No one likes to lose. Especially competitors with the fight and emotion that Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita, offensive coordinator Seth Doege, and the Wildcats have. But sometimes, a loss can be exactly what folks with that competitive fire need. Because a loss exposes cracks in the armor and opportunities to get better. And it also helps relieve the pressure of having to be perfect.
“There’s like this hurricane – and Coach Brennan talks about this – it’s a hurricane of expectation, and Noah Fifita probably feels a lot of expectation going into this year. There’s probably a little bit off of him,” said Doege during his weekly press conference following the 28-17 loss at No. 15 BYU.
That change in pressure doesn’t mean Arizona is out of the storm though – nor does it want to be. Instead, Seth Doege hopes it will allow Noah Fifita to just take the field and play free down the stretch of the season.
“We don’t want a participation trophy. We’re not looking for any excuses, anything like that. But there’s probably like this little bit of pressure, ‘okay, I don’t have to win them all now,’ because he wanted to win. So did I, and I wanted it for him.”
Doege doesn’t just want wins for him and Fifita. He wants them for every player and member of the coaching staff. And with how much time and preparation it takes to get the Wildcats ready to play on Saturdays, it’s understandable why.
“You think we go in this building, we spend from 5:30 in the morning to midnight or one o’clock at night – I don’t get to see my daughter, but maybe once a week – thinking I want to go in there and lose a game and call bad plays? No, I want to win the game. I want to win the game for Noah Fifita, so you know it hurt us all. But at the end of the day, we didn’t get it done.”
Doege, Fifita, and the entire building feel that hurt. And so as Arizona turns its attention to Northern Illinois and the rest of its season, Doege knows the Wildcats are going to respond with a fire and ferocity that won’t allow a halftime lead to slip away like it did a week ago in Provo.
“I think after that game, when you walk in the locker room, there’s two ways you could feel about a team. And when I walked in, I was like, ‘okay, are they going to be down, are they going to be shook? Or are they going to be pissed off?’ They were pissed off.”
“When you see tears from Noah Fifita, when you see tears from Chris Hunter, when you see tears from Rhino, when you see tears from Ked – I didn’t see tears of I am shook, like poor me, pity me. Like, we didn’t get it done, I feel bad for myself. I saw tears of pissed off, we let one go. And so they know they can be good.”
Doege says it will be up to the Wildcats to put in the “extra, in between, and unrequired” to make sure they get the results they want the rest of the season. If they can do that – and BYU continues on its trajectory – the Wildcats’ offensive coordinator hopes Arizona will earn another shot at the Cougars in December.
“Now our goal now is to make sure we get we get a chance to face those dudes again, and the only way to do that is we got to attack one game at a time.”
With Noah Fifita under center, Doege knows Arizona is going to do everything it can to make that dream a reality.
“That’s our quarterback, and that’s somebody that you can get behind.”