Ryan Kealy's Arizona State football career came with its share of successes and failures. Kealy, the #5 rated QB in the country in 1996 (Parade), committed to ASU after a state championship run at St. Mary's, and had a winning record as a three-year starter while amassing over 6,000 yards passing and leading the Sun Devils to two bowl games. Despite those credentials, he is perhaps best remembered for going through three reconstructive knee surgeries, and ultimately being blocked from returning to the team in lieu of well documented off the field issues.

In this interview with Ralph Amsden of DevilsDigest.com and ArizonaVarsity.com, Kealy reflects on his high school and college careers, the mistakes he made, the lessons he learned, and how he views both the current high school football landscape, as well as the Todd Graham-led Arizona State Sun Devils.

Above- Ryan Kealy throws a touchdown pass to Lenzie Jackson in ASU's game vs. Washington State in 1997.

RA: As you've probably seen, 20 years later, a different Ryan K- Ryan Kelley, has committed to Arizona State from a local high school. How did you end up committing to Arizona State out of St. Mary's?

RK: For us it was really simple. Going through the process junior year, going into senior year, I looked at the big schools- UCLA, or Penn State was always the school I thought I'd go to. As you go through the process, you get letters from everybody. How my recruitment happened, and honestly it was brilliant how ASU did it, just after St. Mary's won the state championship, they scheduled a trip for me and Tariq (McDonald) the day before they brought in the rest of the guys they were recruiting. It was really focused on us. Jake Plummer, Keith Poole, Ryan Wood were the guys who took us out, and we had a blast. They had really good character on that team, and all those guys really enjoyed each other. They did a hell of a job getting our parents down there too. We both leaned heavily on our families. One of the emotional pulls was when me and Tariq got done with our visit and we looked at each other and said 'we really need to stay together,' so we asked our parents what they thought, and my dad, who had seen Nebraska up close and personal his whole life, and he was really impressed. We committed. It was our first trip. We had four other trips, but I think part of it was that ASU was the only school that had offered both of us, so I think that was part of the equation as well."

What are the advantages and disadvantages to being a local high school football star, and sticking around to play at the local college?

I think it's a huge benefit if you do it right. The idea is to be a good kid- work hard in school, don't get too crazy off the field, be respectful of everyone, and have a quiet but good career. Most of us aren’t going pro, which isn't something you think about at the time. When I got out, I was coming off a DUI, and all sorts of bad social circumstances. I was immature, and looking back, it was my fault. I honestly think that staying in state means you need to ensure that you stay close to your family, and I pushed my family away. I was staying in state, but I was acting like I was playing at Mississippi. I lost myself somewhere along the way when that social importance became the priority. I should have studied more. But honestly, looking back at it, those mistakes have helped make me the man I am today.

What is your biggest regret about your time at Arizona State?

I was the weak link on that team. We had unbelievable players while I was there and I just didn't do my part, and for that I'll never forgive myself. I think the thought process is that you're always going to be involved in football. Once you're out, reality is a big part of it. Not only are you no longer an athlete, but people are no longer clamoring to be around you and support you. One of my bigger mistakes was thinking everybody was my best friend. My best decision since then has just been being honest about my experience at ASU. Nobody's perfect, and the more candid you are, and the more up front you are, you'll have an easier time moving past the game.

How did the fallout from the off the field issues affect you after your time at ASU ended?

The biggest thing for me is when all that stuff came down around me was my family name being dragged through the mud, because my actions were not representative of my parents' core values and how they raised me, nor was it representative of where I went to high school. St. Mary's was a very devout Catholic school, where you pride yourself on being a blue collar kid who earns what you get. I thought I was more special than I really was. When I got comfortable with knowing what my mistakes were, as an athlete you can apply the same work ethic you have on the field in your daily life, and that forever will be helpful for me. Meeting with investors in my world, people still want to be around me and hear the stories. I won't lie, being a former ASU QB helps get a foot in the door, but more importantly what helps is the candor. I'm not going to hide from my past. I was hellacious, and at the time my actions offended a lot of people. Plus the whole staff ended up getting let go, and I was really close with my QB coach John Pettis, and the WR coach Robin Pflugrad. I feel bad to this day for those guys because they were phenomenal. A lot of those linemen, wide receivers, and defensive players went pro. We just had such a special team and group of guys that looking back, it's hard not to point the finger at me, and I think that those who do are probably right.

Above- Ryan Kealy throws an interception against Oregon in 1997, and takes a big hit at the end of the play.

Why do you think you struggled to acclimate to the college environment and have sustained success?

I was pushing back. Things in my family were like the Arizona economy, they were up and down. Through most of middles school and high school they were down. You live in Paradise Valley and you're borrowing clothes just to go to school, and everything just feels weird. You go to St. Mary's and you're surrounded by blue collar, hardworking families and you think you're one of them, but then my dad starts having some success, and I had a great freshman year, and all that played into my ego and my psyche.

What positive outcomes resulted from the personal struggles you had as a student-athlete?

I never would have met my wife, have the children I do, or been in the position I am without my time at ASU. Every day I'm thankful that I went through that stuff. One thing I'd like to do is make sure nobody else goes through that. I look at a guy like Ryan Kelley and he seems like he's a really good kid, a better athlete who probably throws the ball even better than I did, and I just want to make myself available to talk to guys him about my mistakes. I really wish him the best.

What's your relationship with ASU now?

Me and ASU have never really... there's always been a little bit of uneasiness on my side about coming back in, and that's probably immaturity as well. They did what they had to do and moved away from me my senior year when they should have. Gene Smith pretty much put the kibosh on Dirk Koetter bringing me back, and that was probably the most painful day in my life. I didn't understand it, and didn't get it, but that was the moment that changed the trajectory of my life. If they would have allowed me to come back into the system, I might not have survived that last year. I was that bad. Looking back, those were the things that made me who I am today. Not that I'm this cool guy, I just think I'm normal. I look at things the way that a person probably should.

What do you think of Todd Graham, and the discipline he preaches as head coach?

I wish... I mean look at the graduation rates. Look at what he's trying to do for the 90% percent of kids aren't going to get the contracts moving on. To me that's everything. Maybe if someone had had implemented that while I was at ASU it might have made a difference in my life, I don't know. I love that he goes after kids who could end up team captains, I love the character piece. I think what he does is the correct way to go. I think that's how you should build your program, and I think success should grow out of that. When good kids come, good parents come, and when good people are around your program, all of the sudden, you end up with a good product on the field. Todd Graham is the epitome of what I think a head coach should be. Graham, and Tom Osborne. Growing up, and still to this day, I think Tom Osborne embodied what a coach should be because of that character piece.

What do you think of the growth of both high school football, and the expansion of talent in the state of Arizona in the last 20 years?

It's unbelievable. It's one of the more fun parts of being an Arizona athlete. I have to admit, my whole take on this is it has a lot to do with the professional athletes. The Cardinals, the Donovan McNabbs of the world. The people who experience this place as professionals and retire here, and more importantly, the people who come to train here are starting to bring their families. You're really starting to see this dynamic impact the East Valley. Keith Poole has an athlete's performance facility in the East Valley- a lot of these guys are setting up camp here and making it where they want to be for the long term, and it has a tremendous benefit. This is becoming a really fun football town, and to see 30-35 kids have division 1 opportunities, and have the ability to commit early- the examples of success are having a valuable impact on the even younger kids. Now, I'm not sure if the pressure that comes along with that is good, I'm just saying it's really neat to look around and see this many colleges take Arizona seriously.

You were on the last St. Mary's team to win a state championship in 1995. Since then we've seen the rise of Hamilton, Chaparral, and more recently, schools like Chandler. What's your take on the current high school football landscape?

I think Steve Belles and Hamilton showed everyone how to do it. That made a school like Chandler look down the street at their success and work hard to figure things out. How do you figure out how to get the kids to stick with the system, stay eligible, and get through it when they know they're typically going to be 5-6, 165-pounds? How do you get them to believe that athletically, this could be the best 3-4 years of their life, so they'll block, tackle, and clear a path for some of these good kids who can move on to the next level and give them someone to be proud of? That was the St. Mary's of old, but even though they've fallen by the wayside, you have schools like Brophy popping up, and Chaparral, the school I was supposed to go to, is now a fantastic sports school.

What advantages do kids coming up now have over those who played 10, 20 years ago?

It sounds like with these camps they travel to, they're seeing the top level of competition a lot earlier. With these passing camps, and trainers like Rudy Carpenter, a lot of this stuff is getting implemented early on. You're starting to see high school offenses align with Pop Warner. When I played youth football we ran the I-Formation. These days, you'll see things Chaparral's system layered year by year into youth football, so that by the time they get to high school, they're running the same offenses as Chaparral, or Pinnacle, or Hamilton. These kids are getting schemes 7-8 years before they even get to the high school they'll end up at. The sophistication of what's being taught to kids is just so important in the growth of what these schools are able to do.

What do you think of the spread, and some of the modern offenses that allow offenses to exploit coverages and spee the game up?

The one thing I push back against is the part of the spread offense that keeps the QB out from under center. That whole thing is out of my core understanding and the way I like to coach. I wasn't the QB that liked to throw 60 times a game. Give me a good defense, a running back, and a QB who doesn't make too many mistakes. These offenses now are open, they're fast, and they have kids throwing 40 times a game, but they're not throwing 40 times down the field, they're these little pot passes. Quick Stuff. The problem is you're not really reading. You're just telling them where to go with the ball. The dichotomy is that you have less quality QBs coming out of college and into the pros, but they're so much quicker to get good at running the system that they're in because they're learning it so early. There's got to be something that comes down, some type of shift, because the NFL can't be happy with the quality of guys they're getting. But in college? How can you stop it? The success they're having in college is so obvious. To compete at the level you need to and be a top-flight program you have to run these offenses. How else do you end up with something like Baylor in the top-10?

What's the most important element of developing into a successful college quarterback?

The mental side. At the end of the day you've got to have a kid be able to read a defense. Good quarterbacks spend time in the film room. I didn't spend the time off the field watching video. I'm seeing a precedence of success correlating to time spent studying. That's where I'm seeing the biggest change in kids. They have the ability to know things pre-snap, things about how defenses set up, that I could have only dreamed to know. That's where the special kids rise up.

Above- Ryan Kealy throws a TD pass to Kenny Mitchell against Washington State in 1997.

What do you think it takes to make it as an athlete in general?

I knew kids who could throw the ball 65 yards at age 9. They ended up the coolest kids in school, complete badasses, but they didn't end up quarterbacks. The biggest arm and the best athlete don't always get it done. So many things have to happen right for a kid to make it. The mental piece is the biggest part of it. JR Redmond said it best- he told me he was the third tailback on his high school team. I asked him what happened to the other kids, and he told me 'one's dead and the other is in jail.' That was our Heisman trophy candidate, and he wasn't even the starter on his team. I know for a fact that on Fridays and Saturdays, we're not seeing the best athletes, we're seeing the ones who are the most determined, and the ones who are lucky enough to make it to the field. J'Juan Cherry was by far the best athlete I'd ever seen in my life, and he barely saw the field at ASU. There's just so much that goes into it, and having gone through what I did, that's why I say the character piece is the biggest for me. I love what Todd Graham has going, and I think if you stress the things he stresses at the younger level, they're who you need them to be when you reach that level. Outside of that, it can be a crapshoot. There are some great athletes that are going to make it no matter what, and some grinders who will make it no matter what.

You said you coach?

I coach flag football, and I made the comment the other day, that I don't need studs, I just need good parents. You can coach good kids- you don't necessarily need that stud, and I know that doesn't always hold true at the upper levels, but it's so funny how character plays into it even at the younger levels. Arrogance is a tough mindset for kids to get out of, and it's contagious, it catches like a fire in these kids.

How does your time in football affect what you look for in a school and coach for your kids?

The fear as a dad with young boys is that I want to ensure I send my kids to a place where they're going to get that character piece. Where can I send my kids where they'll be ground down the way he should, and not be entitled to a point where he gets an air of arrogance early on. Most of that is going to be how I raise my kids, obviously, but I've also got to find a school that I can trust to do the same.

Is athletic success something you want for your children?

I go back and forth with my own kids. I made the mistake with my son of saying to myself "I know he's going to be good." And the truth is, I don't know. Nobody knows. The coolest part about that is, it just doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is he's got a good heart. One of the other coaches said to me once, while we were all probably a little too fired up, that the best athletes are the ones who love the process. If we can’t get them to be engaged in the process, and enjoy it, then none of them will be good. That's why it’s important to not force them into things. Sports is becoming more confusing as I get older, but it's also becoming much more clear as well. The end product just isn't as important as the process of creating respectful, hardworking kids.

For more from Ryan Kealy on what he thinks of 2017 ASU QB commit Ryan Kelley, ASU's crowded QB situation, in-state recruiting, and more, check out the member's only Huddle message board.