Categories: Arizona StateArticleFootball

ASU Football: After Bercovici’s masterpiece, is there any reason to call this a quarterback competition?

(Photo: ASU Athletics)

Elation. Jubilation. Triumph: sure-fire words to describe the state of mind of Arizona State players, coaches and fans after a 38-34 win over No. 16 USC on Saturday night.

Mike Bercovici, the backup quarterback who had opted to remain a Sun Devil despite the certainty that he would be buried on the bench until 2015, had led his team from a nine-point deficit with four minutes to play to a thrilling last-second Hail Mary victory over the Trojans.

The story is almost too good to be true.

And perhaps it is.

Amid all the joyful exuberance that currently surrounds this Sun Devil football team is Taylor Kelly. Sidelined with a foot injury since the fourth quarter of ASU’s contest against Colorado three weeks ago, the senior quarterback is rumored to be nearing medical clearance.

“He will for sure be ready for Stanford,” said Graham numerous times during last week’s set of practices.

But Mike Bercovici’s five-touchdown performance against the Trojans Saturday night was utterly magical. As such, what is the state of the Sun Devil quarterback position going forward?

What follows is simply a comparison—a QBR-based comparison and a counting stat-based comparison between the best career performance from Bercovici (obviously Saturday night) and from Kelly (December 29, 2012 against Navy in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl and September 28, 2013 against USC). Read into it what you wish.

Bercovici

27-of-45, 510 passing yards, 5 TDs, 0 INTs, -5 rushing yards, 191.9 RAT, 85.0 QBR

Kelly

(vs. Navy) 17-of-19, 267 passing yards, 4 TDs, 0 INTs, 81 rushing yards, 277.0 RAT, 99.5 QBR

(vs. USC) 23-of-34, 351 passing yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT, 79 rushing yards, 177.6 RAT, 94.9 QBR

It would be both highly reactionary and a disservice to Bercovici and Kelly to begin to speculate on a possible quarterback controversy. One performance should not provoke a knee-jerk reaction that has ramifications for the remainder of the season.

That being said, the classic media tactic after a performance as impressive as the one Bercovici ushered Saturday night is to begin to speculate. Taylor Kelly has years of experience and is highly in-sync with the Sun Devil offensive scheme, but Mike Bercovici’s monster arm is a tantalizing discovery. To complicate matters, Graham has showed little hesitancy this season in terms of tinkering with the depth chart. The extent of Kelly’s foot injury has also never been disclosed, meaning that the recovery process (both physical and mental) is anyone’s guess.

Though unpopular and possibly polarizing, the question is certainly permeating its way into the heads of those paying attention to Arizona State football.

In that sense, Saturday night could be just the beginning of a drama-filled, emotionally-charged remainder of the 2014 football season.

Follow Jacob Garcia on Twitter @Jake_M_Garcia or connect with him on LinkedIn.