The new turf at Arizona Stadium was debuted Saturday as the Wildcats had their first scrimmage of fall camp. There were a number of big-time plays made by both sides of the ball as Arizona continues to gear up for the season opener Sept. 3 against San Diego State.
Head coach Jedd Fisch and defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen spoke to the media following Saturday's scrimmage to give their thoughts on the first full day of live action for the team this month.
Here were five takeaways from what they had to say:
Continued development for QB Jayden de Laura
It was not a fantastic start early in training camp for quarterback Jayden de Laura. However, the Washington State transfer has shown progression throughout each practice posting his best session on Friday leading into Saturday's scrimmage.
Fisch said he started to see things click a little more for de Laura during the walkthrough period on Thursday.
"He's got a nice little confidence about himself that when he feels that he knows something, he is going to execute it really well," Fisch said. "Sometimes when you have a new play coming in or a couple new things that he was maybe overthinking here or there, but Jayden is getting better every day. I just tell him trust the process and if you do that, good things will come your way."
Noah Fifita and Jordan McCloud continue to fight for the backup quarterback role behind de Laura for the Wildcats this season. Fifita had one of the highlight plays in Saturday's scrimmage on long pass play to fellow freshman AJ Jones.