National signing day is Feb. 3, and the Arizona Wildcats are still a work in progress. The Star’s Zack Rosenblatt is featuring the UA’s verbal commitments. Today’s profile: quarterback Khalil Tate
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Khalil Tate had plenty of chances to jump ship, and nobody really would’ve batted an eye.
That’s often what happens when the likes of Alabama, USC and Texas A&M come in heavy pursuit of an impressionable teenager.
But in the back of Tate’s head, he always kept one thing in mind — what Arizona promised him from the get-go.
From the moment UA receivers coach Tony Dews started the Wildcats recruitment, it was to bring Tate to Tucson as a quarterback.
“He trusted Arizona because he knew from the beginning that they didn’t want to make him a receiver or a running back or a free safety,” said Scott Altenberg, Tate’s high school coach at Gardena Serra in California. “‘We want to make you a quarterback, they said.’
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“Not a lot of people were willing to do that. Alabama said, ‘We want you to be a wide receiver/running back.’”
So Tate committed to Arizona very early, in March 2015, five months before his senior season.
He went on to have what Altenburg called the best individual season in Southern California — 2,036 passing yards and 17 touchdowns, with 2,130 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns for the 9-2 Cavaliers.
Naturally, in the midst of that season and after, the top-notch schools were doing their very best to flip Tate’s commitment from the Wildcats.
Late in the game, rumors swirled that USC was trying to convince Tate to play for the Trojans, and possibly as a quarterback.
Now it’s the end of January, and Tate is already enrolled in class at UA as a midyear enrollee.
“He certainly had some good schools trying to get him to flip, and even play quarterback,” Altenberg said.
“But he felt the loyalty that Arizona wanted him first as a quarterback, and that’s where it went.”
Here’s a look at Tate’s path to Arizona:
The file: Quarterback, 6-foot, 210 pounds. From Junípero Serra High School (Gardena, Calif.)
Recruiting trail: Just a little more than a month after receiving his scholarship offer from Arizona, the then-3-star recruit at athlete — instead of quarterback — had offers from USC, UCLA and Florida State, but chose to verbally commit to the Wildcats in March.
From there, he added a fourth star and offers from Alabama and Texas A&M, along with others.
He enrolled in Arizona’s spring semester of classes a couple weeks ago, and will practice with the team in spring drills starting in February. He’s rated the No. 19 athlete in the country by Scout.com and No. 5 in California.
The numbers: As a senior, Tate finished with 2,036 passing yards and 17 touchdowns, with 2,130 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns for the 9-2 Cavaliers. As a junior, he tallied 1,395 passing yards and 17 touchdowns, with 1,287 rushing yards and 17 more touchdowns.
He said it: “His ceiling is just way up there, and he’s so young. I wanted him to stay for the rest of the year because he’s so young, but I knew he wanted to go early. That was cool. But it’s just beginning for him.” — Altenberg
