Arizona’s Noah Fifita looks sharp, Wildcats’ secondary struggles in win over NAU

Noah Fifita’s Heisman campaign got off to a flying start, but the Wildcats’ new secondary showed its flaws in Arizona’s 35-7 opening week win over NAU.

Fifita finished 22 of 29 with 262 passing yards, and college football’s active career passing touchdowns leader (75) added two more to his tally in Saturday’s victory.

On the Wildcats’ first drive, Fifita also passed Willlie Tuitama for the second-most passing yards by an Arizona quarterback. The senior in his fifth year was 17 of 20 in the first half with 209 yards and two touchdowns. Fifita completed 13 straight passes after two of his first five attempts resulted in a drop and a completed pass that was later ruled out of bounds.

“I thought we were really moving the ball great in the first half,” Arizona coach Brent Brennan said. “I thought that was easy to see. I thought Noah was really on. We were running the ball effectively. I thought the physicality of the football team was showing up.”

✔️ on the move
✔️ on a rope
✔️ on top 14-0@thenoah_fifita1 x @_BrandonPhelps_ pic.twitter.com/T845L8jyD5

— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) September 6, 2026

Giovanni Richardson made a good impression to separate himself as the Wildcats’ WR1. After Richardson had an early fumble, which resulted in a turnover, Fifita kept his trust in Richardson and kept throwing to the sophomore who looked like he could be poised to have a breakout season for the Wildcats.

BALL IS OURS! @jahaad3fort with the punch and the recovery!#RaiseTheFlag | #7KBuilt pic.twitter.com/V5jebkAX7D

— NAU Football (@NAU_Football) September 6, 2026

Richardson did not find the endzone but finished with eight catches for 96 yards.

Tre Spivey, Fifita’s second-most thrown to receiver, tallied four receptions for 45 yards. After seven receiving touchdowns last season, he opened his account this season via an over-the-shoulder catch for a touchdown on the Wildcats’ first possession.

FIFITA. SPIVEY. SIX. pic.twitter.com/8H7XBIfOx2

— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) September 6, 2026

“Noah Fifita is such a good player, and he’s so efficient,” Brennan said. “And I think you saw that when the first deep ball for the touchdown to Spivey, right, is an incredible throw. It’s as good of a throw as you can make, right? Spivey made a great play, but it was in the absolute perfect place for that. And so we have incredibly high expectations for Noah, but so does Noah. And nothing that he does surprises us. And we expect that high level of consistency for him to continue.”

Fifita’s night ended with the Wildcats up 35-0 with just under 12 minutes left, which saw Sawyer Anderson enter the game.

Anderson was sacked on the first play of his first drive, and on the next play, his first pass attempt as a college quarterback went for a pick-six by Noble Young-Blackgoat, the brother of ASU’s Prayer Young-Blackgoat.

The Flagstaff local takes it to the house in Tucson!

Noble Young-Blackgoat with the pick-6.#RaiseTheFlag | #7KBuilt | #BigSkyFB pic.twitter.com/ifyN5Lc6Yr

— NAU Football (@NAU_Football) September 6, 2026

Arizona Wildcats’ new secondary shows growing pains while front 7 looks solid

Arizona had to replace five defensive backs from last year’s squad, which finished seventh in college football in passing defense and first in turnover margin. All five of those aforementioned defensive backs ended up on NFL rosters, and the new unit struggled to fill their shoes Saturday.

The Wildcats’ new safeties showed their growing pains for much of the game. Quinn Olson, a free safety who was a walk-on but was granted a scholarship earlier this week, lacked aggressiveness in his first game action, while Northern Colorado transfer Cam Chapa lacked physicality. As a whole, the group struggled with tackling and blown coverages.

“I think part of it is just getting settled into the game and like you said, we don’t really go live, so first time in a while actually live tackling someone,” Olson said. “But you know, I think we did a good job of just as the game went on, like you said, we got better at it, you know? It’ll be something we focus on this week.”

Olson, the former high school quarterback turned Big 12 starting safety, redeemed himself when he came up with an interception late in the third quarter on a poor throw by NAU quarterback Ty Pennington.

🏈 CATS
🌵 BALL pic.twitter.com/g4Qoc2cdV3

— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) September 6, 2026

On the contrary, Arizona’s front seven played well, led by linebacker Taye Brown and his 10 tackles in the first half alone. Georgetown transfer linebacker Cooper Blomstrom also impressed with his eight tackles and 1.5 for a loss.

Arizona allowed 200 passing yards and -7 rushing yards. The -7 rushing yards were the fewest Arizona allowed since surrendering -6 to Stanford in 2006.

“I think any time you don’t allow any points from your opponent, and you hold them to negative rushing yards, that’s a hell of a day,” Brennan said. “Plain and simple.”

The Wildcats as a whole had five sacks, the most since last season’s season opener against Hawai’i where Arizona also had five.

Dash Fifita, Noah’s brother, also got in on the action in his Wildcats debut and had a second-quarter sack.

A new Fifita on the other side of the ball just dropped.@FifitaDash 🐻⬇️ https://t.co/8KPczYptIt pic.twitter.com/TSfDH9vc18

— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) September 6, 2026

Arizona used different running game concepts, and the offensive line did a good job opening up space for running lanes.

Kedrick Reescano had seven touchdowns from inside the redzone last season and had two more on Saturday. The senior ended his night with 10 carries for 48 yards.

“Like I say all the time, I think I had the easiest job out there,” Reescano said. “Think my O-line like I think you should be asking them this question, you know what I mean? Like they really scored the (touchdowns).

“Like I said, the O-line, man, like they movin’ stuff up there. So like just run behind our pads, run behind them, like honestly, simple from there, you know?”

New stadium lights putting in work tonight.

Cats up three scores. pic.twitter.com/C8jKGNGT2D

— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) September 6, 2026

Saturday attendance

40,129

Up next for Arizona Wildcats

Arizona now has a tough test in Week 2, as it travels to Provo to face No. 14 BYU at 12:30 p.m. next Saturday. The Cougars defeated Utah Tech 63-7 on Saturday.

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