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Khalil Tate is a rare talent.
The only quarterback that can be compared to him is Lamar Jackson, while he isn’t Lamar, he has the same type of running ability, while Lamar is a better passer.
Here are his stats for 2017:
Passing:
1289 yards, 9 touchdowns, 8 interceptions, 61% completion
Rushing:
133 attempts, 1353 yards, 12 touchdowns, 10.2 YPC
Clearly, we should be more worried about him on the ground than through the air. He extends plays, makes passes and makes his teammates better. His over 10 yards per carry is frightening to me.
We can stop him though. Coach Brohm and Coach Holt will have a game plan ready for this match up. Sure, a similar quarterback in Lamar Jackson torched us in the first game of the year. Having 378 yards passing and 107 yards on the ground. But, we won’t have to worry about the arm talent so much this time.
If you were not aware, Rich Rodriguez is the head coach for Arizona. He loves to run the spread attack that he has ran for a looooong time. He ran it at West Virginia and at at Michigan as well. Khalil Tate is his Denard Robinson. Remember Denard? The cover boy for NCAA 14 was a beast at Michigan, regularly flipping from quarterback and running back.
In Denard’s senior season, he had 1319 yards passing, 9 touchdowns to 9 interceptions. He also had 1266 yards rushing and 7 touchdowns. Coincidence, I think not. This is the type of QB Rich Rod loves. Granted, Brady Hoke was the coach during his senior year, he was still recruited by Rich Rod to go there.
So, the main thing we are dealing with here is a straight up athlete. Khalil Tate is going to make plays, we just have to limit him as much as we can and contain him. This will be the match up to watch.
I think we have more playmakers on defense to contain him. Advantage Purdue Defense. Bentley, McCollum, Danny E & Bailey will do a great job of corralling him.