Redshirt junior quarterback Mike Bercovici throws the ball in a home game against UCLA on Sept. 25, 2014. The Sun Devils lost to the Bruins, 62-27. (Photo by Alexis Macklin)Mike Bercovici has been splitting playing time since the day he stepped on campus — four years, he says. But now that he's started two games, the redshirt junior quarterback doesn't feel anything different — except a little more respect.
He quickly clarified that he's always felt respected by his teammates, but the feeling is amplified now that they've seen what he can do in game situations.
"Going into the UCLA game, a lot of guys hadn't really seen me," Bercovici said. "They'd seen me in practice but not really underneath the lights. ... More than ever, now, I feel like I'm getting a lot of respect."
That's what 998 yards and eight touchdown passes in two games will do to a guy. What it does to his coach is get him pestered with questions about who will start the next game, when redshirt senior quarterback Taylor Kelly is expected to be healthy enough to play.
Coach Todd Graham responded to those questions with uncertain answers. He might know, but he's not telling who will start against No. 23 Stanford on Saturday.
"We expect (Kelly) to play," Graham said. "What that role will be — if I left it up to Taylor, he's all ready to go — but we also have to be careful. I think he will play. I think Mike will play, too."
Kelly was slightly more active in Tuesday's practice than he has been in the week prior. He's been without a walking boot for nearly a week now, and just began to lightly run today. He participated fully in quarterback throwing drills, but instead of working on ball security and rushing drills with the rest of the gun slingers, Kelly worked with the running backs. He ran, slightly hobbled, by the looks of it. In the portion of practice open to the media, though, Kelly didn't look to be 100 percent, and barring a miracle, it doesn't look like he'll be 100 percent four days, either.
While that doesn't rule him out — and Graham surely won't this far in advance — the aforementioned play of Bercovici in his two starts gives the coaching staff a little flexibility in who plays against Stanford.
Bercovici remains a team-first guy and claims he doesn't care whether it's him or Kelly out there — or both.
"It's exciting and inspiring for our team to see Taylor in that green jersey go out there and what he can right now," Bercovici said. "If I play five snaps, it's no different than if I play 50 snaps. It's the same effort."
Additional notes
— ASU worked the majority of its defensive walkthrough in a jumbo set, with five down linemen and redshirt junior linebacker Antonio Longino upright but on the line. Stanford's the only team the Sun Devils have to prepare this way for. The Cardinal run sets with no wide receivers, but they also run sets out of the Wildcat, which ASU also ran defensive sets for. Expect redshirt junior defensive lineman Mo Latu to again get his most significant playing time of the season against Stanford.
— Despite Stanford's lack of efficiency in the red zone (118th of 125 FBS teams, scoring 68 percent of the time), Graham also harped on that during walkthroughs. The message: The Cardinal won't wait until third down to run play action.
Reach the reporter at ewebeck@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @EvanWebeck
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