QB Khalil Tate does not want Arizona to run the triple option
Arizona’s Khalil Tate does not want Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo to bring Navy’s offense to Arizona if the Wildcats hire him.
Friday, multiple reports mentioned Niumatalolo as a serious candidate for Arizona’s vacant head coaching job. Tate saw those reports, because he tweeted and quickly deleted a tweet expressing his unwillingness to run a triple-option offense.
After deleting the tweet, he then posted this. His account is now protected.
Tate emerged as one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in college football during the 2017 season. The QB rushed for 1,411 yards and averaged over nine yards a carry. He would be incredibly fun to watch in a triple-option offense even if he has no designs on doing that.
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It’s also not a guarantee that Niumatalolo would take a carbon-copy of his Navy offense with him to Arizona if the school hired him. Service academies largely run the triple-option offense because they aren’t able to recruit the caliber of athletes that Power Five schools can. The offense is an equalizer because of its uniqueness in college football.
Arizona’s offense under former coach Rich Rodriguez had a lot of option looks — albeit from far different formations than what Navy runs — and it’s easy to see how a Niumatalolo offense would look more like Arizona’s 2017 offense than Navy’s.
But that’s getting a bit ahead of ourselves because Arizona hasn’t hired anyone yet. And Tate’s reaction may also be because he wants current interim coach Marcel Yates to take the full-time title. Tate had previously tweeted a hashtag expressing support for Yates for the team’s coach.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
