Former Wildcat Wins IFL National Championship
The Vegas Knight Hawks, anchored by former Arizona Wildcats quarterback Jayden De Laura, won their first Indoor Football League national championship by beating the Green Bay Blizzard 64-61 in a thrilling game at the Tucson Arena on Saturday night.
De Laura completed 12 of 15 pass attempts with one touchdown and also rushed for 74 yards and two touchdowns.
De Laura was named the MVP of the game after the incredible performance in which he seemed unstoppable.
You guessed it! Your 2025 IFL National Championship MVP is Mr.@jayden_delaura 🏆 Congratulations to
— Indoor Football League (@IndoorFL) August 24, 2025
him and all of @KnightHawksIFL#ThelndoorWar #IFL#IndoorFoolballLeague #IndoorFL #GolFL #Football #2025IFLPlayoffs#IFLNC #IFLNationalChampionship #NationalChampionship… pic.twitter.com/MbyFrLfJwd
What made the win more special for De Laura was the fact that he won the championship game and earned MVP honors in Tucson, where he was being cheered on by the same fans that rooted for him during his days with the Arizona Wildcats.
“It’s good to come back,” De Laura said. “It’s good to come back to where I finished out my school. It’s like my home away from home.”
De Laura transferred to Arizona in 2022, the start of the Jedd Fisch era, after a year with Washington State that saw him win Pac-12 Freshman of the Year honors.
De Laura started all 12 games for Arizona and threw for 3685 yards, which is the third most in the team's history, and 25 touchdowns
The 6-foot-0, 207-pound Honolulu, HI native's most notable game came against Washington, where he threw for 400 yards and four touchdowns in a 49-39 loss to the Huskies.
De Laura upset the UCLA Bruins, who were ranked No. 12 at the time. He threw for 315 yards and two touchdowns and a season high completion percentage of 78.6 percent in the 38-24 win at the Rose Bowl.
De Laura also passed for a season-high 484 yards and six touchdowns in a 43-20 win over Colorado at Arizona Stadium.
De Laura started the first four games of 2023, but an ankle injury that he suffered at Stanford saw Noah Fifita take over the offense in a come-from-behind victory at Palo Alto.
Fifita went on to lead Arizona to a 10-3 season and a 38-24 victory in the Alamo Bowl over No.12 Oklahoma.
De Laura and Fifita developed a close friendship during that time when they were in the same quarterback room.
Fifita attended last night’s game along with Fisch, who is now the head coach at Washington.
“He’s a great guy,” De Laura said of Fisch. “He’s a great family guy. He tries his best to please everybody but, you can’t please everybody… I’m appreciative of him and I just hope he knows that I got his back the same way that he got my back.”
De Laura originally chose to transfer to Texas State for the 2024 season, but a lawsuit from a second-degree sexual assault case in 2018 led him to pull out of that on January 24, 2024 and test the waters of going pro.
De Laura was a force for the Knight Hawks in the 15 games he played, throwing for 1,166 yards, 34 touchdowns and only three interceptions.
De Laura did not just use his feet in the championship but for the entirety of the season, taking advantage of the improvisation and quickness that made him so exciting to watch with 247 yards rushing and seven touchdowns.
To summarize De Laura’s entire season and the road he took to return to the field, he stated, “It’s worth it to get back to playing football."
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Nathaniel Martinez and a set of shoulder pads at 7 years old. He later graduated from Pima Community College in 2023, where he began writing for the Pima Post. He is working to achieve a Bachelor’s in Mass Communication and Media Studies.