No. 1 Ranked rushing team Arizona Football snubbed by Pac-12 Head Coaches

Every year the Pac-12 head football coaches vote for the first and second team players along with honorable mentions. Arizona’s No. 1 rushing offense got some honorable mentions.

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The Arizona Football team has surprised most and ended up with a respectable winning season at 7-5 overall. So your team goes from 3-9 to 7-5 in one season. Your offensive weapons quarterback Khalil Tate and his Offensive protector Jacob Alsadek both promised fans things would be different this season and came through with flying colors.

Sure, the team could have easily ended the season 8-4 or 9-3 if Tate had started the season possibly, or if a few things went Arizona’s way against a few opponents like ASU or USC.

So basically the PAC-12 Conference head football coaches vote on the players all season long by awarding them weekly. The Pac-12 Network voted Arizona’s Tate Pac-12 offensive player of the week four consecutive weeks in a row. He broke the FBS record for yards rushed by a quarterback in one game.

But the Pac-12 All First and Second teams are voted on by the Head Coaches. According to Dave Hirsch explained the voting process to us this way:

"The coaches submit nominations from their team that they feel are worthy of consideration for all-conference honors. The Conference compiles a master list of nominations that is sent back to the coaches with a ballot. They rank the players and voting is done by weighted ranking."

The coaches cannot vote for their own players. Dying to know who Rodriguez voted for, thinking Sam Darnold, again would love to know this little tidbit.

Then the coaches come along at the end of the season and vote on the players – and it’s their vote that actually determines the Conference awardees. Wow. That’s  crazy. Were the coaches mad that Rich Rod’s team was actually good and they are sour for losing?

That said, here are the winners who were voted to the First and Second Pac-12 Teams. Notice we highlighted the state of Arizona, but those three players play for rival ASU.

But wait? Arizona is No. 1 in rushing in the Pac-12, not only in yards with 3,893 but also in average per game at 324.4 yards, average yards per carry at 6.8 and total rushing touchdowns at 48. The closest team to come to Arizona was Oregon who racked up a little over 600 yards less in total and scored eight fewer touchdowns.

Even as far as total yards, Arizona clocked in at 5,934 (second in the Pac-12) and 495 per game (first in the Pac-12).

There were some six honorable mentions, which feel like consolation prizes, but it shows there were at least some head coaches voting for some Wildcats:

1. Khalil Tate (QB)
2. Jacob Alsadek (OL)
3. Shun Brown (WR)
4. Nate Eldridge (C)
5. Colin Schooler (ILB)
6. Nick Wilson (RB)

Arizona’s quarterback and thus the offense broke records. The AP was closer to what Wildcats fans and players thought and included a few Wildcats.

Here is my rant on the subject with Mark Rodgers TV:

“A little bit,” said head coach Rich Rodriguez when asked about if he was disappointed in the Pac-12 All Team awards. He felt it would have been nice. He thought he would have a guy or two get recognition, at least someone on the offensive team. Then quipped, “I don’t know, is the media involved in this or just the coaches?” Even a coach voting questioned how this could happen.

Enjoy this over and over:

https://twitter.com/ArizonaFBall/status/938814367331581952

The Pac-12 Network football analyst Yogi Roth could not find one Tate touchdown to include in the Top 5 wildest plays of the season, and we really like Yogi. What gives Roth??? Maybe not wild enough?

Quarterbacks cannot do it on their own, football is a team sport, so Arizona’s O-Line deserves a lot of credit as do the receivers who caught most of Tate’s passes and the running backs who ran in a lot of the 48 touchdowns.

Tate was recently named the No. 8 Heisman Trophy Candidate for 2018 by the NFL. He was a Top 5 candidate for the Heisman even after the USC loss and his name was on the tongues of almost every college football analyst in the media.

Tate chimed in, which he normally doesn’t do much on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/KhalilDTN/status/938631623121158144

Parker Jackson-Cartwright chimed in as well:

Freshman Josh Brown:

Tate’s senior O-Lineman Jacob Alsadek, who is one of the main reasons for Arizona’s No. 1 offensive rushing ranking, told the media what a lot of folks were thinking:

Good news though, the Arizona freshman got noticed by these same Pac-12 head coaches! Coach Rod felt that was very special, that Arizona freshmen won both awards. Michael Lev reminded coach that the last time Arizona had a freshman win one of these babies it was in 2005.

Must Read: More on Arizona Football from ZZ....

Foster Farms Bowl and next season are going to be a blast! We just hope the Pac-12 Head Football Coaches wake up and smell the Tucson coffee!