Brock Osweiler was nervous. The newly anointed face of the Arizona State football team was scheduled to hold his first Monday news conference in front of the Valley’s sports media. The small-town kid from Kalispell, Mont., had no idea how to act.
“What are they going to ask me?” he asked ASU assistant media relations director Randy Policar. “What should I do?"
Policar suggested Osweiler turn the tables on the media by asking them a question to “put them on their heels.” With that, a new tradition was born: the weekly media trivia question.
Normally, it involved something about the opponent or the opponent’s home city or state. But with each passing week, Osweiler’s aw-shucks personality emerged and the media gleaned a little bit more about a wide-eyed, down-to-earth, good-natured and good-humored kid.
“He was so open to everything — not just X's and O's but how you act as a quarterback, how you carry yourself as a leader,” said former offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone, now at UCLA. “That’s what made us so close. He was a really grounded kid with no hidden agendas. His reactions, whether positive or negative, were always genuine. You always knew where you stood with Brock.”
Osweiler’s announcement on Friday to declare for the NFL draft came as a mild shock to locals who expected him back for his senior season. With just one year under his belt as a starter, raw talents still to be honed and unfinished business in Tempe, Osweiler indicated after the regular-season finale against Cal that he would return.
But a series of ensuing events altered that thinking.
First, coach Dennis Erickson was fired, leaving Osweiler with the prospect of learning a new offense and, more daunting, a new terminology for his senior season.
Then Mazzone, his mentor at ASU, accepted the same job at UCLA when it became clear new coach Todd Graham wasn’t interested in retaining him.
Then a few quarterbacks who appeared headed for the draft — including USC’s Matt Barkley and Oklahoma’s Landry Jones — opted to return for their senior seasons.
Finally, there was the Rudy Carpenter factor. After a strong junior season, the former ASU quarterback elected to return for his senior year. He got banged up behind a porous offensive line, didn’t play well and went undrafted. Carpenter has always felt that decision cost him a lot of income.
Osweiler didn’t want the same thing to happen.
So he requested information from the NFL on his draft prospects. Then he assessed a depleted ASU offensive roster that lost its top three receivers and a good chunk of its offensive line to graduation.
And then he made a life-altering decision.
“It was an exceptionally difficult decision to make, but having spoken to my family and close friends it became clear to me that this is the next path I must take to advance my personal and professional career,” he said in a release. “I will never forget how many people have gone out of their way to make ASU home for me.”
Osweiler is projected anywhere from a late second-round pick to a fifth-rounder, but those projections are preliminary and not terribly reliable since NFL scouts don’t spend much time evaluating underclassmen until they know they’re coming out.
The more pertinent question is how will ASU recover, in the short term, from the loss?
“One of the things I’m excited about is that position and the young men we have there,” Graham said. “All three of the guys that were playing behind Brock are tremendous character guys, great intangibles, great leadership and can flat spin the ball.
“We’re not going to be OK. We’re going to be great.”
That’s the kind of hyperbole you would expect from a coach. The reality is that none of those three players has started a game. Sophomore backups Mike Bercovici and Taylor Kelly attempted just seven passes combined last season, and Eubank redshirted.
Bercovici had some "wow" moments in practice as he outdueled Kelly for the backup role, but his size (listed at 6-1), accuracy and touch are still concerns.
Eubank is a 6-foot-5, 235-pound specimen — ranked as the No. 18 quarterback nationally by Scout and the No. 8 dual-threat QB by Rivals coming out of Centennial High in Corona, Calif. He might be the best fit for Graham's spread offense. He was recruited by Graham at Pitt and had the Panthers among his final three college choices.
But he’s also raw, a point worth noting to those who thought Osweiler left because Eubank was going to take his job. No coach replaces a proven senior quarterback with a redshirt freshman unless he’s lost his mind.
The other quarterback to consider moving forward is T.J. Millweard of All Saints Episcopal High in Forth Worth, Texas. Scout rates him the nation's 31st-best quarterback. He committed to ASU in June, but it's unknown if he will still sign following the coaching change.
No matter who plays, the Devils will experience growing pains along the way as they try to replace the first 4,000-plus yard passer in school history with their fifth starting quarterback in as many seasons.
Graham said he had several conversations with Osweiler about the direction of the program and Osweiler’s intentions. While he wanted to coach Osweiler and didn't agree with the junior's decision, he acceded to it.
“Brock is doing what he believes is best for him and his family, and we respect that,” Graham said.
Respect is earned. Osweiler certainly did that with an open and affable personality and a better-then-expected first year as ASU’s starter. The only shame is that the ASU community didn’t get a little more time to watch him blossom.
“There are so many things that I will miss about ASU, but I know that I will be a Sun Devil until I die,” he said. “I have a pitchfork tattoo on my ribs to symbolize the best three years of my life.”
