Steven Threet’s 2010 season has been an enigma.
There have been plenty of positives, but also numerous moments of struggle. When this season is all said and done, the junior quarterback is on pace to write his name in the ASU record books in many categories, some encouraging and one that he would prefer not to hold.
“Too much up and down, I would say,” Threet said of his season. “There have even been some good first halves, bad second halves, bad first halves, good second halves. Just too much up and down. I just need to play more consistent and help the team more.”
Threet is on pace to throw 23 touchdown passes this season, which would be the sixth-best mark in a single season in school history.
His current pace would place his final passing yardage number at 3,163, which would be third all-time, behind Andrew Walter’s 3,877 yards in 2002 and Rudy Carpenter’s 3,202 in 2007.
If Threet keeps up his 62.2 completion percentage, he will hold the single season record of quarterbacks that have attempted 301 or more passes on the season in that category.
There are even more categories where Threet is about to join the most elite quarterbacks to ever don the maroon and gold.
His pace for 409 passing attempts would be fourth all-time, with the three ahead belonging to Walter. He already holds the record for passing yards by an ASU quarterback in their Sun Devil debut.
Those numbers would indicate Threet has had a pretty good year. One statistic, however, says otherwise: interceptions.
Threet has been picked off 15 times, which is the second highest total amongst FBS quarterbacks. Mark Malone, who threw 19 in 1978, holds the ASU record for interceptions.
No ASU quarterback has thrown more than 15 since Malone. Threet is on pace for 20.
“He has thrown more interceptions then we would have liked — that’s pretty obvious,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. “He’s improved a lot, but unfortunately with what we do offensively if you throw it in the wrong place then you are going to have some issues.”
A lot of Threet’s mistakes have come when ASU has fallen behind and he has tried to do too much to get his team back in the game.
“I think that’s the nature of the quarterback sometimes,” Erickson said. “They are all very competitive and sometimes they try to make certain things happen when its not there. It’s better to throw it away but that’s the nature of a competitor. That’s happened to him and hopefully he will learn from that and I think he will.”
Threet agreed with that notion and knows he has to work on making better decisions at times.
“There are times that I could throw the ball away, but hindsight is usually 20-20,” Threet said. “It’s easier to make the decisions after the fact. Even me looking back on it, I question ‘hey, maybe I should have thrown it away’ but I have to work on that. Maybe even in practice, work on that a little bit more, and just get better in that aspect.”
Threet has gone through multiple offenses and offensive coordinators in his college career, including having to learn Noel Mazzone’s current scheme.
The new offense implemented by Mazzone this offseason puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback to not only make decisions at the line of scrimmage, but also after the ball has been snapped. Many times Threet would be given a run play and a pass play and tasked with deciding which to run after taking the ball from under center.
“There is a lot of gray area,” Threet said. “A lot of times you hand the ball off and then you’re like, ‘man, I should have thrown that one.’ Then there are times you hand it off and get an eight-yard gain and could have thrown it and only got two yards.
“There is just a lot of gray area and you have to have a feel for it throughout the game. You have to watch the film and try to get a feel for how they are going to stop it. But until you get out on the field, you never really know what they are going to do.”
Despite struggling with interceptions and consistency at times, there is no doubt that Threet has been an upgrade at the position from last year when ASU cycled through three different quarterbacks and had no set starter for much of the season.
With that upgrade comes more comfort with his wide receivers, allowing them to improve as well. Junior wide receiver T.J. Simpson has emerged with Threet as his quarterback.
“Threet has really been helping me out getting me the ball in space and finding me when I am open,” Simpson said.
Naturally, with Threet returning next season with a year in the offense under his belt, Erickson expects the mistakes to be cut down on.
“Once he has a year in the offense, the second year is obviously going to be a heck of a lot better,” Erickson said. “It’s a learning process for him. He made a lot of good plays, but some mistakes. That’s the nature of the position. I like where he’s at and where he is right now as he moves forward with the last few games we play and next year.”
Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu
