Arizona Football: How far can Khalil Tate carry Wildcats?

Offense

New offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone has some high-quality players to work with in his first season at Arizona. The journeyman coordinator gets a chance at his fourth Pac-12 school after stints at Oregon State, Arizona State, and UCLA over the past decade.

While Nick Wilson is gone from Tucson, the backfield should be just fine in 2018. J.J. Taylor actually finished ahead of Wilson in 2017 in terms of both carries and rushing yards. That, coupled with the significance of the running quarterback in Arizona’s offense, should keep the ground game running just fine this season.

Arizona has plenty of receiving talent back, with last year’s top three pass catchers returning in 2018. The offensive line was a top-25 unit nationally at preventing negative plays on both passing and rushing plays. And the group returns a ton of experience, including multi-year starters at left tackle and center.

Focusing on Khalil Tate

All eyes, though, are on the phenom quarterback that burst onto the national scene and became a Heisman dark-horse with one massive performance after another. Khalil Tate first made a name for himself when he took over for the injured Brandon Dawkins in the Colorado game on October 7.

Against the Buffaloes, Tate broke out for 327 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground. He added another 154 passing yards as he completed all but one of his 13 attempts and threw for an additional score. After that point, the starting position became Tate’s to lose. And Tate never let go, adding one big performance after another.

Rodriguez never seemed to entirely trust Tate’s arm, though. The only time Tate was ever really allowed to air it out was when the Wildcats were falling behind on the scoreboard. The only three times Tate was allowed to throw for 20 or more attempts were all Arizona losses.

Sumlin will need to restore more run/pass balance in the offense to help foster Tate’s development. If he can showcase the Tate that dominated the Buffaloes in his debut, Sumlin could be on his way to coaching a second Heisman winner.