HONOLULU — In spite of themselves, the Arizona Wildcats had a chance to escape “Week Zero” with a victory.

Instead, they headed back to the mainland with a zero in the win column.

Arizona came out flat, rallied multiple times, was on the brink of taking the lead in the fourth quarter … then made the costliest mistake of the night in a game that had no shortage of unforced errors.

Khalil Tate’s interception in the red zone dashed the Wildcats’ comeback hopes and overshadowed an otherwise promising evening for the senior quarterback. The pick led to a touchdown, and Hawaii upset Arizona 45-38 in the season opener Saturday at Aloha Stadium.

It was an extremely disappointing start to Year 2 for the Wildcats under Kevin Sumlin, who fell to 0-2 in season openers as UA coach. Arizona was an 11-point favorite in a nationally televised game.

"We were very inconsistent tonight," Sumlin said afterward. "That’s what we’ve been talking about for the last two weeks. In all three phases, we did some really, really good things at times … and we did some awful things.

"When you get out on the road, you can’t get down 14 points. For us to be a better team, our level of consistent play across the board has to be better."

The UA defense forced six turnovers — its most since September 10, 2016, against Grambling State — but couldn’t pressure the quarterback or stop the Rainbow Warriors when it needed to. The UA offense totaled 539 yards but had too many three-and-outs. Then came the killer interception.

Arizona had been chipping away at deficits all game and trailed by three. The Wildcats faced second-and-5 at the UH 13-yard line. Tate faked a handoff and threw the ball over the middle. Safety Ikem Okeke read Tate’s eyes, stepped in front of the pass and returned it 49 yards to the UA 48.

Cedric Byrd II’s fourth touchdown reception of the game made it 45-35 with 5:02 remaining.

On the next play from scrimmage, Tate hit Stanley Berryhill III for 57 yards, giving Arizona a glimmer of hope. The drive bogged down, and Lucas Havrisik’s 53-yard field goal again made it a one-score game.

Of course, the field goal came after three consecutive UA penalties. Like everything else Saturday night, the Wildcats made it harder than it should have been.

Hawaii running back Fred Holly III (21) stiff -arms Arizona linebacker Colin Schooler (7) during the first quarter of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Aug. 24, 2019, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

To its credit, the UA defense got the ball back for the offense with 51 seconds left. With no timeouts, Tate drove the team into UH territory. With 10 seconds left, he took off downfield from the 31-yard line. His run came up 1 yard short.

"I felt like it was the right decision to take off and run," Tate said. "I just came up a little short.

"I thought I was going to score, as a lot of people probably did."

The first half felt familiar – and not in a good way.

Following a script from 2018 road losses they’d rather forget, the Wildcats trailed 14-0 at the end of the first quarter. Starts lacking crispness and energy plagued Arizona in three blowout defeats last season – against Houston, Utah and Washington State. The Wildcats trailed those teams by a combined 56-7 at the conclusion of the first period.

This time, at least, Arizona didn’t fold.

Despite being down 14 on two occasions, the Wildcats rallied to tie the game late in the second quarter. Tate’s 31-yard scramble set up a 27-yard touchdown pass to Jamarye Joiner, who was wide open near the left pylon, the beneficiary of a busted coverage.

Tate finished with 361 passing yards and 108 rushing yards – the latter more than double any output from last season.

The tying touchdown wouldn’t have been possible without Tony Fields II’s interception of Cole McDonald at the UA 10-yard line – the Wildcats’ third pick of McDonald in the first half. The prolific quarterback never had thrown more than two interceptions in a game.

McDonald threw four picks in all, one for each touchdown. Backup Chevan Cordeiro finished the game.

The tie didn’t last long. Hawaii needed only four plays to go 75 yards. McDonald connected with Byrd for a third touchdown, this one from 35 yards. The play looked like a carbon copy of Byrd’s 25-yard score earlier in the quarter, with the senior receiving streaking open through the middle of Arizona’s defense.

Arizona safety Scottie Young Jr. (6) can't stop Hawaii wide receiver Cedric Byrd II (6) from making a first-quarter touchdown during an NCAA college football game Saturday, Aug. 24, 2019, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

Byrd finished the first half – yes, the first half – with 10 catches for 128 yards and three scores. McDonald’s first-half numbers were just as eye-popping – 25 of 32 for 287 yards.

Byrd ended up with 14 receptions for 224 yards and four touchdowns. All were career highs.

"He’s fast. Really fast," Sumlin said. "He got deep on us more than a couple times. He’s got great quickness. He’s hard to tackle. He’s a good player. They exploited us when we got into some man to man. He just ran right by us."

The third quarter began about as well as the first for Arizona. The Wildcats started with the ball, gained one first down and punted.

Hawaii then marched 78 yards in four plays to make it 35-21. It was the Rainbow Warriors’ second straight touchdown drive that covered more than 70 yards, took only four plays and required less than two minutes.

The UA defense struggled in almost every facet – but was able to force takeaways, which kept the Wildcats in the game. Sophomore safety Christian Young was responsible for two forced fumbles in the third quarter. Young recovered one himself. Linebacker Colin Schooler scooped up the other.

The latter helped Arizona halve its third 14-point deficit of the game. J.J. Taylor capped an eight-play, 68-yard drive with a 24-yard touchdown run to make it 35-28 with 4:23 remaining in the period.

Cornerback Jace Whittaker’s second interception – in his first game back after missing almost all of 2018 – thwarted another Hawaii drive and gave Arizona another chance to tie the score.

The Wildcats cashed in when Tate connected with Berryhill for a 21-yard touchdown with 51 seconds left in the third quarter. Havrisik’s extra point made it 35-35.

Arizona was late to arrive at the stadium and for a good long while looked like a team that didn’t have an adequate warmup session.

The Wildcats’ team buses rolled up about 3 p.m. local time – roughly 45 minutes later than planned. They were supposed to have a police escort, which is standard operating procedure for visiting teams in college football. However, the escort was canceled at the last minute, UA officials said. It’s unclear who made that decision.

Extra points

• UA cornerback Lorenzo Burns left the game because of injury in the third quarter and did not return. Freshman Bobby Wolfe saw his first collegiate action on defense with Burns out.

• Tate’s TD pass to Berryhill was the 46th of the senior quarterback’s career, tying him with Tom Tunnicliffe for fourth in UA history.

• Edgar Burrola got the start start at right tackle, the first of his career. The redshirt sophomore had been listed as a co-starter with Paiton Fears.

• Four Arizona quarterbacks dressed for the game: Tate, Rhett Rodriguez, Grant Gunnell and Luke Ashworth. Kevin Doyle was not among them. Doyle missed significant time in training camp because of a shoulder injury and fell behind in the QB competition as a result.

• Hawaii announced before the game that linebacker Penei Pavihi would miss the season because of a knee injury. Pavihi started all 13 games last season and had 87 tackles, second-most on the team.

 

Check out the Wildcats' postgame comments here: 

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Contact sports reporter Michael Lev at 573-4148 or mlev@tucson.com. On Twitter @michaeljlev