TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — As Arizona keeps building its football program, the head coach-quarterback relationship could be the most important on the team.
After Saturday’s clutch, gritty 31-28 win over North Dakota State, Jedd Fisch and Jayden de Laura took a step forward in that regard.
The budding sophomore star de Laura threw three interceptions in last week’s ugly home loss to Mississippi State.
Afterward, there was frustration that de Laura seemed to throw into coverage when he had room to run.
“When stuff wasn’t going our way, and I didn’t run, that’s when our offense kinda went down,” de Laura said, looking back a week.
But after a week of coaching and talking with Fisch, this time he knew when to scramble. The transfer from Washington State rushed for a career high 50 yards on Saturday.
“[When] everything’s covered downfield, they still gotta stop me,” he said.
He also knew when to let it fly. Trailing with five minutes to go, de Laura escaped the pocket before throwing to Jacob Cowing for the game-winning touchdown.
“One of the rules that we have is when you have a wide open guy, throw it,” Fisch said after the game. “You know, we just don’t wanna force the ball.”
On the best teams in college football, the coach and quarterback are in sync.
Just like the program itself, Fisch and de Laura are getting better week by week.
“We’ve only done this for three games together,” Fisch said. “And we’re just building a relationship. We’re building trust and I’m trying to learn what he needs and how to coach him every day in practice. He needs to learn what I expect and what I want.”
“He’s gonna let me play my game,” said de Laura. “As long as I still run the scheme that he calls. So it was just getting that connection and I feel like it was a really easy conversation we had.”
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