Arizona Football: Khalil Tate gets positive national media attention after big win

Arizona Football takes their bye week coming off a two-game win streak with their starting quarterback Khalil Tate at the helm. National media is paying attention.

After a historic sophomore season in Tucson, Arizona Football starting quarterback Khalil Tate struggled in the first half of this season and for good reason. Fans and local media searched for answers to losses and missed watching their quarterback run the ball. Even though everyone seemed to agree that under Sumlin he should be more of a passing quarterback to be taken seriously, fans and local media still couldn’t resist making more of the situation than was warranted.

It’s Kevin Sumlin’s first season. Khalil Tate was injured early in the season by what seemed to be his Heisman Trophy contender, Houston’s Ed Oliver. Both the quarterback and the coaches decided Tate should play on his hurt high ankle sprain which may not have been the best idea.

According to Leading Edge Physiotherapy, this type of injury is something to worry about, “The recovery time frame varies from 8 weeks to 6 months and this is why the high ankle sprain is so dreaded.” Yet we have seen Tate bounce back well in just two weeks after resting through the UCLA game. His 25-yard run in the Colorado game last Friday was delightful for everyone. But realizing the severity of the injury, you can only imagine why Tate doesn’t run more. It’s because EVERY OPPONENTS DEFENSE IS GUNNING FOR HIS ANKLE.

All that said, and although he and his team started out slow in the first quarter against Colorado, the Cats scored a whopping 26 points in the second quarter. Arizona trailed 10-0 in the first quarter, then came back and scored 26 points while shutting down Colorado completely.

Arizona Wildcats Football

Wildcats fans and it seemed local media, still didn’t seem happy at halftime except for Jason Scheer who pointed out Tate had passed for three touchdowns in the first half.

And what do you know? The receivers were catching most of Tate’s passes. All eight which included a running back and tight end were able to bring the ball down. Four receivers caught a touchdown passes not three times as they did against Oregon, but five times. On top of all that, Tate connected 12 consecutive times with receivers during the game. Here is the breakdown by receiver:

1. BROWN, Shun –  5 for 57 yards, 1 TD
2. COOPER, DeVaughn – 3 for 63 yards
3. PETERSON, Cedric – 2 for 72 yards, 1 TD
4. ELLISON, Tony – 2 for 49 yards
5. POINDEXTER, Shawn 2 for 40 yards, 2 TDs (his 7th and 8th TD of the season)
6. BERRYHILL, Stan 1 for 40 yards, 1 TD
7. WOLMA, Bryce – 1 for 17 yards
8. TAYLOR, JJ  – 1 for 12 yards

The Fox Sports 1 analysts were praising Tate all through the last three quarters. They pointed out that Tate can make a pass with or without his feet set. That Tate can pass across his body. That Tate can pass deep and that he can make rifle passes. But Tate would be the first person to tell you football is a team sport and he cannot do it alone. Offensive lineman Michael Eletise, in his first start of the season, garnered praise from the announcers as well. Without great pass protection and windows to run through, Arizona would have lost the last two games.

Tate’s receiver DeVaughn Cooper and others made some spectacular catches. Coop made a one-handed catch just yards from the goal line and Tate placed that ball right in his hand.

Other National Media also recognized that Tate’s performance against Colorado was something to celebrate. NBC Sports John Taylor had this to say, “One year after his legs decimated Colorado, it was Khalil Tate‘s right arm that did the Buffaloes in this time around — Tate did all of his damage through the air last night on just 22 pass attempts (17 completions).”

NBC updated Tate’s profile:

"One of the best passing games we’ve seen from Tate (6’2/215), who looked as healthy as we’ve seen him in a while, as well. Probably a direct correlation there, we think. Tate spread the ball around, and outside of one interception that ended up acting like a punt, he avoided mistakes and made plenty of big plays with his arm."

AP writer Sean Meagher reported, “The Arizona quarterback took down the Buffaloes with his arm in the rematch — Tate orchestrated the rally — Once Tate got the Wildcats going, Colorado had a hard time stopping him.”

Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports noted Tate’s performance, “Arizona beat Colorado 42-34 on Friday night, with Tate looking like what everyone expected in the preseason – 17-for-22 with 350 passing yards and five touchdowns. Sumlin said Tate’s uptick in productivity can be traced to better health, as he’s had issues with both his ankles that have limited his mobility.”

But wait, there’s more:

Here is a replay of Tate and his Wildcats receiving core’s five touchdowns (Gotta love Lamont Lovett and Brian Jeffries joy):

As always, we feel football is a team sport and Tate couldn’t have performed well without his team behind him performing as well. Congrats to the Arizona Football team. Wouldn’t it be fun if the Cats beat Washington State and rivals ASU? It’s possible.