TUCSON, Ariz. --
Khalil Tate threw for a career-high 349 yards, including five touchdown passes, to lift the Arizona Wildcats to a convincing 62-31 win over Southern Utah on Saturday night at Arizona Stadium.
Tate tossed two touchdown passes to
Shun Brown and one each to
Tony Ellison,
Cedric Peterson and
Shawn Poindexter. Arizona's junior quarterback threw three touchdowns in the third quarter as Arizona outscored Southern Utah 24-0 in the quarter to pull away from a tight game at halftime.
Tate had a 65-yard touchdown pass to Brown in the third and a 75-yard strike to Poindexter later in the quarter. He also had a 55-yard pass to
Tony Ellison in the first half. Tate had three passes of 55 or more yards the entire season in 2017 before tossing three in the win over Southern Utah.
Of course, Arizona's quarterback was hardly the only Wildcat to shine Saturday against the Thunderbirds. Ellison finished with a career-high 111 yards on four catches, while Brown had his first career multiple touchdown game of his career and finished with 97 yards.
Defensively,
Colin Schooler totaled two more tackles-for-loss to give him 19 ½ for his career in just 16 games.
Kylan Wilborn also had two tackles-for-loss and
Anthony Pandy recorded his second career sack.
The win marked the first of the
Kevin Sumlin era at Arizona. The Wildcats will now hit the road to take on Oregon State on Sept. 22 for their Pac-12 opener.
POSTGAME NOTES
• Arizona finished with 626 yards of total offense in Saturday's victory. It's the most total yardage in a single game since totaling 644 yards against Oregon State on Oct. 10, 2015. It's Arizona's 12th 600-yard game since 2012.
•
J.J. Taylor scored on an 84-yard kickoff return in the second quarter, marking Arizona's first kickoff return for a touchdown since Cayleb Jones returned an onside kick 44 yards for a touchdown against Washington State on Oct. 25, 2014. Taylor's kickoff return was the first non-onside kickoff return since Travis Cobb returned a kick 100 yards against Iowa in 2010.
•
Khalil Tate finished with a career high in passing yards with 349. It bested his previous career high of 341 set one week ago at Houston. Tate also threw five touchdown passes, tying his career high, which was set in the Foster Farms Bowl last year against Purdue.
• Arizona scored 24 points in the third quarter Saturday, the team's highest single-quarter output since scoring 35 against UTEP exactly one year ago in El Paso.
• Tate averaged 17.45 yards per attempt Saturday, establishing a new school record with at least 20 attempts. He averaged 26.85 yards per completion, just off his own record of 27.5 set last season against Washington State.
• Tate completed four passes of 50 yards or more in Saturday's victory. It's the first time since at least 1997 that an Arizona quarterback has thrown four passes of 50 or more yards in a single game. Tate completed a 53-yard pass to
Devaughn Cooper, a 55-yard pass to
Tony Ellison, a 65-yard touchdown pass to
Shun Brown and a 75-yard touchdown pass to
Shawn Poindexter.
SOCIAL MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS
