How Seth Doege Is Shaping Arizona’s Offense in 2025
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Arizona wanted to get back on the right track after an underwhelming first season under Brent Brennan where the team finished 4-8 and missed a bowl game despite preseason high expectations.
Well, after changes were made to the coaching staff and the roster, Brennan seems to have the Wildcats moving in the right direction with the team starting the year with 3-straight impressive wins over Hawaii, Weber State and Kansas State.
One of the major changes this past offseason was Brennan replacing former offensive coordinator DIno Babers with Seth Doege, who came into Tucson after one season in the same position at Marshall where he put together the No. 20 rushing offense and helped the Thundering Herd reach a 10-3 record.
It has been well documented the background of Doege with ties to Mike Leach and the Texas Tech tree and him being labeled as an Air Raid offensive mind. However, when looking at what he has done at Arizona and the one season with Marshall, it is clear that balance is what he is looking for.
Last season, Arizona struggled on the offensive side of the ball averaging 21.8 PPG . However, if you take a deeper dive into the offense, the unit struggled to crack 20-plus points if you take out the New Mexico game where the WIldcats dropped 61 points on the Lobos.
When you take that game out of the equation, Arizona averaged 18.2 PPG putting the unit near the bottom of the conference.
“I’m probably the hardest critic on the offense because I thought we played well the first three games but there were still a lot of opportunities that we missed, Doege told Arizona Wildcats On SI.
“And I think to somebody just looking at stats, you're thinking, Hey, man, they're playing pretty well. I'm not discrediting, there's been times we have. There's times in the Hawaii game we played really, really explosive football. There's times in the Weber game where we were really explosive football. And then the Kansas State game, there were times where, like, Man, I didn't know if they could stop us. But there's always been in every game, the little lull that's kind of taken us out of our rhythm, where we don't finish games is as strong as we start them in my opinion.”
Now, through the first three games of the season, Arizona is averaging 37 PPG and sits at No. 37 nationally in scoring offense.
So far this season, Arizona has had a balanced attack that has favored the rushing game with 58% run plays and 42% passing plays from the Wildcats’ offense.
“We’ve been pretty balanced. I was looking at our self-scout earlier and we actually have been really balanced. I like being balanced. I like being balanced for self-scout purposes. When somebody’s scouting you they have to defend every part of the field, Doege said.
“But to go back to the K-State game, we were running the ball so well but there were still opportunities in the passing game that were open. I think of two throws that we missed from an accuracy standpoint that, in my opinion, might've broken the game wide open.”
In three games, the Wildcats have seen two different running backs lead the way in Quincy Craig, who ripped off 125 yards against Hawaii and Ismail Mahdi with his 189-yard rushing performance against Kansas State.
SPIVEY. SIX.@SpiveyTre finds the end zone for his first TD in Tucson. pic.twitter.com/urXIm3HIIz
— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) September 7, 2025
Meanwhile, through the first three games of the season, we have seen a bag of mixed reviews for quarterback Noah Fifita. However, Fifita has improved under Doege compared to the underwhelming season he had in 2024 under Babers.
This season, Fifita has been able to protect the football with ZERO turnovers and has thrown six passing touchdowns and has run in for three other TDs. This is while passing for 712 yards with a completion percentage of 59%, thus far.
FIFISEEYA. 💨@thenoah_fifita1 takes it himself, finds pay dirt. pic.twitter.com/H5lG7duAUW
— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) September 13, 2025
Now, Fifita hasn’t been perfect but he is growing in the system each week and has started to use his legs as a weapon, which was one of the main things he focused on getting better at this offseason.
“The checks that he’s making are really good. In the K-State game, if we catch two balls, he’s throwing for 250 and maybe a touchdown and running for two touchdowns. Because he played that well. He played well. And the greatest thing about him is he is using his legs, which is creating a whole nother weapon for him, Doege said.
“If you have a guy that can use his legs and scramble, well, there’s explosive plays all over the place now and I thought you saw him do that.”
Every area of the Wildcats’ offense has improved from the previous season and it is clear that Brennan nailed the hire when bringing in Doege to run the offensive unit.
“The holding penalties I think is a lack of attention to detail when we’re tired. We are playing with tempo. And so, if you think about Rhino [Tapa’atoutai], who had two holdings. Well, Rhino isn’t a bad player but Rhino also hasn’t played football in a year and a half. He missed camp. He’s still getting into shape, said Doege.
“...Like I said in my press conference, one penalty is too many penalties, so I’m not going to accept a penalty, that’s the standard. But, also you can rationalize that he is playing himself into shape. We’ve got to fix his fundamentals when he is tired.”
Now, the team still has things to clean up with penalty issues and lack of third down conversions but things are moving in the right direction for the Wildcats.
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Troy Hutchison grew up attending Arizona athletic events, which gave him a unique perspective and knowledge of the athletic department's rich history. He attended UA and began covering the Wildcats in 2018. As the Arizona Wildcats Beat Writer on SI, he is set to deliver wall-to-wall coverage to give fans an in-depth perspective.
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