Arizona

Arizona softball’s 2025 nonconference schedule has a Pac-12 flavor

Published

7 hours ago

December 19, 2024

Arizona softball’s 2025 nonconference schedule has a Pac-12 flavor

Looking for a tough nonconference schedule? Have some Pac-12 nostalgia? Arizona softball has it covered.

The Wildcats released their full schedule on Thursday morning, adding the nonconference slate to the previously released Big 12 schedule. It has something to please everyone.

Arizona will keep rivalries with former Pac-12 opponents Washington, Stanford, and UCLA. They will bring Alabama and Texas to Tucson and play home and away against Cal State Fullerton. In total, the Wildcats will play 12 teams that made the NCAA tournament last season and appear in 32 games at Hillenbrand Stadium.

Things kick off with the Candrea Classic at Hillenbrand Stadium from Feb. 6-9, 2025. First on the slate is a doubleheader against Michigan State on Thursday, Feb. 6. The Spartans finished 21-30 overall last year and went 7-16 in the Big Ten but had a five-game winning streak to end the season.

That game heads straight into the land of the Pac-12 with the first of two games against the Washington Huskies on Friday, Feb. 7. It’s the first game of a Friday night doubleheader with the second game against Western Michigan. The Wildcats will play UW a second time on Sunday, Feb. 9.

The Huskies went 32-10 overall last season. They were 13-10 in their final Pac-12 season. They beat Arizona 2-1 in their series in Tucson. Their season ended in the Columbia Regional with a loss to Missouri. They went 1-2 in the postseason.

Saturday, Feb. 8 will feature Alabama. The Crimson Tide were 39-20 last year. They went 10-14 in the SEC. They advanced to the Women’s College World Series, going 1-2 and bowing out to Florida. They defeated Arizona twice during the regular season in Tuscaloosa.

Arizona hosts the Bear Down Fiesta the weekend of Feb. 13-16. The Wildcats will play South Alabama on Thursday, Feb. 13 and again on Friday, Feb. 14. They face Fullerton on Feb. 14 and Sunday, Feb. 16. Ohio is on the slate on Saturday, Feb. 15.

Arizona played South Alabama in Tuscaloosa last year. The game ended in a 1-1 tie after 11 innings due to the “drop dead time.” The Jaguars ended their year 34-20-1 overall and 16-8 in the Sun Belt Conference. They went 2-2 at the Gainesville Regional, losing twice to host team Florida.

Fullerton was 39-19 overall in 2024. The Titans ended Big West play 22-5. They went 3-2 at the Stanford Regional, beating the host Cardinal and ranked Mississippi State once each.

The Ohio Bobcats were 31-24 last season. They finished 18-8 in the MAC. Their season ended with a loss to Ball State in the MAC Tournament.

The Wildcats stay home for the third week in a row to host the Hillenbrand Invitational from Feb. 20-23. The featured teams this weekend are Stanford and Texas, with the Cardinal playing UA twice.

Things start on Thursday, Feb. 20 with the Cardinal. The two teams will face off again on Sunday, Feb. 23.

Stanford will be a different team this season without NiJaree Canaday, whom Arizona will face in Big 12 play against Texas Tech. However, the Cardinal have advanced to the WCWS the last two seasons. They went 57-17 in 2024, finishing 17-7 in their last Pac-12 season.

The Cardinal went 2-1 against Arizona in Tucson last season. They went 2-2 in Oklahoma City, losing 1-0 to national runner-up Texas in their final game.

In between the two games against Stanford, the Wildcats will play UC Davis twice, once on Feb. 20 and once on Feb. 21. The game against the Aggies on Friday will be followed by a game against Colorado State. Saturday, Feb. 22 will feature Texas.

The Aggies were 21-29 overall and 12-15 in the Big West. The Rams went 26-21 overall and 9-12 in the Mountain West.

Texas was ranked No. 1 for a good chunk of 2024. The Longhorns went 55-10 overall and 23-4 in their final Big 12 season. They went 3-2 in Oklahoma City, losing the championship series to Oklahoma in two straight games.

The Wildcats play their first road game in a one-off at Loyola Marymount on Wednesday, Feb. 26. LMU was 28-25 last season. The Lions finished 9-7 in the WCC.

The trip to Southern California continues on the return games at Cal State Fullerton from Feb. 28-Mar. 2. The Wildcats face the Wildcats of Weber State first on Friday, Feb. 28. They play the host Titans immediately following in a doubleheader.

Weber State finished 22-28 overall and 8-7 in the Big Sky in 2024.

Saturday, Mar. 1 features another doubleheader. First up is Notre Dame. Longtime rival UCLA follows.

The Bruins were 43-12 last year. Their last year in the Pac-12 ended with a 17-4 record. They won the series against Arizona 2-1 in Los Angeles. They then defeated Arizona by the score of 6-5 in the Pac-12 Tournament. They went 1-2 in Oklahoma City, losing back-to-back against Oklahoma and Stanford.

Things wrap up on Mar. 2 against San Diego State. The Aztecs finished 31-20 overall and 15-7 in the MWC last season. They went 0-2 in the Los Angeles Regional, losing to Virginia Tech and GCU.

Arizona returns home to start Big 12 play against UCF on Friday, Mar. 7, but they will play another one-off nonconference game against Utah State on Monday, Mar. 10. The Aggies were 22-28 last year and 5-17 in the MWC.

A Big 12 home series against Utah will be followed by a road game at GCU on Wednesday, Mar. 19. The Lopes had a 50-13 finish overall last season. They were 23-3 in the WAC. They lost 3-2 at Arizona on Apr. 30, 2024.

GCU went 2-2 at the Los Angeles Regional, a run that included defeating 17th-ranked Virginia Tech to advance to the regional final.

The next five weekends find the Wildcats facing Big 12 foes Arizona State, BYU, Oklahoma State, Kansas, and Texas Tech before another nonconference doubleheader.

The New Mexico State Aggies come to Tucson for a doubleheader on Tuesday, Apr. 22. The Aggies were 30-25 last year. They went 13-11 in Conference USA. Arizona defeated them twice in Las Cruces.

The Wildcats return to Southern California for two more games against San Diego State to complete their Big 12 bye week. The games will be held on Friday, Apr. 25 and Saturday, Apr. 26.

Arizona finishes the Big 12 regular season at Houston from May 2-4 before heading to Oklahoma City for the Big 12 Tournament May 7-10.

Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics

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Arizona

Noah Fifita Makes Decision To Return to Arizona for Next Season

Published

15 hours ago

December 19, 2024

Press Room

Noah Fifita Makes Decision To Return to Arizona for Next Season

It was an unfortunate season for the Arizona Wildcats, and things don’t exactly look promising moving forward with multiple players leaving for the NFL draft and the transfer portal.

However, keeping their star quarterback, Noah Fifita, was perhaps more important than anything else.

The 21-year-old announced on Wednesday that he plans to stay at Arizona and won’t enter the transfer portal, despite some speculation around the college football world.

“The love and support for me has been nothing short of spectacular,” Fifita said, according to Justin Spears of Tuscon.com. “I’m so appreciative of Tucson and the University of Arizona. Even when things weren’t going well, I still get a lot of love and support — and I appreciate it. We know Tucson is used to winning and wants a winning football program. We’re going to work our asses off to give them that. We’re so grateful for Tucson. Tucson and the community is one of the reasons why we didn’t want to leave here.”

Fifita’s return is massive for an Arizona team that wants to return to its standards. After what he showed early in his career, he had a down season, throwing for 2,958 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions.

Many of the struggles from players on the roster certainly had to do with the lack of stability surrounding the program, but after making impressive hires and another year under Brent Brennan’s belt, things should hopefully improve.

Fifita will be tasked with fixing everything that went wrong. It won’t be an easy task for the Huntington Beach, California native, but he’s shown toughness throughout his time at Arizona and should help the program get to where it needs to be.

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Arizona

He's back: Arizona QB Noah Fifita isn't going anywhere

Published

23 hours ago

December 19, 2024

Press Room

He’s back: Arizona QB Noah Fifita isn’t going anywhere

At the end of an underwhelming 2024 season that saw Arizona finish the year 4-8 and missing a bowl game, several Wildcats have entered the transfer portal with the number reaching 30 players that have entered the portal. However, most of the nation was waiting for one name from the program to leave and that name was quarterback Noah Fifita, who has been with the program since the historic 2022 recruiting class.

With the status of Fifita up in the air, Arizona moved quickly to replace former offensive coordinator Dino Babers and hired Seth Doege as the program’s next play-caller. Doege spent one season as Marshall’s offensive coordinator where he constructed the 20th rushing offense that averaged over 31 points per game.

After being hired, Doege had a meeting with Arizona’s QB Tuesday afternoon according to reports by Arizona Daily Star beat writer Justin Spears. Well, that meeting must have worked as shortly after Fifita announced that he will be returning to the Wildcats for the 2025 season.

Despite having a tough 2024 season where Fifita passed for 2,958 yards while completing 60% of his passes to go along with 18 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions, he has decided to give coach Brent Brennan another shot and work with Doege to get this back on track.

“For me, I’ve never been one to run from adversity,” Fifita told The Arizona Daily Star. ” …We’re here to make amends and do everything we can to fix what we didn’t do last year.”

This is the second offseason where Fifita has chosen to stay with the program. The first time was in the middle of a coaching change from former head coach Jedd Fisch to Brennan. Now, he is picking UA again after disappointing 2024 season and a change with the offensive coordinating job.

Now, the staff and new OC Doege will have the job of getting Fifita back to his 2023 self where he won Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year totaling 2,869 yards, 25 touchdowns with a completion percentage of 72% with just six interceptions thrown.

However, Fifita will be playing his first season without longtime friend and teammate in wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, who has declared for the NFL Draft.

There are a lot of questions still to be answered when talking about Arizona football. But, now two things are certain. The first is that Fifita will be the starting quarterback for the 2025 season and will try to get things back on track. The second is that he has become one of the most beloved players in the history of Wildcats football.

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Arizona

Cardinals’ Budda Baker Reacts to Massive Contract Extension

Published

1 day ago

December 18, 2024

Press Room

Cardinals’ Budda Baker Reacts to Massive Contract Extension

ARIZONA — When Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker got news that his three-year, $54 million extension with the organization was finalized – he didn’t run around the house. He didn’t pop champagne bottles immediately.

It was spaghetti time.

“I was holding my baby at the time. She’s six months [old], so I was just holding her and having my daughter eating spaghetti for dinner. So it’s kind of just – you’re excited, they don’t of course know what you’re excited about,” Baker told reporters when asked what his initial reaction to getting a deal done was.

“Right after that, it’s like, ‘Daddy, I’m done eating!’ so it’s like, alright, clean the spaghetti off her face, get ready for bath, and then I would say putting the kids down for bed. Just had a special moment with my lady and my sister was home at the time. Giving them high fives, listening to some good music and smiles – it was definitely something special that we’ll remember forever, for sure.”

After getting paid handsomely, Baker knows it’s time to eat on the field.

Baker is sticking around the desert for at least the next three seasons after striking a deal to land with Arizona rather than testing the open market.

For months, the rumor mill has run rampant on Baker’s future with the Cardinals. Free agency was a possibility after this season, but for a player that means so much to the fan base for the last eight seasons, remaining home to potentially spend his entire career in the same uniform was a priority for Baker.

“That would be special. Not a lot of players can say that they’ve done that. And for me that would definitely be special. At the end of the day we’re trying to win and I want to be that building block or that factor of helping the Arizona Cardinals win. That’s what I’ve stuck my mind on to, and that’s what I’m going to continue to stick my mind into,” said Baker.

“Just having that belief factor – I know a lot of Arizonans are from other places – at the end of the day for us it’s just a matter of the respect factor of the bird gang and the Cardinal fans. It’s definitely special coming into the stadium and seeing those fans come out and cheer us on, it’s definitely something special for me.”

Baker said he could tell things were changing for the better after his very first meeting with Jonathan Gannon after the Cardinals hired him as head coach following a disaster 2022 season.

Contract negotiations for his new deal (which also shows a reported $30 million guaranteed) were primarily handled by his agent, though Baker said the two would meet maybe once a week to discuss how things were progressing.

Baker has been adamant from the start that he didn’t want to get caught up in the noise of negotiations – mission accomplished.

Inking a deal of that magnitude is a dream for anybody.

Now, Baker has dreams of having a championship parade in Arizona – though hopefully that doesn’t stay a dream for long.

“To be able to try and get better as a player, but get better as a group, and to win games ultimately, and hopefully go to the playoffs. My main goal is getting a Super Bowl here in Arizona, and that’s what I’ve stuck my mind to,” said Baker.

“I’m going to continue to work hard and train and try to lead the players and team to get to that point. But till then, we’re going to take it one day at a time and we’re going to grind. We’re going to live throughout the process, live in the present and let everything else take care of itself.”

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