Donavan Tate To Play College Football

After a failed shot at baseball, Donavan Tate will try to salvage his athletic career on the gridiron.

Tate, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2009 draft, will join the University of Arizona as a quarterback, Michael Lev of the Arizona Daily Star reported on Wednesday night.

The 26-year-old Tate will be a freshman walk-on at Arizona and compete with returning starter Branden Dawkins and three others on the quarterback depth chart.

Tate was a standout quarterback at Cartersville (Ga.) High and committed to play both football and baseball at North Carolina. Instead he signed with the Padres for $6.25 million after they drafted him third overall in 2009. It was the highest signing bonus ever given to a prep player at the time.

Tate’s baseball career never got off the ground. He had sports hernia surgery shortly after being drafted and then suffered an ATV accident in the offseason. A concussion, shoulder injury and stomach virus followed the next year and a hyperextended knee and wrist injury cut the following season short as well.

He also failed two drug tests in 2011 and revealed to the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2015 that he struggled with alcohol and drug addiction during the early part of his career.

“Up until (the 2012-13 offseason), I considered myself an alcoholic,” Tate said. “I loved to drink and I drank a lot. I would have drank all day, every day if I could. I drank. I smoked weed. But that offseason, for some reason I got involved with the wrong crowd. I had never touched anything besides alcohol or weed. I had never known what that stuff was like.

“I have a very addictive personality and it caught up with me—big time. It spiraled out of control.”

The Padres allowed Tate to leave as a free agent after the 2015 season. He signed with the Dodgers for the 2016 season but they released him after just 10 games.

Overall Tate hit .226/.331/.321 in six minor league seasons and never played above high Class A.

He will attempt to become the latest athlete to find success as a quarterback after a failed minor league baseball career. Chris Weinke was a second-round pick of the Blue Jays in 1990 as a third baseman and played six minor league seasons, topping out in Triple-A. He returned to college at Florida State and went on to win the 2000 Heisman Trophy as a 28-year-old. Brandon Weeden was a Yankees second-round pick in 2002 as a pitcher and played five seasons before going to play quarterback at Oklahoma State. He set five school passing records and was a first-round pick of the Browns in the 2012 draft as a 28-year-old.