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Quarterback battle again focus of spring practice

AIR IT OUT: ASU sophomore quarterback Brock Osweiler throws a pass during the Sun Devils’ spring practice on Wednesday. Osweiler will battle junior Steven Threet for the starting job in 2010. (Photo by Kyle Thompson)
AIR IT OUT: ASU sophomore quarterback Brock Osweiler throws a pass during the Sun Devils’ spring practice on Wednesday. Osweiler will battle junior Steven Threet for the starting job in 2010. (Photo by Kyle Thompson)

For the second straight season, the battle for the starting quarterback spot will dominate the talk of spring practice for the ASU football team.

With junior Samson Szakacsy again battling arm troubles, it appears to be a two-horse race between transfer Steven Threet and sophomore Brock Osweiler.

“It’s very competitive — it is even,” Erickson said. “Nobody has jumped out in the last two days. They were better today because they were getting a better feel of it.”

Threet is just happy to be able to compete for a job after having to sit out last season after transferring from Michigan.

“My focus this whole time has been on this spring,” Threet said. “To be honest, it feels like I have been in college a long time. I have been to three of them, so I’m well-seasoned. “

Threet said last season was difficult because he wasn’t used to not playing and having to sit on the sidelines all season.

“It was just a lot different,” he said. “When I was starting at Michigan, a lot of time was spent during the week in the film room, or just even practice is completely different. It was difficult, but something I learned a lot from.”

Along the way, there have been doubters of Threet’s ability. But he said he isn’t worrying about anything that has happened in his past and is just focused on the future.

“I think for me, I try not to trouble myself with the thoughts of others,” Threet said. “It is something I can’t control. There is obviously the motivation factor, but if you get caught up with what others are saying, it is only going to lead to bad things.”

Both quarterbacks have had to jump into a new no-huddle offense led by first-year coordinator Noel Mazzone, but Threet feels that the team is at a good spot early on.

“I think it is coming together well,” Threet said. “We are two practices in, obviously, [so] there are going to be bumps in the road any time you are installing something new. Guys are doing a great job coming with a good attitude and doing everything they can to learn.”

Not many other teams in the Pac-10 play the style of offense that the Sun Devils will feature this season, but in order to be successful in catching teams unaware, ASU must get the schemes down pat themselves first.

“It is a lot faster,” Threet said. “It is more on the fly, and we are trying to speed the defense up to a pace they aren’t comfortable in. But in the same time, we have to be comfortable in it.”

While they are competing on the field, Osweiler and Threet are friends off the field and still together in one common goal — trying to help this team win football games.

“We spend a lot of time together working on a lot of things,” Threet said. “He has done a lot to improve himself. We are definitely competing against each other, but at the same time, we have a whole defense to worry about, and you don’t want another person to worry about when you come to the sidelines.”

ASU coach Dennis Erickson has called the quarterback race even as of now and isn’t sure if he will leave spring ball with a starter named or a competition carrying over to the fall.

“I have named them and I haven’t named them,” Erickson said. “If it is pretty close, I’m not going to name him. If somebody beats somebody out, then I will name him. As soon as I have that feeling, I’ll do it. It could happen at any time. I might call you at 1 a.m.”

Zebras at practice

Penalties no doubt hurt the Sun Devils last season, so Erickson will be having officials at every spring practice.

“[The officials will be there] for alignment [and] motions,” Erickson said. “They aren’t going to sit and control the dumb penalties — that is something we have to control ourselves, and this team is determined to do that.”

While the officials will be there, they won’t be controlling the practices fully.

“What it does [is] you aren’t going to have stupid offside penalties,” he said. “Are we holding in the secondary? Those little things become big things in big games. Last year, we had a couple penalties that hurt us.”

Improving depth

Two positions that have hurt the Sun Devils in the past few years have been the offensive line and tight end.

Now it appears that ASU may finally have depth at both positions.

“There are going to be some battles in the offensive front — we finally have some depth to finally get some competition,” Erickson said.

The tight ends have finally gotten healthy, allowing Mazzone to include them in the new schemes.

“There is no question that we have a lot of them,” Erickson said. “Knapp is healthy, [and] Kohl played a lot last year. We have some depth there, [so] we are going to do some different things. It will be a pretty good change of pace for us.”

Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu


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