The ASU football team has its man — for now at least.
After a drawn-out quarterback competition, ASU coach Dennis Erickson announced Monday that junior Steven Threet will be the team’s quarterback when the Sun Devils open the season against Portland State on Saturday.
“We are going to start Steven Threet on Saturday against Portland State,” Erickson said. “Brock Osweiler will play in that football game.”
Erickson cited Threet’s consistency throughout fall camp as the primary factor that earned him the starting nod, although he noted that both of his quarterbacks had good camps.
“The biggest thing is I saw great improvement from both of them,” Erickson said. “I feel like we’ve got to be strong with two of them so we’re going to play them both and we’ll see what happens.”
Threet came on strong and had his best 10 practices at the end of camp, displaying the confidence and decision-making skills required in the new offense.
“He understands the game,” Erickson said. “He gets the football out of his hand real quick, very accurate. Some of the things we’re doing right now offensively requires that and he does that extremely well, and his experience — seeing defenses and understanding — makes a big difference.”
Erickson made it clear that this was a tough decision and that he could have chosen either of the two and been happy with his decision.
While Threet will get the start on Saturday, Erickson plans to use Osweiler. He doesn’t know when or how and will base that on how the game is going.
“The thing I don’t want to do is put Steven in and pull him out,” Erickson said. “We are going to get him going for a while.”
When asked if this was going to be a two-quarterback system, Erickson didn’t have an answer but stated that it is Threet’s job to lose.
“We are committed for him to be the starter and he’ll get a lot of opportunities to be the starter,” Erickson said of Threet. “The bottom line is winning football games. Whoever is going to win football games for us is going to be the quarterback.
“Steven has earned the right to start. Hopefully it doesn’t change, but if we aren’t getting productivity, we have to take a look at something else.”
Threet started his college career at Georgia Tech, but transferred to Michigan after the Yellow Jackets switched to an option offense. At Michigan, Threet played in 11 games in 2008, throwing for 1,105 yards and nine touchdowns.
Threet did lead the Wolverines to a victory over Wisconsin, one of ASU’s opponents this season. While Erickson said that Threet’s experience could help, it wasn’t a major factor in the decision to make him the starter.
In 2006, then-ASU head coach Dirk Koetter originally named Sam Keller his starting quarterback, but then handed the job to Rudy Carpenter a day later. Both considered transferring, with Keller eventually leaving ASU and finishing his career at Nebraska. Erickson doesn’t expect that kind of drama to occur this time around.
The veteran coach also doesn’t expect Osweiler or Samson Szakacsy to consider leaving the university.
“That would be a shock if that happened at all,” Erickson said. “The two that I’m talking about, they’re both in it with this football team. You won’t see that happen and as time goes on there are things that can happen.”
Osweiler also has a redshirt year available to him, but it is unclear if that is even an option.
“With Brock as we go through the season, he could end up playing,” Erickson said. “Steve could get hurt, and there could be a lot of things that could happen. But their attitude when we talked to them was, all we want to do is win and get things going in the right direction.”
Injury report
ASU will be a bit short at defensive tackle the first two weeks of the season. Sophomore Corey Adams (knee) and redshirt sophomore Toa Tuitea (elbow) will miss the first two games with their respective injuries, Erickson said.
Adams, who missed the end of last season with a back injury, had his left knee scoped on Friday to repair a torn meniscus.
With sophomore reserve tackle William Sutton academically ineligible, ASU is left with just three healthy defensive tackles. To compensate, junior defensive end Jamaar Jarrett will shift inside.
Other than the injuries at defensive tackle, Erickson said the team is healthy heading into the season opener.
Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu
