Arizona’s Khalil Tate to B/R: Tweet during coaching search was strategic

Khalil Tate isn’t hiding his intentions about a January tweet that may or may not have turned the Arizona Wildcats’ coaching search a different direction.

The junior quarterback told Bleacher Report’s Matt Hayes on Tuesday that he knew full well the impact it would make when he tweeted, “I didn’t come to Arizona to run the triple-option” on Jan. 12, two weeks after the school fired head coach Rich Rodriguez.

The post came the same day a report surfaced that Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo was named as a leading candidate to become head coach.

Tate deleted the tweet soon after, and it only took two more days for Arizona to hire former Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin as Rodriguez’s replacement.

“I knew exactly what I was doing when I tweeted that out,” Tate told Bleacher Report. “I don’t do Twitter. When I tweet something, I download the app, tweet, then delete the app from my phone. So when I tweet, it’s important.”

The tweet, a reference to Niumatalolo’s triple-option, run-heavy offense, did grab the attention of two men making the final call on the head coaching hire. Arizona president Robert Robbins told Bleacher Report he wants the schools’ “student-athletes to have a voice. I want them to be disruptive problem solvers.”

Athletic director Dave Heeke told Tucson.com he too listened to Tate.

“Throughout the entire process, whether it was Khalil or other leaders in our football program, we were in conversations with them – about where we were going, keeping them informed, trying to understand what the best things are for the program,” Heeke said.

“At the end of the day, it’s my responsibility, my duty and role as the athletic director to select the head coaches in a program.”

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