Arizona Football: PAC-12 Analyst Yogi Roth brings humanity to everything he does

What are Yogi Roth’s thoughts on Khalil Tate’s legacy and NFL prospects?

It seems some media and broadcasters in Tucson temper any hype or optimism about Tate’s skills, accomplishments, and potential future NFL Prospects. But that’s not the case with ESPN and Pac-12 Football announcers like Roth,, who believe that Tate staying at Arizona was the best decision he could have made. He feels athletes should capitalize and leverage the equity at their college institution and experience. That’s what Tate decided to do.

If you listen to Yogi call an Arizona game, he is high on Arizona QB Khalil Tate. “Khalil Tate will go down as the best quarterback who ever played at the University of Arizona,” said Roth emphatically. Like Zona Zealots, Roth has covered Tate since high school. He feels that people will feel more this way in the future. For example, you hardly ever heard fans talk about Nick Foles until he won a Super Bowl and became MVP.

I asked Yogi if he felt Tate had the skills and athleticism to play in the NFL. A topic that a lot of fans and media have a big opinion about, it was refreshing to find out that he sees a future for Tate in the NFL as I do. Here are some things you should consider when forming your opinion:

"“Yeah. I think the NFL is changing. You look at Jared Goff, Pat Mahomes, Case Keenum, Baker Mayfield, Luke Falk, Kyler Murray, they all started in the NFL, they are all younger than 24 other than Case. All are air-raid, spread quarterbacks. I’m not even talking about Lamar Jackson or other dynamic athletes that play the position in a different kind of offense. My point is that the league is shifting, it’s shifting younger, shifting more athletic and that’s the reality with what’s coming out of college. The true under-center pro guys are only in a couple of institutions anymore, the pool is tiny to pick from. I think Khalil is more accurate than he’s given credit for. I mean there’s still growth for sure, to be a traditional pocket passer, to take those drops. With the way the league’s going, I’d like to see him go to a team where he can sit for a few years and learn from a veteran. I think a team will find a role for him whether he’s a starting QB or not I think it is TBD, we will have to look at the landscape of the NFL and teams projected to lose guys. He’ll have his opportunity."

Pro Football Focus College (per ArizonaSports.com) also sees the work Khalil is putting in and they ranked him No. 8 out of 130 starting quarterbacks in the NCAA, and No. 1 in the Pac-12.

"The site called Tate “perhaps the nation’s most electric dual-threat quarterback when healthy.” That all goes without saying that he’s improved his passing grades to career-high, near-elite levels this year. He’s completing 67.5% of his attempts and averaging 9.1 yards per pass through the air. … as he continues to play at a healthy level, there may be no stopping him as he’s approaching overall grade levels he saw during his Heisman candidacy season of 2017."

I asked Yogi if he has advise for the armchair quarterbacks or fans while analyzing and forming opinions about the players and the game. He loves the passion of the fans but they need to understand a few things.

“Nobody is trying to throw an interception, nobody is trying to miss a cover call, nobody is trying to blow a coverage,” explained Roth, “Everybody’s trying to do their best. It’s important to know why it happened.” And he tries to help fans understand the play and what happened during the game.

For instance, I was asking myself why the Arizona coaching staff kept calling a lateral pass play over and over against the Buffs, something that wasn’t clear to me. Yogi explained it easily, “Because it was working.” He wants you to remember that everyone from the coaching staff to the players to the announcers are trying to do their best all the time.