Sumlin: Arizona must do more to help QB Tate as a runner vs. Houston

Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate completed his first six passes in the season opener against BYU on Saturday. The 12-play, 52-yard drive ended in a missed field goal for the Wildcats, and the junior would go 11-for-28 the rest of the way as the Cougars pulled away in the third quarter and held on 28-23.

And due to a number of reasons, Tate, whose Heisman candidacy lies on a combination of his explosive legs and raw arm, finished the night with just 14 rushing yards on eight carries.

That the Wildcats don’t want Tate to use his best asset isn’t one of those reasons, head coach Kevin Sumlin said Tuesday on the Pac-12 coaches teleconference call.

“We certainly have to do a better job of, schematically, to get him more involved with his legs,” the first-year UA coach said with a visit to Houston on the agenda this Saturday. “Certainly BYU had a nice scheme to try to contain him in the pocket and not really rushing from the outside. That’s something we have to take a really hard look at this week.

“It can only help us to get him more involved, his legs more involved in the offense.”

Tate piled up 1,411 rushing yards on 153 attempts a year ago, averaging 9.2 yards per carry in former coach Rich Rodriguez’s zone-read scheme. Now under offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone and Sumlin — the latter of whom has a history of developing future NFL quarterbacks — Tate was indeed expected to become more of a pocket passer.

It added to that narrative when Tate used Twitter to reject the possibility of Arizona going to an even more run-oriented, triple-option attack as rumors of the school hiring Navy’s Ken Niumatalolo swirled once Rodriguez was fired this offseason.

But Sumlin rejected the idea that Tate might have less willingness to run this year compared to last.

“I haven’t heard that statement so I’m not familiar with that — him not wanting to be (a running quarterback),” Sumlin said Tuesday.

Even when Tate was passing with success early against BYU on Saturday, he was using his legs, rolling out of the pocket and showing shiftiness within it to extend plays. And yes, he picked up eight of his total rushing yards on a single dash during the first drive.

A number of factors led to Tate’s surprisingly poor rushing performance. To save clock, Arizona ended up pushing the passing game on the quarterback after BYU scored 21 points in the third quarter to go ahead 28-10. Sumlin also credited BYU’s edge rushers with keeping Tate in the pocket.

“I think he’s a combination of everything,” Sumlin said, adding the staff used Sunday to take a long look at how they can better set up Tate to find success as a rushing threat.

“As coaches, we can be more creative to do that.”

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