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah in the new-look conference. Fifita took over for the injured Jayden De Laura last season and he didn’t miss a beat. De Laura returned from injury but couldn’t unseat the talented redshirt freshman.

De Laura will now take his talents to Texas State. Once he joined incumbent starter T.J. Finley put his name in the transfer portal and ultimately committed to play for the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

As far as the Wildcats and new head coach Brent Brennan, this is a major win for them.

Report Card: Oklahoma Sooners up and down in Alamo Bowl loss to Arizona

It was an up and down performance in the Oklahoma Sooners 38-24 loss to Arizona and here’s our final report card for 2023.

All of the excitement that had been built up in anticipation of Jackson Arnold’s first start as the Sooners starting quarterback was dashed with a couple of first quarter interceptions.

It wasn’t how anyone hoped or expected it would start. Arnold rebounded to play well over the next two quarters as the Sooners built a 24-13 lead. However, turnovers at the end of the third quarter and in the fourth dashed Oklahoma’s hopes of ending the season on a high note.

Though there were six turnovers and the Sooners defense allowed some big plays, there were a lot of positives to take away from the game.

For the final time in 2023, here’s out postgame report card.

5 takeaways from the Sooners 38-24 loss to Arizona in the Valero Alamo Bowl

5 takeaways from the Oklahoma Sooners season-ending loss to the Arizona Wildcats.

Team 129 had one final chance to play together on Thursday night in San Antonio. Brent Venables’ team tried to make the best of it, but it finished the 2023 season by losing to the No. 14 Arizona Wildcats, 38-24. Oklahoma ended its season 10-3.

The game was incredibly entertaining if nothing else. It had some head-scratching moments that will stick with fans for the next few weeks into the offseason.

Jackson Arnold was up and down, as one might expect for a freshman. He showcased some real talent and things that his coaches would love to build on in the offseason. He also made some decisions that someone who had fewer than 100 snaps in real game action would make.

Turnovers ultimately did the Sooners in. One of their six on the evening turnovers was returned for a touchdown.

In the wake of the Sooners’ loss, here are five takeaways:

5 Arizona Wildcats to know ahead of the Valero Alamo Bowl

Taking a look at five Arizona Wildcats to know as Oklahoma prepares for the Valero Alamo Bowl.

Oklahoma’s final game of the 2023 season will see them return to San Antonio for the second time in three years. The last time the Sooners were there, they were coached by legendary Oklahoma coach [autotag]Bob Stoops[/autotag]. Brent Venables will wrap up his second campaign as the head man at Oklahoma, returning to San Antonio to take on the Arizona Wildcats, led by head coach Jedd Fisch.

This season has been a much better experience than his inaugural one, and Venables will look for his first bowl win as a head coach. To get that, the Sooners will have to take down a tough Arizona team that finished 9-3 and third in an ultra-competitive Pac-12. Fisch has a hungry team that certainly is talented, with 13 players receiving all-conference honors.

Oklahoma would be wise to check their egos at the door and remain humble. Arizona won’t roll over, and if the Sooners approach this game taking the Wildcats lightly, they may get run off the field.

Arizona has a surplus of impact upperclassmen coupled with Pac-12 Freshman of the Year quarterback Noah Fifita.

Let’s look at Arizona and break down some key Wildcats ahead of Thursday’s Alamo Bowl.

Pac-12 Preview: Arizona Wildcats look to find footing in third year under Jedd Fisch

Can Arizona crawl out of the Pac-12’s middle class in 2023? We break it all down in our complete season preview.

As June starts to roll into July, and July eventually leads us to the start of fall camps at the beginning of August, the 2023 college football season will be here before we know it. What a season it projects to be in the Pac-12 Conference, as well. With a handful of College Football Playoff contenders, and a group of Heisman Trophy candidates leading their prospective teams, we could be set up for one of the best football seasons out west that we’ve seen in decades. To help get us prepared, we at Ducks Wire wanted to go through each team in the conference and give a comprehensive breakdown of each school, breaking down their 2023 outlook. Welcome to our Pac-12 Previews. New editions will be published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday leading up to the start of fall camp. 

It’s not a great year to be a middling Pac-12 team that likely needs to reach bowl eligibility in order to avoid a coaching change in 2023.

Unfortunately for Jedd Fisch and the Arizona Wildcats, that seems to be the situation going into this new season. Things have not gone swimmingly over the past decade in Tucson, and while there have been a few signs of life — offensively, at least — in the past year, that needs to start resulting in wins, and postseason appearances for a school that reached the Pac-12 Championship Game less than a decade ago.

The talent is there, offensively. Jayden de Laura is an extremely capable quarterback with elite weapons in WR Jacob Cowing and WR Tetairoa McMillan at his disposal. RB Michael Wiley is a proven veteran out west, and TE Tanner McLachlan made our list of potential breakout players in 2023.

Defensively is where the improvement needs to be made. Although they lost a couple of their top secondary players in Christian Roland-Wallace and Christan Young, the Wildcats utilized the transfer portal to add guys like LB Justin Flowe and DE Taylor Upshaw to the roster. Will that be enough to get the job done?

We’ll see, but it is certainly an uphill battle for the Wildcats. Here is our full 2023 season preview for Arizona.

Troy Franklin one of 7 returning Pac-12 WRs ranked among top 25

Of the 25 best returning WRs in 2023, seven play in the Pac-12. Oregon’s Troy Franklin is one of those seven.

It’s no secret that the Pac-12 conference is going to be highly competitive in 2023, with an insanely stacked lineup of veteran quarterbacks taking the stage to go at it out west.

With guys like Bo Nix, Caleb Williams, Michael Penix, Cam Rising, and Cameron Ward all returning for another season, there’s a good chance that the Pac-12 is among the best conferences in the nation. Of course, when you add in the fact that all of those quarterbacks will have some incredibly talented wide receivers to throw to as well, it makes it almost unfair.

This past week, 247Sports went through and ranked the top 25 returning wide receivers in college football for the 2023 season. Amazingly, seven of the top 25 all resided in the Pac-12. Here is the breakdown from all Power 5 conferences:

  • SEC — 8
  • Pac-12 — 7
  • Big Ten — 4
  • ACC — 3
  • Big 12 — 1
  • Other — 2

Here are all of the Pac-12 receivers who made the cut:

Five 2022 recruits that Notre Dame wishes they could have had

Do you have a time machine?

The Irish have had some clear and obvious misses in recruiting and they have shown this fall by some lack of depth at important positions. Here are five recruits that committed elsewhere that Notre Dame wishes they could have had during last seasons cycle.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Mike on Twitter: @MikeFChen

Know the Opponent: Arizona offense presents major challenge for Ducks

With QB Jayden de Laura and some of the most talented receivers in the Pac-12, Oregon’s defense is going to be put to the test against Arizona.

Perhaps it’s a good thing the Oregon Ducks football team got to play Washington State before heading down to the desert to play Arizona. The two offenses are similar and it gave the Duck secondary a good idea of what they’ll be facing in Tucson.

The Cougars and Wildcats are intertwined this season with Jayden de Laura being the Arizona quarterback. He transferred out of the Palouse after just one season. The scenery may have changed, but de Laura has not.

In the five games as a Wildcat, de Laura has completed 63 percent of his passes, averaging 327 yards through the air, and has 14 touchdowns. Unfortunately for Arizona, however, his ability to throw it to the other team hasn’t changed. De Laura has been picked off six times already.

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Despite those miscues, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning says de Laura is one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in the conference.

“I think this quarterback really can play well. He throws lasers. He throws the ball on rhythm on a dart and he doesn’t need a big window to be able to attack,” Lanning said. “He’s able to extend play with his feet. This is a really good challenge for us.”

The receiver de Laura likes to throw to the most is UTEP transfer Jacob Cowing. He led the Miners in receiving in his previous three seasons and Cowing has just continued that success at Arizona. He leads the Wildcats with 40 catches and averaging 113 yards per game. He has found the end one seven times as well.

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But the guy on the other side of the field, Dorian Singer, is no slouch himself. The 6-foot-1 sophomore has 32 catches and averaging 90 yards per contest and has one touchdown.

The Ducks also can’t forget about freshman Tetairoa McMillan, the prized recruit that got away. He decided to go to Arizona at the last minute and so far, he’s played well for the Cats with 16 catches, three of those going for touchdowns. McMillan is the reigning Pac-12 Freshman of the Week.

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“They have speed and then really outside they have size and they make contested catches,” Lanning said. “So if the quarterback can put it close they have a great chance of winning on 50/50 balls. For them, I don’t know if you’d call them 50/50 balls, it’s more like 70/30 because they come down with it a lot of time.”

Oregon is also going to get tested along the line as the Wildcats have some major beef up front that would make Stanford jealous. Their largest lineman is right tackle Jonah Savaiinaea, who comes in at 6-5 and 335 pounds as a true freshman. The “smallest” starting lineman is center Josh Baker at 6-3 and 310 pounds.

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