Noah Fifita played half of 2025 season with torn MCL

The legend of Arizona Wildcats quarterback Noah Fifita reached another level, as he apparently played roughly half of the 2025 season on a torn MCL. Nobody knew.

The revelation was made in a recent profile on Fifita written by The Athletic‘s Bruce Feldman, which detailed the fifth-year quarterback’s humble and resilient character.

“His character is out of this world; he’s about as humble as you can possibly be; he’s the greatest teammate you’ll ever find … and he’s incredibly tough and durable,” Arizona offensive coordinator Seth Doege told Feldman. “If he ever does get hurt, he never tells anybody and just plays through it. He tore his MCL on the first play of the game against Colorado (last year), and we still scored 50 points. He never told anybody.”

That referenced game against Colorado was Arizona’s eighth of the season, meaning Fifita played five more games — including four straight wins — through the injury.

From the game against Colorado on, Fifita completed 62.1% passes for 1,399 yards, 12 touchdowns and two interceptions. In the games prior, he was 66% for 1,829 yards, 17 touchdowns and four interceptions.

On the ground, more than half of his total season rushing yards came while playing through the injury despite it being a slightly smaller sample size. That includes his longest run of the season, 19 yards, against Kansas, and his season high for rushing yards in a game, 73, during the Holiday Bowl against SMU.

Even local reporters, and apparently his own coaches, didn’t know about Fifita’s injury.

I JUST sent that part to a colleague. Had no idea! The coaches apparently didn't know either!

— Michael Lev (@MichaelJLev) October 29, 2026

Feldman’s profile also explored Fifita’s loyalty to Arizona despite multiple opportunities to transfer elsewhere for more money, as well as how he’s generating some NFL draft buzz even with his small size and playing without his top three wide receivers and top tight end due to injury.

Fifita, cemented in Arizona’s record books as the program leader in just about every major passing stat, will lead the Wildcats into Lubbock, Texas, for their biggest test of the season Saturday against a No. 13 Texas Tech team looking to avenge a loss.

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