The talk of the Arizona Wildcats offense is often about Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan. It’s tough to argue against that, too, as Arizona’s star duo might be the best in the country.

However, they find the type of success they do because of the guys up front. Among those players is Jonah Savaiinaea, one of the top linemen in the nation.

Savaiinaea is as good as they get and will be needed just as much as any other player on the roster in Big 12 play. Protecting Fifita and opening up the run game for this offense will be essential in games against conference opponents.

All signs point to Savaiinaea being a first-round draft pick. He could fall to the second round, but most mock drafts currently have him selected in the mid-to-late first round.

Bleacher Report’s NFL Scouting Department released their latest 2025 NFL mock draft, in which Savaiinaea was selected by the Miami Dolphins at No. 21 overall.

The Dolphins’ offensive line has been derailed by injuries over the past few years, meaning there’s a clear need for a player like Savaiinaea.

Brandon Thorn of BR wrote about the potential fit.

“The Dolphins have been and likely will continue to be able to make their offense click despite shaky offensive line play due to their potent scheme and playmakers. Sooner or later, they’ll need to address the unit. Guard will need to be more of a priority. Arizona’s Jonah Savaiinaea is one of the more talented blockers in this class in terms of size (6’5″, 336 lbs), power and quickness, signaling a rising prospect as the season plays out who could help fill a significant hole for the Dolphins.”

Making an impact as a rookie is as tough as ever in the NFL, but the St. Louis high school product would have a good opportunity to do just that.

Savaiinaea has earned multiple honors in his career, making the All-Pac 12 team in 2023. He was also named a Freshman All-American, PFF All First-Team True Freshman, and more during his collegiate tenure.

Arizona’s coaching staff has praised his work ethic, and it’s clearly paid off.

He’ll have plenty of time to prove to evaluators that he should be a first-round pick. Playing well in the Big 12 and Pac-12 would be an excellent sign for NFL scouts.

For now, he’ll focus on bringing Arizona to the promise land.

U.S. Sen. JD Vance will spend another day campaigning in Arizona on Thursday with an event planned for the Arizona Biltmore in central Phoenix.

Vance, R-Ohio, is set to deliver afternoon remarks at the time-honored resort where over the years every president from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush has stayed.

Vance, tapped in July as the running mate of former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, is expected to focus on immigration and border security, as he did Wednesday at a rally at Generation Church in east Mesa.

A written statement from the Trump-Vance campaign announcing the Biltmore stop focused on border-related issues such as drug trafficking that it blamed on the policies of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. The campaign again used the term “border czar” for Harris even though that was never an official title for her role in immigration policy during President Joe Biden’s administration.

“With immigration ranking among the top concerns for voters, it is time to secure the border and protect Arizonans from the dire consequences of Border Czar Harris’ failed policies,” the campaign said in the written statement. “President Donald J. Trump and Senator JD Vance are the only candidates willing to put Americans first, and Arizonans will send a clear message when they elect them in November.”

In an appearance Tuesday on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a Harris ally, defended her record and condemned Trump for torpedoing a bipartisan border-security bill that had been negotiated in the Senate. Trump didn’t want to give Biden an election-year legislative victory.

“I mean, when you look at what she stands for, the bipartisan border security bill that we negotiated with Republicans in the United States Senate, we could have gotten that passed and across the finish line if it wasn’t for Donald Trump,” Kelly said. “So Kamala Harris has stood for border security. She wants to get something done on this issue.”

Kelly noted that the right-leaning Border Patrol union was backing the bipartisan legislation.

“They did, and the reason they did is it was going to be more Border Patrol pay, money to hire more Border Patrol agents, more money to buy fentanyl detection machines,” he said.

Arizona is a crucial battleground state in the 2024 presidential election. Four years ago, Biden narrowly carried the state over Trump and became the first Democrat to do so since President Bill Clinton won Arizona in 1996. Before Clinton, no Democrat had carried Arizona since President Harry Truman in 1948.

Vance is on his second swing through Arizona since becoming the Republican vice presidential nominee. He previously headlined a rally in Glendale and visited the U.S.-Mexico border in Cochise County.

On that trip, Vance said Trump would finish building his signature border wall that began construction during his first administration, reimplement the Remain in Mexico policy and expand deportations.

“If people can come into this country and they know they’re never going to be deported, you effectively have an open border. That’s what Kamala Harris promised. That’s what Kamala Harris did, and Donald Trump and I promise to do exactly the opposite,” Vance said during his Aug. 1 border stop.

Here’s what the candidates say: Immigration is a top election issue in the Trump vs. Harris race

Dan Nowicki is The Arizona Republic’s national politics editor. Follow him on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, @dannowicki.

Stephanie Murray is a Republic national political reporter. Follow her on X @stephanie_murr.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: JD Vance in Phoenix: Trump running mate to speak at Arizona Biltmore

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge will hear arguments Thursday in a Phoenix courtroom over whether to move former Donald Trump presidential chief of staff Mark Meadows’ charges in Arizona’s fake elector case to federal court.

Meadows has asked a federal judge to move the case to U.S. District Court, arguing his actions were taken when he was a federal official working as Trump’s chief of staff and that he has immunity under the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says federal law trumps state law.

The former chief of staff, who faces charges in Arizona and Georgia in what state authorities alleged was an illegal scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in Trump’s favor, had unsuccessfully tried to move state charges to federal court last year in an election subversion case in Georgia.

Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office, which filed the Arizona case, urged a court to deny Meadows’ request, arguing he missed a deadline for asking a court to move the charges to federal court and that his electioneering efforts weren’t part of his official role at the White House.

While not a fake elector in Arizona, prosecutors said Meadows worked with other Trump campaign members to submit names of fake electors from Arizona and other states to Congress in a bid to keep Trump in office despite his November 2020 defeat.

In 2020, President Joe Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes.

Last year, Meadows tried to get his Georgia charges moved to federal court, but his request was rejected by a judge, whose ruling was later affirmed by an appeals court. The former chief of staff has since asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling.

The Arizona indictment also says Meadows confided to a White House staff member in early November 2020 that Trump had lost the election. Prosecutors say Meadows also had arranged meetings and calls with state officials to discuss the fake elector conspiracy.

Meadows and other defendants are seeking a dismissal of the Arizona case.

In their filing, Meadows’ attorneys said nothing their client is alleged to have done in Arizona was criminal. They said the indictment consists of allegations that he received messages from people trying to get ideas in front of Trump — or “seeking to inform Mr. Meadows about the strategy and status of various legal efforts by the president’s campaign.”

In all, 18 Republicans were charged in late April in Arizona’s fake electors case. The defendants include 11 Republicans who had submitted a document falsely claiming Trump had won Arizona, another Trump aide, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and four other lawyers connected to the former president.

In early August, Trump’s campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with Giuliani, signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors that led to the dismissal of her charges. Republican activist Loraine Pellegrino also became the first person to be convicted in the Arizona case when she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to probation.

Meadows and the other remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty to the forgery, fraud and conspiracy charges in Arizona.

Trump wasn’t charged in Arizona, but the indictment refers to him as an unindicted coconspirator.

Eleven people who had been nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors had met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claimed Trump had carried the state in the 2020 election.

A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme.