LOS ANGELES — Last season’s struggles might have been the best thing that could have happened to Khalil Tate.
Coming off a breakout campaign, the Arizona Wildcats quarterback got hurt. He grappled with his identity as a QB. He didn’t fully understand what it meant to be a leader.
Several months later, on the eve of his senior season, Tate has a new perspective.
“You don’t know who you are until you fail,” he said Wednesday during Pac-12 Media Day.
Tate didn’t technically fail in 2018. He passed for 2,530 yards and 26 touchdowns — both top-10 marks in UA history.
But there’s no question he failed to live up to expectations after entering the season with legitimate Heisman Trophy hype. And Arizona finished 5-7, despite leading the Pac-12 in total offense.
“When you don’t win,” Tate said, “it doesn’t mean anything.”
One of those losses came with Tate watching from the sideline. After fighting through a pesky ankle injury that had hampered him for weeks, Tate sat out against UCLA — the team he grew up rooting for. Arizona ended up losing 31-30.
Tate and UA coach Kevin Sumlin have talked a lot this offseason about handling the ups and downs of big-time athletics. Tate already has experienced both extremes.
“It couldn’t have been a higher peak than coming in here last year, we were talking about winning the Heisman and everything else,” Sumlin said. “And then it couldn’t be lower than being in your hometown and in street clothes, not being able to help your teammates and watching us lose by one point. If he’s healthy, who knows what that looks like?
“All those things go into maturity and growth, how you handle that. And I think that those experiences really kind of drove him in the offseason.”
Sumlin said Tate communicated with coaches and players better this spring than last. Teammates have talked in the past about Tate’s progress as a leader, but none said anything as convincing as what J.J. Taylor said Wednesday.
The redshirt-junior tailback considers his words carefully. Asked where Tate has grown the most, Taylor said it wasn’t so much where but when.
“This spring,” Taylor said. “He made the biggest growth a person could possibly make. He’s taken over in being a captain — as in, ‘I’m going to tell you what I think is best. I’m going to make practices. I’m going to get the team out here on this day to do work.’ Actually pushing us to be better.”
Tate said he didn’t fully understand what it meant to be a team leader until late last season. He played some of his best ball after sitting out against the Bruins, putting Arizona on the brink of a bowl berth before a fourth-quarter collapse in the season finale against Arizona State.
Tate described that process as “really understanding the label instead of just saying, ‘I’m a senior, I’m a leader.’ It really doesn’t work like that. First of all, you’ve got to be respected. Second of all, you have to put in the work for people to understand that you (are) serious. There’s a lot of different aspects that went into being a leader that I didn’t realize that I realize now.”
Tate views last season as a steppingstone, and his sights are now set on winning a championship. He sees that as the only fitting end to a career that features flashy moments but lacks the substance of wins in the Territorial Cup or the postseason.
“It’s kinda like, to complete the puzzle, it’s only right that I go out successful,” Tate said.
How does he define success?
“Winning every game,” Tate said.
Khalil and Noel
Tate put his evolving relationship with Noel Mazzone in that same category: It was a valuable learning experience for the young quarterback.
Rumors persisted throughout last season that Tate wasn’t on the same wavelength as Mazzone, Arizona’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Mazzone said in spring that the two went through “growing pains.”
“Nothing was ever a problem to begin with,” Tate said. “It was all just a part of the process. If something is going too smooth, it doesn’t really feel right. That fork in the road really helped us out.
“If it’s too easy, it’s like, what is really the point? You’re not learning anything.”
Sumlin denied ever having to act as a peacemaker between Tate and Mazzone, saying speculation of a rift between them was “made up. … I don’t know where that comes from.”
Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate answers questions during the Pac-12 Media Day in Los Angeles. Tate says he’s grown since his up-and-down junior season. “You don’t know who you are until you fail,” he said Wednesday.
Regarding criticism from fans who blamed Mazzone for Tate’s decline in rushing production, Sumlin said everyone deserved blame after a 5-7 season. The head coach, quarterback and coordinators received the most.
“That comes with the territory,” Sumlin said. “Everywhere I’ve been … there’s 52,000 offensive coordinators in the stands every week.”
Defensive tackle enrolled
Defensive tackle Trevon Mason was officially cleared Wednesday, Sumlin said. The junior college transfer is expected to report for training camp Thursday. Arizona’s first practice is scheduled for Friday evening.
Sumlin said he isn’t sure when Mason will be able to fully participate in practice after missing offseason team workouts. “But he’s been cleared academically, and he’s ready to go,” Sumlin said.
The picture is less clear for freshman defensive tackle Kane Bradford, the lone member of the 2019 class who has yet to enroll.
“We’re still waiting for him,” Sumlin said. “His status hasn’t changed.”
Sumlin is optimistic that another first-year defensive tackle, Kyon Barrs, can contribute as a freshman. Barrs joined Arizona’s ’19 class in May.
“He’s big enough. He’s athletic enough,” Sumlin said. “All the reports from the weight room are that he works his tail off and he’s strong. That’s a pretty good review. He’s gonna have every opportunity to play.”
Joiner’s move
Redshirt freshman Jamarye Joiner has been working out at wide receiver for about a month. The Cienega High School product came to Arizona as a quarterback and spent last season at the position, appearing in two games.
“He’s one of the best athletes on our team,” Sumlin said. “We met and talked about it, to give him an opportunity to get on the field. He’s excited about it.
“We’ll see where his growth is. But he’s explosive, he’s dynamic, he’s big and he’s fast. He can help us.”
Sumlin said he wasn’t sure if Joiner would work primarily as an inside or outside receiver. He already has a grasp of the offense after learning the system as a QB.
“The big deal for him is technique and all those kinds of things,” Sumlin said. “Can he be a stop-and-start guy? We’ll evaluate that fairly quickly.”
‘No problem’
Sumlin can’t talk about specific recruits who haven’t signed yet, so he couldn’t comment on four-star defensive end Jason Harris, who has deep family ties to Arizona and listed the Wildcats among his final six.
But Sumlin was asked how he’d handle a potential two-sport player if one came aboard. Harris, who attends Gilbert Higley High School, is also a big-time basketball prospect. Sumlin said it would be “no problem” to accommodate such a player.
“At Houston, we had several multisport players, dual-sport players,” Sumlin said. “Two or three of our receivers went to nationals in the (4x100) in track. We’ve done this before.
“My philosophy at Houston was, if you can help our university win in that other sport, that’s great. If you’re going to go over there and not play, then you need to continue to work on your craft in football and continue to get better.”
Extra points
- Taylor made the first-ever preseason Pac-12 All-Conference Football Team at two positions. Taylor earned a first-team nod as an all-purpose specialist and made the second team as a running back. UA junior Colin Schooler made the first team at linebacker.
- Sumlin said junior tight end Bryce Wolma will be limited for the first couple of weeks of training camp while he recovers from a broken elbow suffered in spring practice. “We want to keep an eye on that elbow, get him some strength, ease him back into it,” Sumlin said. “We know what he can do. We’re gonna need him. But we’re going to kind of bring him back slowly.”
- Sumlin said freshman cornerback Christian Roland-Wallace will be in the mix at punt returner. “He bet me that he would be one of the top punt returners on our team,” Sumlin said. “And he did a pretty good job in the spring. So we’ll see where he is. He’s a pretty confident guy. He’s definitely gonna help us this year.”
- Sumlin said the football team had the highest spring-semester GPA in the history of the school. “What that’s telling me is that these guys are listening, and they’re operating at a different level on and off the field,” Sumlin said. “And that’s where that level of consistency that we did not have last year begins.”
