The quarterback showed up, and there really wasn’t much debate. It was time to start eating.

“I’m a picky eater,” Jayden de Laura says.

Arizona coach Jedd Fisch looked at de Laura last year at this time, and realized his transfer quarterback from Washington State was a lot smaller than he thought.

The arm talent, the dangerous off-schedule dynamic ability, all wrapped up in a body that wasn’t going to last long.

“I mean, he had to eat,” Fisch said.

So eat, de Laura did. Everything the nutrition staff put in front of him. He ate and got bigger, and got stronger and, yep, got faster.

He showed up at spring practice earlier this month, a full year from the sinewy shadow that initially arrived in Tucson — and nearly 30 pounds heavier.

From 182 pounds when he arrived, to 211 when he weighed in prior to the first spring practice.

Now the bar has been moved: from weight to wins.

How does a quarterback lead the No. 6 passing offense in the nation, and no one knows about him? How does a quarterback with 62 career touchdowns at Washington State and Arizona, have zero buzz entering the 2023 season?

Vegas is betting on quarterbacks \who haven’t played a down of college football, who were backups in 2022, who did far less with much more than the guy who led the No. 6 passing offense in college football in 2022.

“You gotta win games,” Fisch said.

That part of the equation is a more involved process with plenty of heavy lifting.

Two years ago, Fisch took over a reeling program and won 1 game — as a double-digit underdog to California. He hit the transfer portal hard to fill numerous holes on the roster, but made his biggest pitch to de Laura.

De Laura led the Pac-12 in passing in 2021 at Washington State and had offers from more prominent Power 5 schools. He could have transferred to a program where the build-out wasn’t so significant, but he wanted to play for Fisch.

After 5 wins in 2022, Year 2 under Fisch could translate to de Laura’s breakout season.

Michael Penix Jr. had a breakout season at Washington in 2022 in his second year playing with coach Kalen DeBoer, who was Penix’s OC at Indiana in 2019.

Caleb Williams was playing his 2nd season with coach Lincoln Riley (Year 1 at Oklahoma), and he won the Heisman Trophy at USC.

Cam Rising was in his 2nd full season as a starter at Utah under OC Andy Ludwig, and led the Utes to another Pac-12 championship.

“This was our first,” Fisch said. “We had 1 spring and fall coming off a pretty bad year the year before, and the year before, and the year before that. So we had to build a lot of things together.  Now I feel like we’re in a place that we can now take this program and take this team, and build it to be even better. Let Jayden really, really blossom.”

But there are still obstacles. Days after Arizona beat rival Arizona State for the first time since 2016, star wideout Dorian Singer entered the transfer portal and eventually signed with USC.

The Wildcats lost their top 2 tacklers (S Jaxen Turner, LB Jerry Roberts) to the portal, and rising star cornerback Christian Roland-Wallace transferred to USC.

Arizona also lost DE Paris Shand to LSU and DT Kyon Bars to USC. The defense was 126th in the nation in scoring in 2022, so the easy answer to the exodus (there are 2 starters back from 2022) is the unit has to get better with better players.

When the team got back together earlier this month for the first time in nearly 4 months, there were 22 new faces roaming around the practice fields. It was almost last year all over again for de Laura, who knew no one in 2022, and had to learn names and faces and a new playbook.

Now he’s faster and stronger, and his mechanics have changed. He’s throwing more through his lower body, and not putting so much stress on his arm.

His body has developed, and his game is better for it. He has to cut down on turnovers (13 INTs, 4 fumbles), and the accuracy (63%) needs to reach closer to 70%.

“But his confidence if off the charts,” Fisch said.

Last year at this time, de Laura couldn’t remember plays, and had to have Fisch repeat them multiple times before he could call them in the huddle.

This spring, the only hesitation is with all the new faces.

“When we got together for first team period, I had to stop Coach Fisch,” de Laura said. “I said, I need a minute to figure out who’s who on the team first.”

If all goes as planned, everyone will know who Jayden de Laura is after this season.