At first, Jedd Fisch made the change because he had no choice: his starting quarterback was injured, so the backup started in his place.
At one point, Fisch asserted the starter was still the starter, and would resume that duty once fully healthy. But the backup played well — quite well — and the team kept winning, and eventually, there was little question who would lead the Arizona Wildcats for the remainder of the 2023 season.
That’s how Noah Fifita supplanted Jayden de Laura as a redshirt freshman. Earlier this season, he became Arizona’s career leader in passing yards.
Here in 2026, Fisch again has a starting quarterback recovering from an injury — this time Demond Williams Jr. nursing a fractured rib — and the backup, Elijah Brown, has led UW’s offense to 59 points in its last six quarters.
The circumstances are far from identical, but it’s not hard to identify the parallels between the Huskies’ current situation and what happened in Tucson in 2023.