For a couple of days at the end of December, Arizona’s backfield of the future were each other’s competition. It wasn’t the first time.
Khalil Tate and J.J. Taylor met in the 2014 CIF Southern Section playoffs. In that game, Tate led Gardena Serra to a wild 68-64 win over Taylor’s Corona Centennial team, posting 521 yards of total offense while accounting for eight touchdowns.
Taylor had one score.
The two were scheduled to play each other again last September, but Tate wasn’t available for the rematch. The quarterback was relegated to the sideline as punishment for being ejected from a game one week earlier. Taylor ran for 132 yards and three touchdowns in a 52-13 win.
Their matchup in December came off the field. In a fan poll conducted by Cal-Hi Sports, both Tate and Taylor worked their way through a bracket of California’s top high school talent for the fans’ “Mr. Football” of California.
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Just before New Year’s, Taylor was revealed the winner, taking 53 percent of the vote.
That will be the last time Taylor and Tate compete against each other, at least as it relates to football. Wednesday, Taylor, a three-star recruit and the No. 2 running back in California according to Scout.com, will sign on the dotted line of a National Letter of Intent.
Tate is already a Wildcat, having become a mid-year enrollee in January.
Together, the duo comprises the likely future of Arizona’s backfield.
Of the two, Tate — a four-star prospect — has received more of the hype. In fact, he probably is the most accomplished player in Arizona’s 2016 recruiting class.
“He’s a special talent,” said Scott Altenberg, Tate’s coach at Serra. “His ceiling is just up there.”
As a senior at Serra, Tate accounted for 43 total touchdowns and 4,166 combined passing and rushing yards, a jump up from 34 touchdowns and 2,682 yards as a junior.
Arizona will be happy to know at least one of the reasons for his jump in productivity: Altenberg modeled Serra’s offense after Rich Rodriguez’s at Arizona to fit Tate’s skill set as a dual-threat quarterback.
“Ironically, I looked at a lot of Arizona stuff,” Altenberg said. “I used some things they do.”
It certainly helped the Wildcats’ case when they recruited Tate. And it’s not like Altenberg has a connection to Arizona — he’s a UCLA graduate, and Serra is known for sending its top players to USC.
When Altenberg and Tate met to discuss colleges, the coach mentioned how similar Serra’s offense was to Arizona’s.
“I said, ‘I’m not telling you where to go, but telling you that’s how it is,’” Altenberg said, “and he looked at that.”
It helped that Arizona wanted to play Tate at quarterback, while some other top schools — Alabama and USC among them — envisioned him as more of an athlete with potential to play running back, receiver or even defensive back.
Tate verbally committed to Arizona last March.
Taylor, meanwhile, didn’t receive nearly as many offers. The only other major-college offer came from Washington State, a school not exactly known for running the football.
The running back’s height — 5 feet, 7 inches — scared some people away. It shouldn’t have.
“He’s amazing,” said Centennial coach Matt Logan. “I’m glad that U of A is giving him the opportunity, Most schools would have shied away from a kid who lacks the size. I see him being a Maurice Jones-Drew type and being super-effective in college.”
The numbers speak for themselves, and they’re even better than Tate’s. As a senior at Centennial, Taylor rushed for 2,149 yards and 41 touchdowns. He caught two touchdown passes and returned one kick for a score.
“It’s funny, people always talk about a play and say, ‘I can’t believe he made that play in a game,’” Logan said. “But it wasn’t a big deal for us because he makes five or six of those every practice. And just running the ball, he’ll do it from special teams. It’s just amazing.”
Said Taylor: “I had a fun season.”
So if both Tate and Taylor can produce even a fraction of their high school productivity, Arizona is in good hands. Right now, running back Nick Wilson and quarterback Anu Solomon stand in the prospects’ way.
But Wilson, a junior, has missed five games the last two years because of injury. Solomon will be a junior in 2016, having started each of his first two years, but his hold on the starting quarterback job isn’t secure. Tate is likely to receive touches regardless of who starts.
Don’t be surprised if it’s Tate and Taylor — opponents in high school, teammates in college — who are leading the way for Arizona in years to come.
