It is 14 days and 1,361 miles until Arizona plays another football game, but the Wildcats are on such an intoxicating high they could probably fly to Pullman, Washington, today.
Wings are optional.
The football season that seemed lost, has been found. Some will say the Wildcats found themselves, scoring on eight consecutive possessions to beat Colorado 42-34 on Friday night, but that’s just Part A.
Part B is that Kevin Sumlin’s team reinvented itself, on the fly and without a bye, and if anyone says they saw this coming they’ll need proof they are a graduate of the Bill Belichick School of Football.
With the same players that did most of the work — or lack thereof — in a dismal 3-5 start that included losses to BYU, Houston and, ugh, UCLA, the Wildcats beat Colorado with the long ball, but not the same long ball you might’ve expected.
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Arizona wide receiver Shawn Poindexter (19), left, and Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate (14) celebrate after hooking up on a bomb for a touchdown against Colorado in the fourth quarter of their Pac-12 game at Arizona Stadium, Friday, November 2, 2018, Tucson, Ariz.
A year ago, Arizona beat Colorado 45-42 in Boulder when Khalil Tate rushed for a FBS quarterback’s record of 327 yards, or 23 yards per carry.
On Friday, Tate averaged 22.5 yards per pass completion as Arizona built a 42-34 lead. He completed passes for 57, 45, 40, 39 and 33 yards. That’s crazy. A year ago on his coming-of-age debut, Tate rushed for 75, 58, 47 and 28 yards.
That’s not a reinvention, it’s a reversal like few in football history.
Get this: Tate rushed for just 15 yards. Have you ever seen or heard of such a transformation in such a short time? From 325 to 15? And it all fits nicely into Arizona’s continued awakening.
It wasn’t just a fluke, either, or just luck.
To make up for Tate’s lack of rushing production, Arizona has turned to the Little Big Train, 5-foot 6-inch J.J. Taylor, who carried 40 times for 192 yards. At game’s end, he appeared to be exhausted.
Taylor doesn’t have the See-You-Tater dash and dazzle, but he is leading the Pac-12 in rushing. Amazing.
Taylor’s biggest run was a 15-yarder with 3:30 remaining. Arizona was backed up to its 2-yard line.
Taylor seemed to be tackled twice, but wouldn’t go down. He got a first down, helped to kill the clock, and kept the Wildcat’s from harm’s way.

DB Christian Young was one of only four UA newcomers with more than a year of eligibility who didn't use a redshirt in 2018.
If you saw that coming, get on the next flight to Las Vegas and put it all on Arizona beating Arizona State in the Territorial Cup and playing in a bowl game.
If last week’s 44-15 victory over Oregon was shocker, Friday’s triumph was more predictable.
Arizona has now played 10 games, which means its totally rebuilt offensive line has basically had an entire season to learn how to play at the Pac-12 level. Moreover, those 10 games have given Tate — who still appeared to limp periodically, an ankle injury that can be traced to September’s loss at Houston — how to develop as a pass-first, almost-never-run quarterback.
According to the Colorado sports information department, Arizona is the NCAA’s 16th youngest of 119 FBS teams. The Wildcats are composed of 68 percent underclassmen. In the Pac-12, only UCLA, at 72 percent, is younger.
So, yes, it took a while for Arizona to shift its Kiddie Corps into overdrive.
Sumlin and offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone reworked their offense as Tate struggled with September’s ankle injury, during a time he worked with the youngest and least experience offensive line at Arizona since 1993.
The Tate of November 2018 is totally different from the Tate that ate up Colorado in 2017. The UA still plays fast, with a quick-throw base of plays, but it has given Tate an offense that includes more slants, more out-patterns and fewer drop-back plays.
Not once Friday did Tate simply take off on an obvious quarterback keeper.
Until Friday, Tate had completed just 11 percent of his long, sometimes desperate throws. But against Colorado he had one stretch in the first half when he had consecutive completions of 17, 12, 15, 40, 19 33, 1, 45, 11 and 21 yards.
The NFL scouts in the press box probably crumpled up their mid-season analysis, which couldn’t have been kind.
Today, you can’t find anyone to say anything but kind words about Arizona’s emergence as a bowl contender.
In the last three weeks, Taylor has rushed 89 times for 558 yards.
It’s a Ka’Deem Carey pace, and if Taylor doesn’t become a first-team All-Pac-12 selection in a few weeks it’ll be a miscarriage of football justice.
He has been so productive (and tough) that on Friday night he climbed from No. 15 to No. 8 in Arizona’s season-rushing record book, climbing to 1,234 yards, passing Bill McCall, Nic Grigsby, Ontiwaun Carter, David Adams, Jim Upchurch, Trung Canidate and Clarence Farmer.
In one game.
It is with similar speed that Arizona has rehabbed and recovered, putting itself back on the college football map. Next stop: Pullman.