As mentioned last week, there have been a handful of seasons over the past 20 years in which two quarterbacks started games for ASU – 11 seasons, in fact, from 1996-2015.

The 2016 season made it an even dozen last week when Brady White started in place of Manny Wilkins, and the Sun Devils could join an even rarer group this week should true freshman Dillon Sterling-Cole (or even fellow freshman Jack Smith) become the team’s third starting quarterback now that White is shelved for the year due to a season-ending injury.

Dating back to 1990, there have been only five seasons in which ASU started three different quarterbacks over the course of the season: 1990, 1992, 1998, 2000 and 2009.

Though the sample is small, the best record among these five is ASU’s 6-5 finish in 1992. The Sun Devils appeared in the Aloha Bowl and had a 6-6 final record in 2000.

Understandably, having to rotate three quarterbacks in the starting lineup causes an amount of volatility that is measurable in the final win-loss tally. In all, in the five seasons since 1990 that ASU has started three quarterbacks the combined record is 24-32 (.439). Two of those seasons, 1990 and 2009, included the second-lowest win total (four wins) a Sun Devil team has posted since 1946, only behind ASU’s three-win 1994 season.

To put another tilt on the rarity of starting three quarterbacks in a year, since 1990 there have been 10 seasons in which ASU didn’t even have three quarterbacks to each throw a single pass on the season, let alone start a game.

Additionally, last Saturday Sterling-Cole became just the fifth true freshman quarterback since 1996 to throw a pass for ASU joining Sam Keller in 2003, Danny Sullivan in 2006, Brock Osweiler in 2009 and Mike Bercovici in 2011. Of the previous four in that span, only Osweiler started a game as a true freshman.

According to a 2009 Arizona Republic story on Osweiler, prior to Brock, only three true freshmen had ever started at quarterback for Arizona State in John Walker in 1984, Bret Powers in 1990 and Jake Plummer in 1993. Therefore, of course, should Sterling-Cole (or Smith) start on Saturday or at any point this season, we will see just the fifth true freshman ever to start at quarterback for ASU.

Seasons with Three Starting Quarterbacks (1990-Present)

2009 (4-8 record)

SR Danny Sullivan (nine starts)

FR Brock Osweiler (one start)

RS-SO Samson Szakacsy (two starts)

The incumbent starter after Rudy Carpenter graduated, Sullivan guided the first team through the first nine games of the year before suffering an injury midway through ASU’s 14-9 home loss to USC. In the first nine games, the Sun Devils had a 4-5 record under the senior’s guidance.

In Sullivan’s place for the remainder of the game was true freshman Brock Osweiler, with potential higher than his 6-foot-8 build. Osweiler earned his first start the following week at Oregon but was subsequently injured early in the game and replaced by sophomore Samson Szakacsy.

Szakacsy completed the remainder of the Oregon game in place of Osweiler and earned starts at UCLA and against Arizona but was pulled early against the Wildcats in favor of a healthy Sullivan.

ASU’s 4-8 finish in 2009 tied 1990 – another season with three starting quarterbacks – for the second-fewest wins by a Sun Devil team since 1946.

2000 (6-6 record)

RS-FR Jeff Krohn (10 starts)

SR Griffin Goodman (one start)

RS-SR Ryan Kealy (one start)

Following an offseason suspension levied upon Kealy, the Sun Devils opted for redshirt freshman Jeff Krohn to start the year at quarterback. Krohn guided ASU to a 3-0 opening record with wins at San Diego State and at home against Colorado State and Utah State.

Krohn missed a pair of games due to mononucleosis, the first two conference games of the year at UCLA on Sept. 30 and against California on Oct. 7.

Due to Krohn’s illness and after serving out his suspension, Kealy made his starting debut of his senior year against the Bruins in what would be the final start of his college career. In the second half of the 38-31 loss to the Bruins, Kealy suffered a knee injury that ended his senior season and his Sun Devil career as a whole.

The next man up was Griffin Goodman, who started the Aloha Bowl in 1999 and also was a difference maker by helping ASU’s come from behind win over UCLA, returned yet again to replace Kealy against the Golden Bears. Goodman’s only start of the year was again memorable as he threw for 394 yards on just 11 completions with three touchdowns of 50, 50 and 68 yards as ASU took down Cal by a score of 30-10.

Krohn would return to start the final seven games of the season, a stretch in which the Sun Devils won just two games as head coach Bruce Snyder’s tenure in Tempe came to a close.

1998 (5-6 record)

RS-SO Ryan Kealy (nine starts)

RS-SR Steve Campbell (one start)

RS-FR Chad Elliott (one start)

After recovering from an injury suffered in the regular-season finale against Arizona the previous year, Kealy entered his sophomore season as the unquestioned starter of a preseason top-10 team. Unfortunately, things for Kealy and the Sun Devils would struggle through a disappointing 1998 season.

In the fifth game of the season, Kealy suffered a concussion early against USC and missed the remainder of the game and after the Sun Devils lost game six to fall to 2-4 on the year, Kealy was benched in favor of redshirt freshman Chad Elliott, who had played the remainder of the USC game after Kealy was injured.

In his only career start for Arizona State, Elliott completed 8-of-17 passes for 92 yards against Stanford but was replaced by Kealy who kick-started a comeback win in overtime against the Cardinal and then started the next two games before sitting out against Oregon on Nov. 14 after undergoing minor surgery.

In Kealy’s absence, Campbell started for the first time since the previous season’s Sun Bowl against Iowa and ASU was dominated in a 51-19 loss in Eugene when Campbell completed just 11-of-24 passes for 217 yards and one touchdown. Kealy returned to start against Arizona and had perhaps the best individual performance by a quarterback in the series by throwing for 511 yards in a losing effort to the Wildcats in Tucson.

1992 (6-5 record)

Troy Rauer, Grady Benton, Garrick McGee

The quarterback depth took an initial hit when returning starter Powers transferred to Ohio State after first-year head coach Bruce Snyder named the redshirt freshman McGee the starter to begin the 1992 season, but things unraveled even more from there.

In a tumultuous time for Sun Devil football, McGee was suspended for the first two games of the season after pleading guilty to two counts of burglary just before the season began. Rauer, previously the fourth-string quarterback before Powers transferred, started the season opener against Washington before Benton, who had been involved in an off-field incident of his own, took over as starter in the second game after being suspended for the opener.

McGee then returned to start games at Nebraska and Oregon, but after the Devils dropped both contests Snyder reinserted Benton into the starting lineup. After the season, McGee transferred to the junior college level before playing for Oklahoma in 1994 and ’95. He later became the head coach at UAB from 2012-13 and is now the offensive coordinator at Illinois under head coach Lovie Smith, who was on the Arizona State coaching staff under Larry Marmie during McGee’s true freshman season.

Despite the quarterback carousel, ASU rode its stellar defense to a winning record, guided by play of First-Team All-Pac-10 defenders in end Shante Carver, linebacker Brett Wallerstedt and cornerback Kevin Miniefield. As a whole, the Sun Devil defense allowed just 268.8 yards per game and 16.8 points per game in 1992.

Altogether, Benton ended up compiling a 6-2 record as starter and was the team leader in passing with 1,707 yards and eight touchdowns. Benton returned as starter in 1993 but early in the season was unseated by a true freshman from Idaho by the name of Jake Plummer.

McGee completed 12-of-32 passes for 187 yards with two touchdowns and four interceptions while Rauer completed 8-of-12 passes for 69 yards with zero touchdowns and two interceptions on the year.

1990 (4-7 record)

Paul Justin, Kurt Lasher, Bret Powers

After Justin dislocated his left shoulder early in the season, sophomore Kurt Lasher and true freshman Bret Powers earned starts. Two games into the season with Justin under center, ASU was 2-0 with a No. 21 AP Poll ranking but dropped five straight games to follow.

Justin, a team captain and third-year starter, still earned Honorable Mention All-Pac-10 honors after throwing for 1,876 yards with 10 touchdowns.

Lasher completed just 19-of-50 passes for 251 yards with one touchdown and five interceptions in total on the year, while Powers completed 23-of-49 passes for 277 yards with zero touchdowns and four interceptions as the Sun Devils posted a 4-7 record on the season, still tied for the second fewest wins by a Sun Devil team since 1946.