Pac-10 Position Breakdown Quarterback: Arizona State Sun Devils

Believe it or not, Sun Devil faithful, Rudy Carpenter is not back for another year as the ASU signal caller. After Carpenter’s roller-coaster run of four years, Arizona State will be breaking in a new quarterback.

Head coach Dennis Erickson now faces the task of trying to resuscitate an offense that was largely responsible for ASU’s disappointing five win season in 2008. Erickson visited with his good friend Mack Brown (Texas head coach) earlier this year about offensive philosophies and the new Sun Devil QB will likely be running a different offense than Carpenter did last year.

The offseason has been a busy one for Arizona State quarterbacks. The Sun Devils headed into April with five scholarship QB’s, but by the second month of spring, they only had three left.

First, redshirt freshman Jack Elway, son of hall-of-famer John Elway, decided to leave the football team and stay at ASU for his academics instead. Not long after Elway's decision was made, sophomore Chasen Stangel decided to transfer.

Neither player figured to be in the running for playing time, but now the Sun Devils face depth concerns at a position where there isn’t much experience to begin with.

The leader for the starting job so far is senior Danny Sullivan. The long time backup of Carpenter, Sullivan is a 6'4", 242-pound gunslinger who has very limited experience despite being in Tempe for four years.

He has played in a total of 24 games going 40-87 for 409 yards, with three TDs and three INTs. Sullivan has one of the strongest arms in the conference and had a relatively solid spring.

His biggest weakness is his inability to avoid pressure, especially when opposing defenses blitz. That could be a recipe for disaster if the Sun Devil offensive line plays like it has the last two seasons.

For Sullivan to have success, he must demonstrate that he can make the right decisions quickly and consistently in order to overcome his mobility issues. Sullivan really can sling it, so if ASU’s line finds a way to give him time, his deep ball would add an element to the offense that it hasn’t had since the Andrew Walter days.

Sullivan’s main competition is intriguing sophomore, Samson Szakacsy. The 6'4", 210-pound Szakacsy has never taken a meaningful snap but possesses true 4.4 speed and has a unique skill set that is unlike recent Sun Devil quarterbacks. In fact, some folks around Tempe believe he most accurately resembles a rawer version of Jake Plummer.

With the read-option now in the playbook, Szakacsy is a multi-threat talent that would allow for an infusion of creativity into an offense that was brutally vanilla last season. If Sullivan is to be beat out of the job this fall, Szakacsy is likely to be the reason.

Tempe can't stop talking about freshman QB Brock Osweiler. At 6'8", 237 pounds, he was recruited by Gonzaga to play basketball before deciding he wanted to stick with football only. Dennis Erickson went all the way to Montana to get him, and since arriving on campus he has made a huge impact.

Osweiler graduated high school early in order to compete for the starting quarterback position this past spring.

Many believe he is the next face of Arizona State football and the experienced Erickson cannot stop raving about his rare intangibles at such a young age. The remarkable thing about Osweiler is that at 6-8 237 he is a smooth runner that rushed for over 1,000 yards and 20 touchdowns in his high school career on top of throwing for 8,655 and 80 TDs.

My Take: I am skeptical of Sullivan. He is in the mold of an Andrew Walter and can therefore be very successful at the collegiate level, but I don’t think he is the right fit under center behind an offensive line as porous as ASU’s.

I am very high on both Szakacsy and Osweiler because of the unique upside that each has, but they are both still too green to be counted on.

With former Michigan QB Steven Threet transferring in next year, and the continued development of the young Sun Devil quarterbacks, I think Erickson will have some great offenses in the next few years; just not this year.

- Sam Saig, www.allpac10.com