Arizona QB Noah Fifita looks to improve his resume against struggling WVU defense
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MORGANTOWN -- At the Big 12 football media days in the summer, Arizona's communications staff handed out quarterback Noah Fifita's resume, making sure you had him in mind when you cast your Heisman Trophy Trophy vote in December.
It seemed like really high expectations to put on your signal-caller, but his resume handed out in July was respectable. After 2025, Fifita was named AP first-team Big 12 and was preseason All-Big 12. He threw for 3,228 yards and 29 touchdowns. He was a top quarterback in 2025.
This year, Fifita is on a similar pace. He's second in the Big 12 in average passing yards (283) and is first with 13 passing touchdowns.
Fifita is one of the best quarterbacks West Virginia will face the rest of the season.
"I think he’s one of the best in college football," 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."
The Mountaineers’ defense hasn't fared well since Big 12 play has started. WVU exits back-to-back performances, giving up 500 yards of offense. Against the best quarterback in the conference currently, Oklahoma State's Drew Mestemaker, the Mountaineers let him pass for 389 yards and three touchdowns.
Stopping Fifita is going to be just as hard, if not harder.
Fifita has the yardage and touchdown stats, but what makes him hard to stop is his consistency. He has the highest completion percentage in the Big 12 and the eighth-highest in the country. Fifita has also thrown three interceptions.
Fifita can make the easy throws, and also the throws that are middle to long.
"He was throwing completions for 40-yard bombs consistently," defensive coordinator Zac Alley said
Arizona hasn't run the ball as efficiently. The Wildcats are 13th in the conference in rushing. Arizona's Kedrick Reescano leads the team with 61 attempts for 218 yards. But the rushing stats haven't jumped off the page because most of the time Fifita will throw.
"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. Arizona ran for 238 yards with three different running backs. They showed Alley what not to do.
Alley watched the game tape and noticed Arizona used different formations and personnel groupings to set the edge, going around the defensive front. If Alley sells out to stop Fifita, the trio of running backs could run all over on the outside. The secondary will have to get off blocks and make big tackles.
"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."
The Mountaineers’ defense has to put together a decent performance on Saturday, and it’s unfortunate for Alley that they are challenged with one of the top quarterbacks in the conference. Luckily, Arizona will be without three of its receivers to make it harder on Fifita, but still, if the defense hasn't improved, Alley's seat will be boiling.
If Alley draws up a game plan to stop Fifita and upset Arizona, he could buy himself 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."