Tuesday Buffs Bits: Colorado Prepares For Tate, Arizona Offense
October 30, 2018 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre admits that when he began film study this week for Arizona, the mere sight of No. 14 gave him nightmares.
It's no surprise. It was just a year ago that Arizona's No. 14 — quarterback Khalil Tate — gashed the Buffs for an FBS quarterback record 327 yards rushing and four touchdowns in a 45-42 win in Boulder. Tate's night overshadowed a standout effort from Colorado's Phillip Lindsay (41 carries, 281 yards, three touchdowns) in a game that set an FBS record for most combined rushing yards (608) by two opposing players.
But when the two teams meet again Friday in Tucson (8:30 p.m., FS1), the Wildcats (4-5 overall, 3-3 Pac-12) won't have to worry about Lindsay, who now plies his trade for the Denver Broncos.
The Buffs (5-3 2-2), however, will have all eyes on Tate, even though a new coaching staff and new offense have changed how Tate is utilized.
"He's still a real dangerous guy," said Buffs outside linebacker Drew Lewis, who was on the field last year against the Wildcats. "They still do a lot of RPO (read-pass option) stuff with him, and he can make plays with his legs. He's throwing more this year, but he can hurt you in a lot of ways."
Tate's role has indeed changed under first-year head coach Kevin Sumlin and offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone. Hindered by an ankle injury early in the season, Tate — a preseason Heisman Trophy candidate — has rushed just 53 times for 138 yards while throwing for 1,604 yards and 14 touchdowns. At this pace, his rushing total this season won't match his one-game total from last year's game against the Buffs.
But he is now fully healthy, and last week carried seven times for 26 yards and threw for 189 yards in Arizona's 44-15 thumping of No. 19 Oregon — the Wildcats' biggest win of the year.
He is, the Buffs know, no doubt still a threat.
"Everybody who was here last year, we all remember what happened," CU senior linebacker Rick Gamboa said. "I don't think it's something many people have forgotten. On film, you see him as the same guy. He makes people miss, he outruns DBs in the open field."
But, Gamboa added, it is also obvious the Wildcats are using him much more in the passing game.
"You see it when you try to stop him as a runner and you're leaving DBs out in coverage, he's going to deliver a pass, especially because everybody focuses on making sure he's not running the ball," Gamboa said. "He's able to pick you apart passing the ball since you've got everybody filling the box."
But truth is, Tate is just one part of an Arizona offense that seems to be hitting its stride. The Wildcats' biggest weapon recently has been running back J.J. Taylor. The  5-foot-6, 184-pound dynamo has rushed for 1,029 yards and six touchdowns while averaging 6.2 yards per carry. Taylor had a huge game against Jim Leavitt's Oregon defense, rushing 30 times for 212 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
"He is one of the hardest running backs I've seen on tape so far," said Buffs inside linebacker Nate Landman. "When he sees the hole, he hits it. He is full speed and a downhill guy. He doesn't really get stopped and gets a lot of yards after contact. He's quick on his feet and does a lot of cuts. He has pretty good speed too. We have to keep him contained and not let him break out on those long runs."
Colorado's run defense has been solid for most of the season. The Buffs are giving up just 142 yards per game on the ground. They will need that kind of effort Friday in the desert, particularly in the wake of last weekend's 41-34 overtime loss to Oregon State. The Buffs had a 31-3 lead in the game early in the second half, but were outscored 38-3 the remainder of the game.
It's a lesson the Buffs learned the hard way.
"You are never out of it in football, we learned that on Saturday," Landman said. "We played a good first half of football and let our foot off the gas in the second half. The way we've been practicing this week has me confident and should have our defense confident. We have been preparing hard and everybody has been focused. There has been a new attitude. What happened last week was tough, but we are willing to forget that and move on. This week we are going to have a great game."
TEAM MEETING: Several CU players spoke again Tuesday about a Monday morning players-only meeting in which older and younger players were given the opportunity to speak up.
"It was a great thing," quarterback Steven Montez said. "There were a lot of great things said in that meeting. There were a lot of good things said from older guys all the way to younger guys. Younger guys stepped up and said what they thought was going on, how we can fix it and how we can get back on track. … We needed to look ourselves in the mirror and get back to what our goals were in the beginning of the season. We can still accomplish all of the goals that we wanted to accomplish. It was a good, productive meeting."
Indeed, the Buffs are well-aware that with a 5-3 record — and trailing Pac-12 South leader Utah by just a game in the loss column in the conference standings — the goals they set in the preseason are still very much attainable.
"It brought us closer together as a group and a unit," Landman said. "We developed goals in the beginning of the year and were able to do that again in the player meeting and develop some more goals of what we wanted to accomplish in the year and what it is going to take to accomplish those goals. We want to go to the Pac-12 Championship. We want to win out and win the South."
KILLER INSTINCT? The Buffs have had plenty of time to reflect on how they allowed a 31-3 lead slip away against Oregon State. Asked if the Buffs were missing a "killer instinct," Gamboa said it was more a case of simply getting too comfortable too early with a big lead.
"People got a little comfortable with what the scoreboard was," Gamboa said. "When we started realizing we had a game on our hands, at that point it was a little too late for us to turn it back on."
HIGH-SCORING AFFAIR A GOOD BET: Since Colorado joined the Pac-12 in 2011, Arizona holds a 5-2 edge in the series (CU holds a 14-6 lead in the all-time series).
Some of the games in the Pac-12 era have been close and some have been runaways. Arizona's biggest margin of victory was a 25-point win — 56-31 — in Tucson in 2012; Colorado's biggest win was also a 25-point margin, a 49-24 victory also in Tucson in 2016.
But the one common thread in every Pac-12 meeting? The winning team has scored at least 38 points in every game. Overall, the two teams have combined to average 73.6 points per game in their seven meetings in Pac-12 play.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.eduÂ
