Noah Fifita has chance to make a statement against No. 14 BYU
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Noah Fifita began his fifth season with the Arizona Wildcats in quietly excellent fashion, completing 23-30 passes for 279 yards and a pair of touchdowns across three quarters before giving way to backup Sawyer Anderson in UA's 35-7 win over Northern Arizona.
Fifita is coming off a tremendous 2025, where he led the Wildcats to a 9-4 record, posted a 29-to-6 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and threw for 3,228 yards - which ranked third in the Big 12.
Fourth on that list was Bear Bachmeier, who is entering his sophomore season with the BYU Cougars as one of the highest-regarded QBs in the conference - alongside Fifita, Devon Dampier at Utah, and Avery Johnson at Kansas State.
Saturday's matchup between Arizona and BYU is not only the first Big 12 game of the season, but it also marks arguably the strongest QB battle in the conference - and gives Fifita a chance to put his name squarely on the national radar as a Heisman Trophy candidate.
Experience gives Fifita an edge
Fifita is one of the oldest, most experienced quarterbacks in the entire country, making his 41st career start last week against NAU. He crossed the 800 career completion mark in the first half and should reach 10,000 career passing yards in Week 3 or 4.
That experience is critical in a matchup like this, against a similarly experienced, top-ranked BYU team on the road in Provo.
Arizona has a serious experience advantage at QB, with Bachmeier only 15 games into his career, and two of those games - last week against Utah Tech and the 2025 season opener vs. Portland State - coming against FCS opponents.
Both teams have experienced rosters overall, but Arizona's significant advantage under center helps mitigate the home-field advantage for BYU and makes this an intriguing matchup between signal callers.
Bachmeier completed over 65% of his passes last year as a freshman, but had arguably his worst game against the Wildcats - throwing one touchdown and two interceptions while posting a completion rate under 50% for the first - and only - time in his career.
Arizona won't have home-field advantage and doesn't quite have the firepower in the secondary they did last year, but that poor performance and Bachmeier's relative inexperience are certainly major factors in this matchup on Saturday.
Fifita has a chance to enter the Heisman conversation
Fifita currently isn't getting a ton of buzz as a Heisman Trophy candidate, but he has a great opportunity to change that narrative on Saturday. Not only would a win vault Arizona into the top 25 and give them significantly higher odds of making the CFP, but it would also help Fifita establish himself as the best QB in the Big 12 and one of the best nationally.
Arizona's next game against a ranked team isn't until Halloween, when they play Texas Tech in Lubbock, so playing well on Saturday is the best way for the fifth-year senior to keep his name in the conversation throughout the meat of the college football season.
Arizona and BYU will kickoff at 12:30 PM PT on Saturday, Sep. 12. The game will be broadcast on FOX.
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