Moments after ASU coach Dennis Erickson left the Dutson Theater at the conclusion of his weekly press conference, junior quarterback Brock Osweiler was scheduled to speak with the media next.
Instead, an Erickson impersonator entered the room on the third floor of the Carson Center. The height difference was the dead giveaway. To celebrate Halloween, the 20-year-old Osweiler dressed up as his 64-year-old coach.
The ASU signal-caller wore a green golf shirt and a white pitchfork visor with reading glasses hanging on the tip of his nose. A Seattle Seahawks cup sat at the podium to represent the coach’s time in the NFL and one of Osweiler’s fingers housed a jewel-encrusted ring from Erickson’s tenure at Miami.
“I won it back in the day,” Osweiler said. “It was a good time down there.”
The quarterback even mimicked Erickson’s mannerisms and vocabulary to complete the transformation.
“He (Erickson) got a good laugh out of it,” Osweiler said. “He said he wishes he could go back and play.”
Backup time
Leading 41-7 at the end of the third quarter Saturday, the Sun Devils rested their starters and got some of their young players in the game for the first time since blowing out UC Davis Sept. 1.
“They bust their rear ends (in practice) and we were fortunate enough to get a lead,” Erickson said. “I believe in those guys getting better all the time. Playing in a quarter of a game is probably better than playing all of spring ball.”
ASU redshirt freshman quarterback Taylor Kelly led a touchdown drive in the fourth quarter with a 24-yard run down the middle of the Colorado defense. Junior running back James Morrison scored the first touchdown of his career on an eight-yard run and stuck Sparky’s pitchfork into the end zone after the game.
Another Sun Devil to stand out in limited playing time was sophomore linebacker Matt Tucker, who collected four tackles including assisting on one for a loss.
“Any game experience is good experience, no matter when it comes,” Osweiler said. “There’s no way to prepare for the speed of the game. For those guys, it was good to see. I hope they had a lot of fun and it was fun to watch them.”
Injury report
Erickson didn’t give any updates on ASU junior cornerback Deveron Carr, who suffered a mild concussion Saturday, but said he thinks he will be OK.
ASU sophomore offensive lineman Evan Finkenburg is getting closer to returning from his knee injury, but isn’t ready to start yet.
“He’s got a chance to be back but our plan is for him to be a backup,” Erickson said. “We’ll start (Dan) Knapp and Aderious (Simmons).”
ASU sophomore defensive end Junior Onyeali saw his first action Saturday since injuring his knee on the first play of the game at Illinois.
“(He looked) rusty, but he was healthy,” Erickson said. “You can think you’re in shape, but then you play. He hasn’t played in a while, but he’ll get better this week.”
To end speculation before it began, ASU redshirt senior cornerback Omar Bolden tweeted on his Twitter account Monday he won’t play this week at UCLA.
Reach the reporter at tyler.emerick@asu.edu
Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
