Arizona Wildcats sophomore Khalil Tate’s last two weeks are not like any other for a quarterback in school history.
Tate last night against UCLA ran for 230 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. It is the sixth-best rushing performance in school history, a week after he produced the second-best performance with 327 yards at Colorado.
He joins Ka’Deem Carey as the only players in school history to have two games of 230 or more rushing yards. Tate’s two-game total of 557 rushing yards is the second highest total in school history. Carey ran for 570 yards against Colorado and Utah in back-to-back games in 2012.
Tate, whose yards last week are the most ever by an FBS quarterback, is also the first quarterback to rush for 200 or more yards in back-to-back games since Navy’s Chris McCoy in 1997.
UA’s Tate just doing “Khalil things’ in win over UCLA https://t.co/IN1dcNTJMZ
— Steve Rivera (@SteveRivera95) October 15, 2017
His rushing yardage the last two weeks is also more than what three FBS teams have produced the entire season.
HOW TATE’S LAST TWO WEEKS STACKS UP WITH TEAM SEASON TOTALS
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Not to be overlooked, Tate’s overall performance the last two weeks — including his passing — has injected life into an Arizona program that was struggling greatly since winning the Pac-12 South title in 2014.
Tate completed 21 of his 26 pass attempts (80.1 percent) against Colorado and UCLA for 302 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
The Wildcats are 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the Pac-12, right in the thick of the race for a spot in the conference championship game.
That winning locker room feeling! BEARDOWN! pic.twitter.com/QAcwX5NmGY
— BJ Denker (@BJDenker) October 15, 2017
ARIZONA INDIVIDUAL RUSHING YARDS (200+ YDS)
[table “” not found /]Fun is restored within the Arizona program. There is no better proof than this tweet by third-string quarterback Rhett Rodriguez, son of coach Rich Rodriguez, in response to our Brad Allis’s tweet:
😎😎 I give all the glory to God https://t.co/2NnS0K1y0Y
— Rhett Rodriguez (@rhett_rod) October 15, 2017
Arizona QB's have rushed for exactly 1,000 yards this season. Tate 663, Dawkins 338, Rodriguez -1
— Brad Allis (@WSRBrad) October 15, 2017
Here are more notable tweets regarding Tate’s performance the last two weeks:
is Khalil Tate better than Josh Rosen tho
— Allonzo Trier (@ISO_ZO) October 15, 2017
I just voted Khalil Tate for heisman what are you up to tonight
— Paul Magloire (@P_MAGLOIRE) October 15, 2017
After setting an FBS QB rushing record last week, here's what Khalil Tate is doing for an encore pic.twitter.com/rDQcF0ol4e
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) October 15, 2017
Just a reminder: Khalil Tate was a backup QB before last week. pic.twitter.com/VkxKIK4mWH
— ESPN CollegeFootball (@ESPNCFB) October 15, 2017
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.