What Kevin Sumlin said after Arizona’s win vs. Southern Utah

The Arizona Wildcats finally notched their first mark in the win column in Week 3 as they defeated the Southern Utah Thunderbirds, 62-31.

Khalil Tate racked up the numbers, completing 13-of-20 passes for 349 yards — a career high — and 5 touchdowns. His 17.45 yards per pass attempt set an Arizona school record.

Arizona struggled early, with Southern Utah tied with the Wildcats 17-17 late in the first half. Kevin Sumlin’s squad found its stride in the third quarter, scoring 24 points to put some distance between themselves and their FCS opponents.

Here’s what Sumlin, who got his first win as Arizona’s head football coach, had to say after the victory:

On Khalil Tate’s play...

“He kept some plays alive. Obviously we had some big plays that were either in the pocket or got outside of it. He kept his eyes downfield and did some really nice things with some explosive plays. ... He was still able to improvise a little bit and he put the ball down the field. To do all that and not have the ball really even tipped by the other team ... he managed the game well.”

On the play of Layth Friekh...

“What Layth brings is attitude and experience. He’s played a lot of football. What we’re able to do was make the least amount of moves. We moved Donovan (Laie) to right tackle where he’s been playing tackle the whole time. He’s used to being on the edge and exposed out there. It’s just right tackle instead of left. And then it was moving the right tackle (Cody Creason) to left guard, so there was minimal movement.”

On the offensive line’s play...

“(Shifting the offensive line) gave us the opportunity to be effective in pass protection. We’ve got a long ways to go. Don’t get me wrong. But certainly that group was more solid tonight than they’ve been, and the addition of Layth, you can’t overlook that.”

On the play of the defense...

“We played a lot of guys. It’s weird game in the fact that they were on the field the whole night. I was just looking at the drive charts and I’ve never seen a drive chart like that. The longest time we had the ball the whole time was two minutes, and we didn’t punt. So that puts a lot of pressure on your defense. As a coach, what do you want? Do you want to score, do you not want to score? Do you want to slow it down? That puts your defense in a bad position because they played the whole night.”

On winning the first game of the season...

“Let’s enjoy this, but we’ve got to come back on Monday and be honest with ourselves just like we were last week. What are our deficiencies are, where can we be better? What do we need to do?

On the biggest adjustments the defense needs...

“We’ve got to get off the field on third down on defense. We got our first sack and our first turnover tonight...tonight is a glass half full night.”

On winning his first game at Arizona...

“Anytime you win, it’s always good, right? Your first win is something that you always remember. For us, we’ve been through a lot the last couple of weeks. You can take a deep breath right now, but it’s back to work tomorrow. We’ve got conference play.”

On what adjustments the defense made...

“It had to do with personnel. We were more of a four-down front today than we have been in previous weeks. We’re missing a couple of people. You saw some guys in boots and on scooters that we could use. So the improvisation with personnel was as big as anything.”

On Jace Whittaker and Scottie Young Jr. not playing...

“They’re working their way back into it. Jace struggled early through camp and we just didn’t want to push a lot of things with him. Scottie is the same.”

More on Tate...

“He was pretty accurate tonight and he took care of the ball for the most part. There weren’t a lot of dangerous throws in double coverage or anything like that. When he scrambled, he kept his eyes downfield and put the ball on people instead of having it sail. Like I said, I thought he managed the game well.”

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