When Arizona offensive coordinator Seth Doege walks off the field late in a game and the camera finds him, Les Fifita sees something familiar.
“You can literally see him exhale,” Fifita wrote this week. “That’s a feeling I know all too well. He’s right there with Noah, living every snap.”
Les is the father of Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita and a longtime youth coach himself. He has spent years evaluating character in the people who get to influence young players. After meeting Doege before Noah did, he and his wife Winnona walked out of the room knowing the fit was right. “He and Noah were the same person.”
That judgment has held up.
Doege arrived in Tucson in late 2024 after a difficult season for Arizona that left Noah questioning his future. A former Texas Tech quarterback under Mike Leach, Doege had already begged USC to take a chance on the Servite product years earlier. When Arizona called, he jumped. The results have been clear: Arizona’s offense rebounded, Noah has set program records and earned first-team All-Big 12 honors, and the Wildcats have become a factor in the Big 12 race. Noah has said Doege “saved my football career” and “changed my life.”
CBS Sports Shehan Jeyarajah has an in-depth look at the relationship between Doege and Arizona's star quarterback. The article itself is excellent and I encourage you to read it; but what caught my eye was Fifita's father's response to the article.
“You set the standard for the coach and the man I want my son around,” Les wrote.
What stands out to Les is not just the scheme or the production. It is the daily posture. Doege played the position and understands the weight of every snap. He does not treat the quarterback as a vessel for his system; he treats him as a person whose family is also sacrificing. Les specifically thanked Doege, his wife Abi, and their daughter Leighton for the hours that come out of their own household so Noah can chase his.
In an era when quarterbacks and coordinators cycle through programs quickly, that standard is rarer than people admit. Parents of high-level players feel every incomplete, every interception, and every moment of public scrutiny. They want a coach who carries the same weight instead of adding to it. They want someone who can still demand excellence after the camera is off, who sees the player’s strengths before the flaws, and who understands that time given to a player is time taken from someone else’s family.
In Doege, Les sees a man who cares deeply and is a football mind worth learning from.
Les Fifita has been around the game long enough to know that trophies and rankings fade. What remains is how a coach treats the people in his care. From a father who has lived every snap with his son, Seth Doege has met the standard.
That is the type of man you want coaching your son.
