The cliché says defense wins championships, but it is offense that sells tickets and gets fans excited. In the 130 days between the hiring of ASU football coach Todd Graham and Saturday’s spring game, the coach has talked numerous times about explosive offensive plays.
Albeit against a simplified defense that rarely, blitzed, the Sun Devils’ offense scored touchdowns on 10 of their 19 possessions, and three of those touchdowns were plays of 40 yards or more. Senior Jamal Miles also pleased the 5,142 in attendance with a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
“We had some good things out there,” redshirt sophomore quarterback Taylor Kelly said. “We moved the ball when we needed to. All three quarterbacks did a real good job out there today.”
The scoring started early for the Sun Devils as Kelly scampered into the end zone from 43 yards out on his third play from scrimmage. Kelly was second in the quarterback rotation — as sophomore Mike Bercovici started the scrimmage and redshirt freshman Michael Eubank led every third drive — and rushed for a touchdown on each of his first two drives.
“I’ve got to take what the defense gives me,” Kelly said. “Today was a good opportunity for me to go out there and do my thing. It was really good.”
Kelly also hit redshirt freshman Gary Chambers for a 49-yard touchdown pass later in the scrimmage.
Bercovici’s first two series at the helm of the ASU offense resulted in punts, but the California native finished the day with two touchdown passes, one a nine-yard pass to Miles and the other a three-yard pass to redshirt junior tight end Max Smith.
Similar to Bercovici, Eubank’s first drive ended with a punt, but his second one ended with a 46-yard touchdown pass to senior Rashad Ross. Eubank later connected with Miles for a 42-yard touchdown pass and also showed off his mobility with an 18-yard touchdown run on third and one.
Although he previously mentioned he wanted to see separation from the quarterbacks by the end of spring, Graham is not ready to name a starting quarterback.
“I would say Michael Eubank is potential — big time potential,” Graham said. “Taylor Kelly is poised. I think Bercovici (is an) operator and he’s got a pretty nice arm. That arm’s live, too. That’s what I would say on all of them. All of them have great character and all of them are great human beings and understand the importance of leadership, but we need a leader. It’s hard when you have three guys rotating.”
While the decision will ultimately be up to Graham and offensive coordinator Mike Norvell, the players have been equally impressed with the trio of quarterbacks as they all bring something different and unique to the table.
“It’s going to be a tough decision,” redshirt junior receiver Kevin Ozier said. “All the quarterbacks could start.”
The spring game was ASU’s 15th spring practice, which means the team and coaches cannot practice as a unit until summer, but there are some things the team needs to improve upon before fall camp.
“Midway through that third quarter — penalties, penalties, penalties,” Graham said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do training wise. A lot of that has to do with fatigue and getting worn out … What we do between right now and when we report back for our summer program in the classroom and in the weight room and running and the mental conditioning is going to determine out fate.”
Ozier echoes this sentiment.
“We need to condition more,” the receiver said. “The tempo’s gotten better since day one and now, but we’ve still got a long way to go. We need to condition over summer. If we go home, we’ve got to get up and run on our time off.”
Reach the reporter at william.boor@asu.edu
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