ESPN writer wants QB Jayden de Laura loaned to a team in a bowl game

The 2022 season was a major step in the right direction for the Arizona Wildcats football team.

While 5-7 wasn’t enough to bring the Wildcats to a bowl game, their offensive performance under quarterback Jayden de Laura was enough to turn heads.

While schools can’t loan players to other schools for the sake of a bowl game, that doesn’t mean the 50 teams that don’t play one didn’t have players show out.

Arizona was no different, as ESPN writer Bill Connelly highlighted de Laura as one of 10 FBS players he’d like to see loaned to another school for its bowl game.

Arizona wasn’t good in 2022, but the Wildcats were far feistier than usual thanks to an offense that finished 22nd in offensive SP+. The main driver of that improvement: de Laura, the Washington State transfer who threw for 3,685 yards and 25 touchdowns. The Wildcats scored 31 or more points eight times in 2022 after doing so just twice in their previous 20 games.

The last time a Wildcats offense scored 30-plus points at least eight times in a season was 2017, when they did so 10 times with Khalil Tate under center.

De Laura’s first season at Arizona resulted in the sixth-most touchdown passes in a single season since 2000.

He also had a 146.7 passer efficiency rating, which was the program’s fifth-most since 2000 for a single season.

Arizona was a top 50 scoring offense in FBS this season for the first time since 2018, thanks in large part to their transfer quarterback.