Sports360AZ
By Jake Trybulski
Khalil Tate played his way into the national spotlight last season. For those who may have forgot, Sports Illustrated is here to remind you with some godly expectations for the Arizona quarterback in 2018.
Tate was given the “nation’s best QB” title on Sports Illustrated’s regional college football preview cover on Tuesday.
The Big Cat is poised for a big season and you won’t want to miss a second of it 😼
📰 | https://t.co/c00UUD1Ola#BearDown | #EraZona pic.twitter.com/uVrsIR9U7W
— Arizona Athletics (@AZATHLETICS) August 7, 2018
“Big and Bad, he runs like an RB, he hits like an linebacker, He’s the nation’s best QB, (Hand him the Heisman),” the cover says.
The other three regional covers feature Wisconsin’s behemoth offensive line, Clemson’s nasty defensive line, and Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver who Sports Illustrated ranked as the top college football player heading into the season.
Vegasinsider.com considers Tate a real contender for the Heisman trophy, but dubs Bryce Love as the early favorite.
– Bryce Love (Stanford) 8/1
– Jonathan Taylor (Wisconsin) 8/1
– Tua Tagovailoa (Alabama) 8/1
– Jake Fromm (Georgia) 10/1
– Khalil Tate (Arizona) 16/1
Sports Illustrated’s preview ranked the Wildcats 19th in the country. The preview highlighted Kevin Sumlin’s “electronic offense,” but mentioned a need for improvement on defense.
Sumlin, Tate and the Wildcats kick-off their season Saturday Sept. 1st at home against BYU.
The cover featuring Tate is believed to be the first active Arizona Wildcat football player on a Sports Illustrated cover since the magazine picked the Desert Swarm team as its preseason No. 1 in 1994.
