Arizona State head football coach Todd Graham announced on Monday that redshirt freshman quarterback Brady White is out for the season with a right foot injury he suffered in the fourth quarter of the win over UCLA.
“My heart goes out to him,” Graham said. “He did such a great job for us. It’s a tough deal for him, but he’ll be back.”
Graham said he “fully intends” to have redshirt sophomore quarterback Manny Wilkins (high ankle sprain) back this week, but that the team is preparing true freshman backup Dillon Sterling-Cole, as well as true freshman Jack Smith and redshirt sophomore Coltin Gerhart for depth purposes.
Redshirt freshman Bryce Perkins is also “unlikely” to play this year after previously suffering a neck injury in early August, Graham said. That means ASU (5-1, 2-1 Pac-12) has now lost two of the three guys competing for the starting quarterback job at the beginning of the fall.
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ASU now travels to Colorado (4-2, 2-1) in a game between two of the three teams tied at the top of the Pac-12 South. And if Wilkins plays, one could perhaps assume he would be limited with that injury and may not be the same player as he was during the first four weeks.
“The game of football mirrors life,” Graham said. “You’re going to have injuries, you’re going to have weeks where you don’t have people, and that’s where you have people step up. That’s what I love about the team concept of football.
“We’re playing a team that’s capable of big plays. A team that is playing very good and a team that is playing very well at home, so we just got to go figure out a way to win on the road.”
Graham said the plan is to have Wilkins practicing by Thursday, but for the staff to be constantly preparing Sterling-Cole regardless of Wilkins’ health progression throughout the week.
“Quarterback is such an important position,” Graham said. “You have to adapt what you’re doing to the skills and talents of the person taking the snap, so that’s what we’ll do. We didn’t have our starting quarterback last week and won.”
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Graham praised Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre — someone he said he has always respected — for the way he has developed the program since his arrival.
This year’s Colorado team features three legitimate playmakers at receiver, Graham said. But the main difference to the group than in years past is its defense.
“They’re attacking on defense and playing with a lot of emotion,” Graham said. “Obviously they’ve improved tremendously…They’re a football team that’s playing very hungry.”
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Conversely, ASU’s staff experimented with the secondary a bit against UCLA, highlighted by Marcus Ball starting at Bandit (strong) safety instead of his usual Spur linebacker position.
Ball won Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week recording a career-high 10 tackles (all solo) and an interception in Saturday’s win.
Graham said he was proud of Ball and others who helped fortify the secondary after sophomore corner Kareem Orr left the game and never returned due to an injury suffered in the first half. The other standouts included Maurice Chandler (first game of the season after being injured), Bryson Echols (filled in for Orr), Armand Perry and Robbie Robinson (freshman nickel corner who recorded his first career interception).
ASU has overcome a good amount of adversity revolving around slow starts and injuries through six weeks, but will seemingly need to so again this week.
“I think that you can talk about it, but our guys have shown it,” Graham said. “They’ve shown great heart coming from behind in games during this season. They obviously responded last week after not playing well and having a disappointing game the week before…I think that heart and determination is just a product of the culture we’ve developed.”
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Note: Kicker Zane Gonzalez won Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week for the third time this year after breaking the NCAA record for career field goals in the win over UCLA. Gonzalez now has 89 career field goals with six games remaining.
