It wasn’t exactly the homecoming Kevin Sumlin had in mind -- or the start to his head coaching career out in the desert, for that matter.
Sumlin’s new team, the Arizona Wildcats, traveled to TDECU Stadium to take on one of Sumlin’s old teams, the Houston Cougars. With the focus entering the game primarily focused on the Heisman head-to-head showdown between UH’s Ed Oliver and UA’s Khalil Tate, it was D’Eriq King who shined as the Cougars jumped out to a 21-0 first-quarter lead and never looked back (much) in a 38-18 whipping of the Wildcats.
King, UH’s third-leading receiver a year ago, took advantage of an injury-riddled UA defensive secondary as he accounted for six touchdowns on the day -- four passing, two rushing. The true junior quarterback finished the day with 246 yards on 17-of-34 passing, while adding another 31 yards on the ground.
In a repeat of the opener, the explosive Tate was unable to get much of anything going in either the passing or running game while the outcome was still in doubt.
Tate, who appeared to tweak his left ankle early on in the contest, threw for 341 yards (the vast majority of that came after the game had essentially been decided) and two interceptions as he completed 24 of his 45 pass attempts. Most disturbingly, Tate totaled eight yards on his seven carries after rushing for just 14 yards on eight attempts the week before.
In his first six starts last season, Tate ran for 1,207 yards and averaged nearly 12 yards a carry; his last five games, he’s been limited to 140 yards on the ground while averaging 2.5 ypc.
As has been the case nearly every week of his career, Oliver was double-teamed -- or triple-teamed at times -- on most plays and had, for him, a relatively quiet day stats-wise. The star defensive tackle, widely projected to be one of the first three players taken in the 2019 NFL draft, finished the day with five tackles, ½ tackles for loss, one pass deflection and four quarterback hurries. Still, Oliver’s impact goes well beyond his stats as the constant attention opens the field up for his teammates to make plays.
And opens himself up to some “unique” trench scrutiny from the opposition as well.
“No, bad.” pic.twitter.com/ncqGKkl31P
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) September 8, 2018
Sumlin served as UH’s head coach from 2008-11, leading the Cougars to a pair of appearances in the Conference USA championship game. He left to take the same job at Texas A&M in December of 2011, but was fired at the end of the regular season last year after six seasons with the Aggies.
Taking over an Arizona team that went 7-6 in its last season under Rich Rodriguez, Sumlin has started his time at UA at 0-2 after losing the opener to BYU as well. This marks the first time the football program began a season 0-2 since 1981 under Larry Smith.
The Wildcats have now lost five straight overall dating back to last November.