Arizona Breakdown of Young Quarterbacks

The 2024 season was underwhelming to say the least for Arizona and then first-year head coach Brent Brennan, who saw the team start with high expectations, starting the year at No. 21 in the Preseason AP Poll and then quickly falling out and losing 7 of their last 8 games to end the year at a 4-8 mark.

A lot of the issues stemmed from the offensive play calling from DIno Babers and Matt Adkins, the team never found a rhythm on that side of the ball and after the 61-point performance against New Mexico saw the offense score an average of 18.2 points per game.

For quarterback Noah Fifita, he just never seemed comfortable in the offensive scheme and struggled in comparison to his 2023 season. Last year, he threw 18 touchdown passes to his 12 interceptions on 60% of his passes being completed.

Meanwhile, Fifita was sacked 28 times in comparison to the 19 during the 2023 season where the team finished 10-3 with a win in the Alamo Bowl.

One thing that caused issues for Arizona was that there was frankly no talent behind Fifita and no one that the coaching staff trusted in games when things got out of hand.

During the offseason, Brennan and new offensive coordinator Seth Doege worked on building up the depth at the quarterback position and brought in one key transfer and added a massive commitment to add depth to the room.

Now, outside of the top two quarterbacks in Fifita and Braedyn Locke, Arizona has a ton of youth and talent behind its top two options.

Below, we break down what the youth in the quarterbacks room has done so far during training camp as they develop under this offensive staff.

Mike Christy | Arizona Wildcats Athletics.

Sawyer Anderson

One of the big flips in recruiting for Arizona was Doege flipping former Purdue commit quarterback Sawyer Anderson, who has Texas ties like his offensive coordinator.

The three-star quarterback has mostly worked with the third-team offense and has had highs and lows that come with being a freshman on the team.

However, Fifita said in a press conference that Anderson might be the most athletic QB in the room and has great potential.

Mason Bray

Now, when Arizona added quarterback Mason Bray to its 2025 roster, most fans were happy to see the son of former Wildcat and beloved player Heath Bray on the roster and didn’t have many expectations for the young quarterback. With Fifita and others on the roster, it makes sense to not have big expectations for him.

However, just this last practice, Bray saw time in 11-on-11 drills with the fourth-team offense and showed high-level football IQ on the field and made all the right reads and throws. He even hit the hole for a couple of 10-plus yard runs.

Luke Haugo

Now, it's clear that the top three quarterbacks on Arizona’s roster are Noah Fifita, Braedyn Locke and Sawyer Anderson with Fifita being the starting QB.

However, another quarterback that was brought in through the 2025 recruiting class was three-star QB Luke Haugo from Higley High School in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he was rated as one of the top players in the state.

Although Haugo hasn’t gotten anytime with the first three teams, he has seen a few 11-on-11 drills and what has stood out to me his his quick release for a 6-foot-5 quarterback. That is something you just don’t see given that most tall QBs have a slow release. He is able to get the ball out quick in the short passing game and has good footwork.

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