ASU coach Todd Graham participated Wednesday night in a conference call
with season-ticket holders, the kind of event that typically produces a
lot of positive talk but little of substance. This one was a bit
different, though, in that Graham directly addressed a couple of
strategy questions and was even willing to name a frontrunner in the
race everybody's watching at quarterback.
Graham, coming off a
debut spring practice that didn't produce a clear starter among redshirt
sophomore Taylor Kelly, sophomore Mike Bercovici and redshirt freshman
Michael Eubank, said after the spring game that he had a good idea of
who would get the majority of the playing time but wanted to keep
everyone "at bay."
That apparently is no longer the case, as
Graham responded to a question about potentially playing multiple
quarterbacks by saying the following:
"We've got three great
candidates, but I think Mike (Bercovici) is probably a guy that's a
little bit ahead. He's had a little bit more reps and experience as the
backup last year.
"But this thing is really close."
The
initial portion of that update likely came as a surprise to most fans,
as Eubank was generally regarded as the favorite due to his athleticism
and the fact that he was recruited by Graham at Pitt. The 6-foot-5,
242-pounder showed some of that athleticism in the spring game, rushing
seven times for 60 yards and a touchdown while going 8 for 15 passing
for 180 yards and three scores. Bercovici, the least mobile of the three
but a better passer with a huge arm, was 11 for 22 for 117 yards and
two touchdowns in the spring game.
As Brock Osweiler's backup
last year, Bercovici went 2 for 3 for 8 yards in mop-up duty but did
receive a majority of the second-team snaps in practice.
As for
whether he would consider using multiple quarterbacks, Graham was
somewhat noncommittal, saying that he wouldn't rule it out but would
prefer to have an established starter.
"I think it's really
important that we have a leader emerge at quarterback. That position is
so vital from an intangibles standpoint -- not just passing the ball,
handing the ball off or operating the physical attributes of a
quarterback -- but it's the leadership I really think is important. So
we're hoping to come out of Camp Tontozona with a guy that's gonna be
our starter.
"But I wouldn't rule that out that we would use two,
because I think there's some very specific skill sets that each one of
them has. But my preference would be that we'd have a guy emerge as the
starter, and then if we use someone else it'd be in a limited role."
The
quarterback situation aside, Graham's comment regarding Camp Tontozona
didn't go unnoticed, as one fan asked the coach's confidence level -- on
a scale of 1 to 10 -- in a return to Camp T this offseason.
Graham's response: "10."
According
to the Arizona Republic, ASU has raised $132,633 of the $150,000 needed
by June 1 for the team to spend a week in August at the facility near
Payson.
