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It's amazing how a single tweet can change the story.
When Arizona was looking for a new coach this season off to replace Rich Rodriguez, a name that appeared in the rumor (as it seems every year) was Ken Niumatalolo of the Navy. On this surface, pairing Niumatalolo with Wildcats quarterback Khalil Tate, a nocturnal sensation that was justifiably unstoppable in the middle of the 2017 season, would have been a lot of fun.
Except that Tate vehemently opposed the hiring of Niumatalolo. In a tweet since deleted on Jan. 12, Tate writes, "I did not come to Arizona to perform the tripple option [sic]."
Two days later, the Wildcats announced that they had hired former Texas A & M coach Kevin Sumlin.
Speaking with Matt Hayes of Bleacher Report, Tate claimed that he had tweeted exactly what he meant: He did not want Niumatalolo to drive him into a triple-option attack.
"I knew exactly what I was doing when I tweeted it," says Tate. "I do not do Twitter, when I tweet something, I download the app, I tweet, and then I delete the app from my phone, so when I tweet, it's important." [19659002] "I had to make sure to be heard, make sure the team was heard, because my teammates also did not want to run the triple option," he continued . "So, the idea was to tweet, drag it, and then delete it, I knew the people who would read it said," Why did it remove it? "But that only boosts it further."
"I knew that tweeting that would create a buzz and maybe not [Niumatalolo] as our coach," Tate added. "I think Ken Niumatalolo is a good coach, it's nothing against him, but I think it was important to say what I had to say and let everyone know that we will not shut up and let things happen. "
Tate is a star in the making, but it's still amazing to see that a tweet a player has an influence on a coaching search.The odds are that, if Niumatalolo had been hired, he would have adapted his attack to better suit Tate's skills. (Navy, by the way, does not use exclusively the triple option, there are a lot of spread sets and elements.)
If nothing else, Tate's comments are telling in the mindset of the team during the coaching quest.
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