What Khalil Tate, Tony Ellison said after Arizona’s win vs. Cal

The Arizona Wildcats survived against the California Golden Bears on Saturday, beating them 24-17 despite a poor offensive showing.

Cal outgained Arizona 476-265 and UA’s offense did not score in the second half. Thankfully, Arizona’s defense created four turnovers and scored two second-half touchdowns — and only allowed three second-half points — to lift the team to victory.

Quarterback Khalil Tate had a tough night, going 15-for-25 for 141 yards, a touchdown and an interception. However, he did put the Wildcats up 7-0 on their opening drive, finding Tony Ellison over the middle for a 31-yard touchdown.

Here is what Tate and Ellison had to say after the game:

Ellison on the defense’s performance...

“Absolutely incredible. Stepped up when it mattered and it was fun to watch. That being said, the offense needs to pick it up next week.”

Tate on the offense...

“I saw some good things and some bad things. It’s always something to improve on and I think we did just enough to get a win, but the defense did exceptionally well and that helped us out a lot.”

Tate on having a short week (Arizona plays at Utah on Friday)...

“It’s a fast turnaround … It’s all mental. We just got to get back to the drawing board a day earlier than we would like to and get ready to go into a hostile environment.”

Ellison on Colin Schooler’s interception and fumble that got returned for a touchdown by Azizi Hearn...

“I’ve never seen anything like it before. It was insane. It was fun to watch.”

On the sideline’s reaction to the play...

“Lot of energy like it should be. … It was funny because we did a lot of ball security for defense and offense during the week and we were just kind of chuckling on the sideline when Schooler got popped right there, but it all worked out.”

Tate on if Jamarye Joiner played the third series because of an injury...

“No, it was just something that we talked about earlier this week and it’s something that we did.”

Ellison on what it means to win on a night when the offense wasn’t clicking...

“That’s football. Sometimes the offense takes care of the defense, and the defense took care of the offense tonight. We’re very grateful for that, but that being said, we’ve got to have short memory going into this week. Quick turnaround and what I say every week: we’ve got to execute the gameplan. We didn’t do it tonight the best we could, and we’ve got to fix that.”

More from Tate on the offense...

“We’re starting off pretty slow as I think most new offenses would, but we’re getting better everyday and every week we’re actually starting to fill out those empty spots that we need to fill in.”

Tate on if teams are playing him differently than they were last year...

“Nah, it’s pretty much the same.”

Tate on if teams are having their safeties come down to stop the run...

“Yeah, we get a lot of one-high, we get a lot of two-high. Cal had a safety deep, about 45 yards. That’s what kind of affected our original gameplan even though we knew what they were going to do. It was something that we can get better at.”