SALT LAKE CITY —
Dear Mr. Football: Is somebody going to do a movie about UA freshman quarterback Khalil Tate?
A: Hiram College wide receiver Akili Tate, Khali’s older brother, is an aspiring filmmaker when not catching 31 career passes for the Division III Terriers. In May, Akili produced a 47-minute documentary of Khalil’s football career.
It’s not filler and fluff. It’s true that Khalil Tate won’t turn 18 until Oct. 23, but his brother’s film goes back to a 2009 junior league game in Inglewood, California.
The first highlight shows 10-year-old Khalil Tate dropping back to pass, slipping on the dirt portion of a threadbare playing field, and recovering to throw a pass that covered 35 yards in the air. It was caught for a touchdown. What 10-year-old, off-balance and under a rush, can throw a 35-yard strike?
A star was born.
Dear Mr. Football: How much do Utah’s defensive coaches know about Tate’s tendencies?
A: A lot more than UCLA’s coaches did. After Tate rushed 15 times for 79 yards and threw two touchdown passes last week, UCLA defensive coordinator Tom Bradley told reporters: “I didn’t know too much about No. 14 before today. That’s somebody else’s headache now.”
Utah has watched video of Tate for two years; it was the first school to offer him a scholarship at Gardena Junipero Serra High near Los Angeles. A lot of schools suspected Tate would be a college linebacker or safety, maybe even a receiver, fearing that his passing mechanics/accuracy were not of Pac-12 standards. But after his final high school game, a 28-27 playoff loss to Mater Dei last November, it would’ve been a high crime not to keep the ball in his hands as much as possible.
Tate rushed 28 times for 356 yards against Mater Dei. He had touchdown runs of 95 and 70 yards. (They are both shown on brother Akili’s film). His final high school numbers: Tate passed for 3,431 yards and ran for 3,417. Who does that? Tim Tebow, maybe?
Dear Mr. Football: Has Arizona ever had a QB with similar dimensions and skills?
A: A generation ago, SoCal’s Alfred Jenkins, a 6-foot 4-inch, 215-pound senior at Lynwood High near Los Angeles, signed with Arizona when both USC and UCLA suggested he be a linebacker or tight end.
Jenkins had been a basketball and baseball standout at Lynwood and enrolled at Arizona specifically to play QB for Larry Smith. How’d it go? Jenkins started from 1984-86 when Arizona went 24-10-1,its best three-year period in the Pac-10/12 years. He left school with 6,016 passing yards, which remains No. 5 in school history.
Alas, because Jenkins’ completion percentage (51.8) was so unspectacular that he was drafted as a tight end, not a quarterback, by the Washington Redskins and did not play in an NFL game.
Tate’s completion percentage at Junipero Serra was 54.8. Tate has to get a smidge better; in Rich Rodriguez’s years at Arizona, the Wildcats have completed 60.8 percent of all passes.
Dear Mr. Football: Is Salt Lake City a better football town than Tucson?
A: The Utes have sold out 41 consecutive games at Rice-Eccles Stadium, which seats 45,807.
But if Arizona Stadium had the same capacity, the Wildcats would’ve sold out 76 of their last 81 games dating to John Mackovic’s final season, 2003.
At one stretch under Mike Stoops, Arizona exceeded 50,000 in 15 consecutive home games from 2008-10.
By the time Greg Byrne, or someone, re-makes Arizona Stadium and reduces capacity to about 48,000, the Wildcats are apt to begin a sellout streak to rival the Utes, which draws from a population base about twice as big as Tucson.
Dear Mr. Football: Was RichRod exaggerating when he said Arizona’s kickoff return unit “is the worst in the country”?
A: He knows his numbers. Arizona’s kickoff return average, 15.2 yards, is the worst since the school joined the Pac-10 in 1978. No other team averaged below 17.2.
This team doesn’t appear to be blessed by an Art Luppino, who led the nation with a 31.6 kickoff return average in 1954. Here’s my list of the UA’s Big Four kickoff returners in history:
1. Luppino. He wasn’t named the Cactus Comet for nothing.
2. Chris McAlister. The only player in school history with two 100-yard kickoff returns (1996, 1998).
3. Michael Bates. Catch him if you can; most couldn’t keep up with the 1992 Barcelona Olympics 200 meters bronze medalist.
4. Vance Johnson. The former Denver Broncos “Three Amigos’” receiver opened the 1982 season with a 93-yard kickoff return touchdown against Oregon State. He was the fastest runner in the Pac-10.
Dear Mr. Football: Who is more likely to play for a tie, RichRod or Utah coach Kyle Whittingham?
A: RichRod famously (or infamously) played for a tie against Washington two weeks ago. It fizzled and Arizona lost in overtime. RichRod is 6-2 in his FBS head coaching career in similar situations. He has never gone for a 2-point conversion to win a game at the end of regulation, or in the first or second overtime period.
His most painful loss was at Michigan State in 2009. RichRod’s Michigan team scored with two seconds to play but kicked an extra point to tie the game at 20. MSU won 26-20. The Wolverines finished 1-7 in the Big Ten that year.
In a 28-23 loss at Cal last week, Whittingham gambled six times on fourth-down plays.
“We wouldn’t be in the position we were in, if we had not gone for it on fourth down,” he said after the game. “When you have a mindset to be aggressive, you may have some setbacks. It may not work out every single time. I have no regrets whatsoever.”
Dear Mr. Football: Does Arizona lead the Pac-12 in injuries? Or does Utah?
A: Starting linebacker Jake Matthews will be playing in his 36th game at Arizona. He has made 88 tackles in that period but he has an especially bad memory of last year’s Utah game, even though the Wildcats won in 2 OTs.
He suffered a Lisfranc injury to his foot, which essentially means a few of the bones are displaced from the tarsus. Not good. Scooby Wright had a similar injury last year.
But because he’s a senior and a team leader, Matthews has played through the pain even though his foot probably isn’t fully healthy. Unfortunately, a UCLA player stepped on his other foot last week and broke Matthews’ little toe.
He plays on.
The Utes will need to do more than step on a few toes tonight. They have allowed Arizona to gain an average of 491 yards and score 36.7 points in RichRod’s four seasons, losing all four games to the Wildcats.
Unless UA can match those numbers tonight, it’s likely to limp all the way home.
Utah 33, Arizona 24
