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If the No. 8 Florida 24-20 victory Above Miami was a defensive slobberknocker, Arizona-Hawaii was a boat race on a lake made of pure fire. After all, we have not played cleanly – Week 0 after all – but it's hard to complain about the excitement that reigns there, including the thrilling victory of Hawaii 45-38 over the Wildcats.
That's because he almost knew the most unlikely end of the 2019 season. Yes, even at week 0, we were ready to call him. It may be the victim of being a creature of the moment, but Khalil Tate's 30-meter run to land paid at the end of time has been as dramatic as the end of the match is imminent. At 10 seconds from the end, Tate made a last gasp, looking for a man back before returning the ball and running. He also had free space before being attacked at the starting line to end the game. (In footnote, note number 49: Manly Williams.) Yes, that's his name – he made an incredible effort to chase Tate and play the game thoroughly.)
Frankly, Tate has not even been history for most of the game. This shows how much he has dropped since his breakthrough in 2017. The senior had a slow start, throwing an interception from the first possession of the match. And during the first 15 minutes, it did not seem like much has changed since the disappointing follow-up of last year. But as the game progressed, the shadows of old Khalil Tate began to appear. He rushed for 108 yards rushing, his record since November 11, 2017, against the Oregon State, and hit a 57-yard bomb on the body. All of these things were reminiscent of the human that he had done two years ago.
But this last race proved that, yes, Tate is in good health and back. If it's used correctly, it will become one of the most electric players in college football. He finished with 361 passing yards, three touchdowns and two choices. At 39 attempts, he always throws more than he should be in this offense which, even in a shootout like this, seems inexcusable against Hawaii. It's a game plan problem and we will be able to coach coach Kevin Sumlin in a minute.
In the meantime, here's what we learned from Saturday's game.
The Hawaii chart belongs to the Smithsonian
The main reason why Tate was not the main story of most of the game is that Hawaii was perhaps playing the most unequal football ever. The Rainbow Warriors had 14 controls in the game and scored or returned the ball on all but one card. In fact, the first and only time that Hawaii brought his skid unit back to the field was his last possession of the game with just over two minutes to play. If not, the Rainbow Warrior unit chart was as follows:
- INT
- TD
- TD
- INT
- TD
- INT
- TD
- TD
- grope
- grope
- INT
- FG
- TD
Dear reader, you see that correctly. Hawaii either scored or gave the ball in 13 consecutive possessions. Most of these festive or famine moments came from quarterback Cole McDonald, who was shut out in the third quarter after making his fourth pick of the match. As tweeted below by Bryan Fischer, it is rare to win a game after giving the ball six times:
Rainbow warriors may have a quarterback battle on their hands
McDonald has developed a bit of a late-night university football tradition. He sadly played most of last season due to an excruciating injury internal bleeding in his scrotum. And yet, he still launched for more than 3,800 yards and 36 touchdowns. But Saturday night, McDonald's was as uneven as ever. Yes, he has accumulated 378 yards in the air and four touchdowns … but most of his four choices have been bad decisions or imprecise throws.
This prompted coach Nick Rolovich to set the tone for McDonald's in favor of Chevan Cordeiro, McDonald's worthy replacement last season. Cordeiro has been excellent at directing Rainbow Warriors on consecutive records. He finished with 58 passing yards and a score with 34 yards rushing. Cordeiro proved that he deserved at least to be included in the conversation with the quarterback. McDonald may be the incumbent, but Cordeiro stopped bleeding when Arizona prepared for the second half.
Kevin Sumlin deserves to be on the hot seat
I say this as someone who chose Arizona as The most underrated team of Pac-12 entering the season (gulp). Some of the coaching decisions or general supervision of Sumlin are embarrassing due to the 5-7 effort of last season. As mentioned above, Tate is still not used as well as it could be. Although Tate always posted big numbers, there were situational failures when he was not. The second of his two interceptions took place on lines 2 and 5 of the 13-yard line of Hawaii and he was returned 49 yards from the middle of the field. Hawaii scored a decisive touchdown to go up 45-35 four times later. In the red zones, why does Sumlin not use his best rushing tool to put pressure on Hawaii's defense? It may be a call that looks bad, in hindsight, because it did not work, but there are many examples like that. Running back J. J. Taylor had six races in the first half.
It was not just the offensive that left something to be desired. Arizona's defense yielded nearly 600 yards total to over nine yards per shot. For launching nearly 50 passes, Hawaii was not sacked once.
And then there are special teams. The fourth-quarter Wildcats time-field errors in shooting at a touchdown were staggering. A 38-yard field goal attempt was quickly converted into a 53-yard attempt after Arizona was spotted for late play and false starts back to back. Lucas Havrisik was successful, but these penalties are totally unacceptable. Week 0 can produce a lot of sloppy games, but it was a moment that could have been more devastating for Arizona.
Cedric Byrd was an unstoppable monster
Enough talk about things that were bad. Byrd was the best part of that match with 14 catches for 224 yards and four touchdowns. Hawaii Wideout became the first FBS player to score as many touchdowns in his first game of the season for more than 20 years. It's going to be a nightmare for opposing defenses for the rest of the season.
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