Since the trip to Provo, Arizona has rattled off five straight wins and finds itself in the middle of the Big 12 title race. However, so are about five other teams including Texas Tech.<\/p>\n
The tone for the rest of the season will be set on Saturday when Arizona visits Texas Tech. The Red Raiders are coming off their first loss of the season and offensive coordinator Seth Doege expects them to respond the same way the Wildcats did after the loss to BYU.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect Texas Tech to play at their best,\u201d said Doege. \u201cI feel like, you know, you guys asked us questions after losing to BYU. We were pissed off, and we were ready to respond. I expect them to feel the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doege will have to battle outside distractions as he is making a trip back home. He played at Texas Tech from 2008-12 and is very appreciative of what he learned during his time in Lubbock.<\/p>\n
Whenever a team goes on the road there are always people guaranteed to be rooting against you, but for Doege it\u2019s a bit different. He\u2019s expecting 30+ family members to be in attendance and while they will always want the best for Doege, they will be rooting for Texas Tech.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents still live there, my in-laws live there, we have grandparents there, some of my best friends over at my wedding still live there,\u201d said Doege. \u201cThey played there. It\u2019s gonna be fun. Now it\u2019s unique because most of those friends are cheering against me. So that\u2019s unique, but that\u2019ll be fun. So, I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
With his contingent in attendance on Saturday, he is tasked with blocking out the outside distractions and making sure the X\u2019s and O\u2019s part of the game is ready to go. It starts with having a game plan for the Red Raiders\u2019 pass rush.<\/p>\n
\u201cDepending on what the pressure patterns are, if they have a unique pass rusher, they have somebody that you feel like you don\u2019t want to put any of your guys one on one with, you try to tweak and adjust your rules that week, and then there\u2019s some protections that you just can\u2019t do,\u201d said Doege. \u201cObviously you have to adjust your scheme a little bit to make sure that you\u2019re giving your kids a chance to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with adjusting the game plan and pass protection, there also needs to be an acknowledgement of Texas Tech\u2019s power. Offensive lineman Alexander Doost knows that the Red Raiders\u2019 present one of the biggest challenges the Wildcats will face this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say power-wise, usually they\u2019re a lot bigger dudes,\u201d said Doost. \u201cA lot closer to our size, so it\u2019s making sure you\u2019re not lunging on them because they\u2019re going to swim you or get your hands tied.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside of the game planning, Doege is grateful for the full circle moment that will be presented to him on Saturday. An appreciation for where Doege\u2019s career started and where he spent the earlier years of his life only make Saturday\u2019s showdown that much more meaningful.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome special memories for sure in that area, and like I said, Texas Tech was a special place to me and I made a lot of memories and a lot of good friends from them,\u201d said Doege.<\/p>\n
Heisman hopes still alive<\/p>\n
While Doege will reminisce on his time in Lubbock this week, he is still focused on making sure Noah Fifita\u2019s ending in Tucson finishes the right way. That starts with continuing the conversation of Fifita being one of the best quarterbacks in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cNoah Fifita is the best quarterback in the country, and I\u2019m going to stand on that 10 toes down until the end of the season and I expect him to play well,\u201d said Doege. \u201cI don\u2019t want him to apply any more pressure than he already does on himself. I want him to go be Noah Fifita, and it\u2019s my job to make sure that he\u2019s ready to play and that he has answers to go play at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 520 is very aware of how special Fifita is, but the rest of the nation is arriving to the party late. Head coach Brent Brennan believes that conversations about his quarterback should\u2019ve started well before Arizona\u2019s slow rise in national recognition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the national narrative around Noah is slow and late to the game,\u201d said Brennan. \u201cI think just his consistent level of play has been outstanding, and it speaks to who he is. It speaks to how he prepares. It speaks to the trust we have in him and his relationship with Coach Doege and what we\u2019re doing schematically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Offensive lineman are the true protectors of quarterbacks but when there\u2019s a quarterback with a resume like Fifitas, blocking becomes easier. Doost was not close to Fifita when he first arrived at Arizona, but has since created a strong bond.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving been here for a little while now, I\u2019d say this is like the closest I\u2019ve been to him and he\u2019s a great guy and like I\u2019ve loved blocking for him,\u201d said Doost. \u201cIt\u2019s the best. He\u2019s an amazing quarterback, an amazing guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clearly, the coaches and his teammates believe in Fifita, but now it looks like the fans are starting to show their support. In the Heisman\u2019s fan vote week eight leaderboard, Fifita ranked at eighth overall.<\/p>\n
He is the highest Big 12 quarterback in the fan vote and the third overall quarterback in the country. As long as the Wildcats keep winning, and Fifita performs at a high level, he will continue to climb the Heisman rankings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since the trip to Provo, Arizona has rattled off five straight wins and finds itself in the middle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[4938,168,170,169],"class_list":["post-479331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-arizona-football","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}