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.

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

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.”