ASU Football: Through complicated path, how Manny Wilkins has emerged as ASU’s quarterback leader

(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)

Manny Wilkins’s career at Arizona State has been complicated.

Most of his life has been too.

Yet, the win of his career was highlighted by a simple moment of triumphant passion on Saturday night.

With ASU leading No. 5 Washington 13-0 at the end of the third quarter, Wilkins looked toward the stands at Sun Devil Stadium. The redshirt junior began waving his arms up and down, pumping up a buzzing crowd of 50,000, and prompting a distinct eruption from the “South Inferno” student section:

“MANNY! MANNY! MANNY!” they chanted, serenading their school’s starting quarterback. He started possessively pointing at the grass beneath his feet, miming the message that was reverberating through his head: “This is what we do. This is what we are about.”

The moment was one of many high-points of a game where the Sun Devils’ upset the fifth-ranked Huskies, the school’s first win over Top 5 competition in 21 years. But the emotional outburst from the normally level-headed Wilkins was unique. It encapsulated just how much has changed for him, his team and his program during his career.

He has traveled a long path to bring Saturday’s success to fruition.

Wilkins has done a lot of maturing in his time at ASU. Physically and mentally; on the field and in the locker room. He has become capable of leading his team to one of college football’s most stunning results this year.

“He’s done such a good job as being a leader on the football team, where people know the development he has made as a person and a player,” said former ASU quarterback Mike Bercovici.

Few people know Wilkins like Bercovici. The two quarterbacks were road-game roommates during Wilkins’ early years in Tempe. The younger gunslinger was no stranger to sleeping on Bercovici’s couch back on campus.

However, Bercovici’s very first impression of freshman-year Wilkins:

“Didn’t like him.”

Wilkins was riding a skateboard and blasting music from a speaker when the two first met. The fourth-year Bercovici was unimpressed and questioned his newly arrived teammate: “What are you doing man? You’re a quarterback on four wheels? You can’t be doing that; you let the other guys do that kind of stuff.”

That was at the beginning of the 2014 season, a year the Sun Devils would win 10 games and narrowly miss a second straight Pac-12 South title. As part of a talented stable of quarterbacks that included Bercovici, senior starter Taylor Kelly and three other promising underclassmen, Wilkins had his work cut out to keep up.

“We had a couple younger quarterbacks at times in the offense. I remember Manny never missed a single white board session we would have,” Bercovici said. “Though he didn’t grasp the offense as quickly as some other guys, he was always there willing to learn. I saw throughout the entire year, because we were roommates together on the road, he really slowly started to understand the offense at a high level. It was a natural progression.”

Bercovici’s initial image of Wilkins as a “rowdy and immature” kid disappeared quickly.

“He was constantly asking questions and his questions became better and better as he started to understand more,” Bercovici said. “That’s the thing that, to me, when I saw him as a young kid, his learning curve was moving so rapid I knew that he was going to be one of the quarterbacks that ‘developed’. He came in with amazing athletic ability, but between his ears he had so much to learn and I saw that, when he was young, it was going to click.”

Wilkins redshirted during the 2014 campaign and played understudy to Bercovici the next year. Once his mentor graduated, he won the starting quarterback job during the 2016 preseason over freshman Brady White. By the beginning of just his third year in the program, Wilkins’ responsibility had come a long way.

As ASU coach Todd Graham noticed at the time before giving him the starting job: “I can still remember him coming in as a freshman. That’s the most immature you’re going to be when you come in as a freshman. But he’s matured a great deal.”

Outside of the team however, Wilkins was still unproven to a fan base thirsty for results. In his first start against Northern Arizona, a sluggish offensive showing left an already apprehensive Sun Devil Stadium crowd uninspired. The student section – the same group that showered him with praising chants last week – began calling for his backup White to replace him in the game.

Some would have been rattled and zapped of confidence. Not Wilkins.

“When adversity strikes, you’ve just got to keep bouncing back,” he said that night. “We’ll look at the film and go from there.”

He hasn’t changed his approach since.

Wilkins climbed the depth chart early in his career by making himself at home in the film room and in front of the whiteboard. He hasn’t relinquished that spot thanks to a commitment to that method.

“That’s been a big part of what I’ve tried to do is watch so much film to the point where I know the other team like they know themselves,” he said on Tuesday.

The nonstop work away from the field ended up helping him persevere through struggles on it.

ASU lost its last six games last season – a stretch during which Wilkins battled injuries – to ruin its promising 5-1 start. Then during this past offseason, former 5-star quarterback Blake Barnett transferred to the school from Alabama. There were plenty of people who thought Wilkins’ days as the starter were done.

Except the ones who really know him.

“He’s always going to work harder. Try to outwork the guy he was competing against,” said his high school coach Steve Stanfel, who has followed Wilkins’ collegiate career closely since he graduated from San Marin as 4-star recruit himself in 2014.

Stanfel had a front row seat to Wilkins’ high school evolution. When the quarterback arrived at the Novato, California school at the beginning of his sophomore year, Wilkins was academically ineligible to play; he had poor grades and a gulf of class credits to make up. Though not allowed to dress for games, Wilkins was invited to practice with San Marin’s varsity team.

“He really worked hard to get his grades straight and his credits up,” Stanfel said. “He was always a charismatic type of kid. Always a big smile. Always a hard worker even at that point.”

Before his sophomore season was through, Wilkins gained his eligibility and became the high school’s backup quarterback while also fitting into its wide receiver rotation. Stanfel said Wilkins’ first real action under center came against a No. 2 ranked Cardinal Newman High School in the first round of that season’s state playoffs. Wilkins’ team lost 38-0, the first of a now-hearty line of disheartening defeats he has suffered during his football career.

It was also his start towards a more dedicated approach to the game.

A lot of the changes that Stanfel noticed in Wilkins’ high school behavior helped him form the foundation for his now polished skill set. As a high school upperclassman, Wilkins got serious in the weight room and became a mentor to younger players in the program. He worked to cultivate his raw throwing abilities and developed into one of the nation’s top dual-threat prospects. A scholarship offer from ASU arrived by the end of his junior year.

“He was always above his age in handling the pressure and the people coming by talking (to him),” Stanfel said of Wilkins’ recruiting process. “We haven’t had as many recruiters up here since. They all liked him.”

Wilkins’ growth from his high school years and early ASU seasons paid off when battling Barnett to retain the starting quarterback job this preseason. Graham’s support of Wilkins never wavered as the incumbent earned the chance for an encore season as ASU’s No. 1 option under center.

“I’m not surprised that he did win the competition [for the starting job] because he’s a great competitor,” Stanfel said.

It’s paid off. Wilkins has rounded into form this year and become one of the country’s top quarterbacks. He is among the FBS’s leaders in yards per game (21st), efficiency (34th) and ball security (two interceptions – 12th nationally among qualified passers).

But even great stats don’t prevent all adversity. Among this year’s slate of difficulties – tough schedule, new offensive coordinator and inconsistent pass protection – Wilkins received disturbing messages from fans via social media following the team’s week two loss to San Diego State.

He stayed composed through the ordeal, resisting from shooting back at his naysayers. Instead, Wilkins let his performances – and those of his team – provide the response in the form of a 2-1 start to Pac-12 play. Both wins have been against ranked opposition.

“Fan criticisms and quarterback battles, as he started to mature in college those kinds of things became irrelevant,” Bercovici said.

Wilkins has also transitioned into one of the team’s foremost leaders. His own mentor and friend, Bercovici, always tried to “act like a leader in the quarterbacks’ room” when he was at ASU, a mantra Wilkins has seized in the last couple of years.

“That’s one of the things I think is critical: is in each room you need a guy who is the enforcer, a guy that’s a great example, a guy that can relay the coach’s message,” offensive coordinator Billy Napier said. “Manny is certainly that in the quarterback room for us.”

Where he was once brisk with the media, Wilkins now unfailing takes responsibility for losses and heaps praise on his teammates to reporters. Receiver Jalen Harvey said his quarterback has found an effective balance between vocal and example-driven guidance.

On the field, he has become a motivator during rough times. He keeps his group grounded when things are up and incites the crowd when the moment is right.

“Sometimes he will try to get us hyped up as a unit,” Harvey said. “Sometimes we have to go out there and see what he is doing for us to get hyped up.”

You have to look back a long time to track the path Wilkins has taken, but you only have to revisit the end of the third quarter last week to see where he has arrived: beating top teams on the field and getting top praise off of it.

“It was cool to experience that,” he said of the chanting moment with the crowd. “That was my gratitude, my appreciation to [the fans] because they’re a huge part of what we do…That was a cool moment for me to have everybody get up, let them know it’s the fourth quarter. Stay strong.”

Through all of the twists and turns, Wilkins has kept his trajectory trending upward, having stayed strong himself through his whole football life.

The scary part?

He still has a year and a half left in Tempe. Plenty of time for more moments like Saturday’s.

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