During the offseason, quarterback Jayden de Laura transferred from Washington State to Arizona.
And de Laura has made a big impact for the Wildcats.
“The quarterback is just what we’ve seen the last several weeks — very athletic, tough to sack, tough to keep in the pocket.” — Kyle Whittingham on Arizona QB Jayden de Laura
This season, he’s thrown for 2,654 yards — No. 5 nationally — and 22 touchdowns — No. 6 nationally.
De Laura leads Arizona Saturday (5:30 p.m. MDT, Pac-12 Network) into Rice-Eccles Stadium where it takes on No. 12 Utah.
“The quarterback is just what we’ve seen the last several weeks — very athletic, tough to sack, tough to keep in the pocket,” said Ute coach Kyle Whittingham. “He can really do damage on runs. Receivers are really good. They aren’t as committed to the run as they are to the throw but enough rushing yards to keep you honest.”
De Laura is the latest in a line of dynamic, dual-threat quarterbacks that Utah has faced this season — Anthony Richardson (Florida), Emory Jones (Arizona State), Dorian Thompson-Robinson (UCLA), Caleb Williams (USC) and Cameron Ward (Washington State) — with mixed results.
Athletic quarterbacks are becoming the norm in college football.
“That’s the direction football is heading,” Whittingham said. “It’s going to get to the point pretty soon where there’s no quarterbacks but dual-threats. We’re almost to that point now.”
Last season, de Laura didn’t play when WSU visited Utah. In 2020, de Laura led the Cougars to a 28-7 halftime lead before the Utes exploded for 38 unanswered second-half points to win 45-38.
Whittingham said de Laura is very similar to what he was at Washington State.
“There are more similarities than differences. It’s still a wide-open offense. It’s very similar to what we’ve seen the last two weeks. Not as much RPO as USC and Washington State are. But same spread attack.”
De Laura’s favorite targets are wide receivers Jacob Cowing (817 yards), Dorian Singer (746 yards) and Tetairoa McMillan (542 yards).
Meanwhile, from a defensive standpoint, Arizona coach Jedd Fisch is focusing on trying to slow down prolific Pac-12 offenses.
What are his defensive goals for the Wildcats’ last four games?
“Get the ball away. Take the ball away. Get some sacks and hold the scoring down. Right now we’ve got to find a way to keep the scores down,” Fisch said. “We’ve gone against some really good teams. I saw that the No. 8 team, the No. 9 team, the No. 10 team and the No. 12 team in the country are the four out of our five games that we’re playing right now, and Washington at Washington is the fifth game. So we’ve gone through the gamut there.
“… We’ve had a tough stretch there, playing really, really good football teams. But the goal (for) these next four, with Utah and UCLA, Washington State and the team up north is we’ve got to find a way to just bring the point total down, get off the field a couple more times, and then take the ball away. If we can just take the ball a few times that’ll make a huge difference.”
Arizona has allowed at least 580 yards of offense in all four conference losses.
One of the leaders of the Wildcat defense is true freshman linebacker Jacob Manu, a product from Orange County, California, that is motivated by the fact that Arizona was the only Pac-12 program to offer him a scholarship.
“All these Pac-12 schools that I wanted to get recruited by, I feel like they all underlooked me,” Manu said this week. “That is another chip on my shoulder to do better, and just show them that they’re wrong.”
Manu arrived on campus in June but he has picked up the scheme quickly.
“You can see his production showing up. He’s extremely active. He’s a leader out there. He’s a great communicator. He loves football. He loves being a part of it,” Fisch said. “He’s trying to make as many plays as he can make.
“He’s just gonna get better. He wasn’t here in the spring. He had no offseason program with us, he had no offseason spring football … coming back in the spring and staying in the system will be really helpful to him.”
Utah wide receiver Devaughn Vele said the Wildcats’ secondary also poses challenges.
“They have a very good secondary. They have a lot of good playmakers. They’re a lot bigger in the secondary than a lot of other teams that we’ve faced. Whether or not (tight end) Dalton (Kincaid) plays a factor as well. Just understanding the coverages, that’s the biggest thing.”
Ute offensive line coach Jim Harding said Arizona is stout up front.
“They’ve got good length, they’ve got good size. Up front on their front four they play really hard and they seem to get better every week. We certainly have a big challenge in front of us. It will be a good challenge for us Saturday night.”
While the Wildcats don’t know exactly who will be available for Utah Saturday — the status of Kincaid, quarterback Cam Rising and running back Tavion Thomas is uncertain — Fisch isn’t worried about that. He’s worried about his own team.
“We got to figure out how to play better fundamentally. I don’t think it’ll really matter whether or not their tight end plays or doesn’t play, (does the) running back play or doesn’t play. See what happens with Cam (Rising),” he said. “For us it’s going to be, can we be more gap sound? Can we beat their tackles with the pass rush? Can we improve on our line gains? Can we find a better way, or a more consistent, way to cover their guys down the field.
“And then whomever they play will then determine what we need to do, if we need to change a coverage or adjust something. But for the most part right now it’s all about us and it’s all about can we get better at all of our fundamentals and techniques so whoever lines up we’re lined up to play them.”
Utes on the air
Arizona (3-5, 1-4)
at No. 12 Utah (6-2, 4-1)
Saturday, 5:30 p.m. MDT
Rice-Eccles Stadium
TV: Pac-12 Network
Radio: ESPN 700