Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan turned down an offer from Kalen DeBoer and Alabama to stay at Arizona. Both breakout stars recently announced that they will return to the Wildcats in 2024.
It is a huge deal for first-year head coach Brent Brennan, who was hired away from San Jose State after Jedd Fisch took the Washington job. He will inherit the two most important pieces of Arizona’s 20th-ranked offense from a year ago.
Fifita threw for 2,869 yards and 25 touchdowns with just six interceptions on a 72.4% completion clip in 2023. McMillan caught 37% (!!) of his quarterback’s 241 completions for 1,402 yards and 10 touchdowns.
As soon as Fisch bounced for Seattle, the Wildcats had 30 days to enter the transfer portal. McMillian and Fifita were teammates in high school so they are a package deal.
There was a lot of speculation that they might follow their head coach and join the Huskies. That did not happen.
Humberto Lopez, the top booster at Arizona, made sure that Fifita and McMillan did not leave. He implied that NIL money played a big role in the retention in a scathing text to Fisch.
What Lopez likely didn’t know is that he was also bidding against the Crimson Tide. In actuality, Washington finished third on Fifita and McMillan’s list!
Kalen DeBoer, who was tapped to succeed Nick Saban at Alabama after two years in Fisch’s new role, tried to get both of the Wildcats’ offensive stars to play for him in Tuscaloosa. Fifita’s father, Les, broke down the decision to Greg Biggins of 247 Sports.
We’ve known Kalen DeBoer for a long time and he loved Noah when he was at Fresno State. He recruited him hard when Noah was at Servite and they wanted both boys at Alabama.
It’s Bama, we had to listen. But, end of the day, both kids felt like they had unfinished business here. Plus, it’s a family here — it really is. We want to keep this thing together and we know the whole team couldn’t go to Bama just like the whole team wasn’t being recruited to Washington. This is the best move for everyone and, with Noah and TMac and the core staying, we think we got a great shot to keep everyone else here as well.
— Les Fifita, via 247 Sports
Wow! That’s a new development.
Not only did Fifita and McMillan tell Fisch to kick rocks, they turned down the opportunity to compete in the Southeastern Conference at one of the most historic programs in college football history. Whatever Lopez offered to keep them in Tucson must be pretty sweet!