Noah Fifita’s father once again claimed that Alabama was tampering with his son. It is the second time in less than a month that he said the quiet part out loud.
Fifita, the starting quarterback at the University of Arizona, was a breakout star in 2023. He completed 72.4% of his 333 pass attempts for 2,869 yards and 25 touchdowns with just six interceptions. His high school teammate, Tetairoa McMillan, caught 90 of Fifita’s 241 completions for 1,402 yards and 10 touchdowns.
The dynamic Wildcats duo burst onto the scene as legitimate superstars last season. Thus, when head coach Jedd Fisch bounced for the same job at Washington, they were expected to enter the transfer portal and seek a new opportunity elsewhere.
That is not what happened!
Both Fifita and McMillan decided that they have unfinished business at Arizona. NIL money likely played a role in their return to the program in Tucson because one of the school’s top donors said that he “went out of his way” to get them to stay.
Either way, they aren’t leaving. They never even entered the transfer portal.
Therein lies the possible tampering.
UPDATE: Les Fifita now says that Alabama never reached out through back channels, after anonymous aggregator accounts on X shared his quote. (However, he did previously say that “we had to listen” because “it’s Bama” in an interview listed below.)
College football players are not allowed to contact a coach at another school if they are not in the transfer portal. Coaches are not allowed to contact athletes who are not in the portal.
It happens all the time but it’s not allowed.
Even though Fifita and McMillan never entered the portal, they had multiple offers to transfer. Les Fifita, Noah’s father, told Antonio Morales of The Athletic that at least three schools reached out to gauge their interest in leaving Arizona. He did not specify which three.
We had three for sure. Alabama is the only one we were really interested in outside of Arizona and staying and obviously Washington.
— Les Fifita via The Athletic
This comes less than two weeks after Les Fifita first revealed that Alabama was in contact, whether directly or indirectly, with both his son and his top pass-catcher. He reportedly said to Greg Biggins of 247 Sports: “[Kalen DeBoer] recruited him hard when Noah was at Servite and they wanted both boys at Alabama. It’s Bama, we had to listen.”
If he was aware that Alabama wanted his son and Tetairoa McMillian, someone had to tell him. By rule, because neither player was in the portal, any communication was illegal.
Student-athletes may not speak to other schools about transferring directly or indirectly through others (e.g., family member, scholastic or nonscholastic coach, advisor, former teammates) until they receive notice that they have been input into the Transfer Portal […]
Existing recruiting rules prohibit communicating with a student-athlete who is enrolled at another Division I school prior to the student-athlete appearing in the Transfer Portal. These rules extend to indirect contact made by third parties on the student-athlete’s behalf.
— NCAA DIVISION I TRANSFER FAQ
It might be common practice within college football. It might happen every day. There is nothing out of the ordinary here.
That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t violate the rules set by the NCAA.