Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate clearly does not want Ken Niumatalolo
As Arizona continues to search for a new football coach, quarterback Khalil Tate continues to make his preference clear.
The Arizona Wildcats fired Rich Rodriguez last week, and the school appears committed to a thorough search. A report from The Arizona Star on Friday said Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo has emerged as the leading candidate and was offered the job, which brought a reaction from quarterback Khalil Tate.
After Rodriguez was fired, Tate immediately endorsed Arizona defensive coordinator Marcel Yates as the man to take over. So a report from Bruce Feldman of Sports Illustrated that Yates has a lot of support within the program and is a finalist for the job is not a big surprise.
But if Niumatalolo is truly the top candidate and winds up being hired, it’s safe to say Tate would not be thrilled.
And, of course, the tweet from Khalil Tate saying he "didn't come to Arizona to run the tripple option" has been deleted. Maybe because he misspelled triple? pic.twitter.com/wSwIhVAvC7
— CollegeFootballTalk (@CFTalk) January 12, 2018
Tate has since deleted the tweet captured above and locked his Twitter account, and let’s chalk up his inability to spell “triple” as an oversight in a fit of frustration or an effort to be fast. But he clearly has no interest in running the triple option offense the service academies are known for, obviously including Niumatalalo’s Navy Midshipmen.
Despite his protest, Tate’s skill set would seem to fit that kind of offense. Despite seeing extensive action in essentially nine games this past season, he put up over 3,000 yards of total offense almost evenly split between the air (1,591 passing yards) and the ground (1,411 rushing yards). He completed a solid 62 percent of his passes too, and with an eye on the next level any further development for Tate as a passer would go away under Niumatalolo.
One of the finalists for the #Arizona head coaching vacancy, I’m told, is DC Marcel Yates, who has a lot of support within the program... Expecting U of A to make its hire within the next 48 hrs.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) January 12, 2018
Related Story: 5 candidates to replace Rich Rodriguez at Arizona
Arizona let it out Friday afternoon, via ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, they have not offered the job to anyone and are still interviewing candidates. But it’s a must-lie situation until a deal is done with someone, be it Niumatalolo or someone else. If the second part of Feldman’s report is true, there will be a new football coach in Tucson by the end of the weekend.