Arizona Football: 5 reasons Wildcats will beat Hawaii in Week 0

1. Khalil Tate is back (and healthy)

Khalil Tate’s health and ability to adapt to Kevin Sumlin’s version of the spread will determine how well the Wildcats fare this season. However, as far as this game goes, Tate will have an opportunity to come out of the gates strong.

In 2017, Tate threw for 1,591 yards and ran for 1,411 more yards and had 26 total touchdowns. And last season, his passing yards and touchdowns increased, but had a meager 224 rushing yards.

Rich Rodriguez’s spread is more power run based, while Sumlin employs a bit more of an air-raid philosophy, but the latter knows how to use a quarterback that can run. In his Heisman Trophy season, Johnny Manziel had over 1,400 yards rushing and 21 touchdowns. He also completed 7- percent of his passes.

Tate’s had a year in Sumlin’s system, and he’s going to put up big numbers.

Last season, Tate sprained his ankle in Week 2, and wasn’t the same for the rest of the season — it showed in how few times he ran the ball. In addition to a sprained ankle, he had shoulder and toe issues.

Now that he’s healthy expect to see a more polished passer than the one that completed only 56 percent of his passes last season. He’ll run some zone read stuff to loosen up Hawaii’s defense, and then he’ll throw to his young, but talented receivers.