Upon arrival at Arizona State in 2019, walk-on quarterback Trenton Bourguet wasn’t expected to contribute much beyond the scout team. Bourguet was the fourth freshman in the Sun Devils 2019 quarterback room, an unheralded, undersized and under-recruited player just hoping to help the team improve. Bourguet didn’t have the recruiting stars or fanfare to compare to Jayden Daniels, Joey Yellen and Ethan Long – as each competed for ASU’s starting job during fall camp after arriving in Tempe as highly-regarded quarterback recruits.
As his Sun Devil career began, Bourguet’s instructions from the coaching staff were simple, and his route to playing time was almost non-existent.
“I was told, ‘you’ll be a scout team guy. You’ll most likely never see the field, so don’t try to come into (offensive coordinator Rob) Likens and coach Herm’s office and talk to them,’” Bourguet explained. By the time Arizona State traveled to El Paso for the Sun Bowl in January of 2020, Bourguet had already become the back-up behind Daniels.
“It’s crazy how things can change,” recalled Bourguet, who played his high school football less than 25 miles from the University of Arizona.
Two years after his first fall camp in Tempe, Bourguet is now on scholarship – a move he and the program announced on Jan. 15 – with the Sun Devils and worked in his own position battle this August. On Tuesday, offensive coordinator Zak Hill told reporters that Bourguet had taken control of the second-string battle, beating out freshman Finn Collins for the job.
“Trenton is a true professional. He loves football, and he dives into the film and watches other teams. He’s into the players and has good relationships with those guys,” explained Hill of what allowed Bourguet to win the backup job. “He’s that guy that is always thinking sports. He’s always thinking football.”
When Hill and head coach Herm Edwards speak of Bourguet; they’ll admit that he doesn’t meet the usual ideals for size at the quarterback position. Edwards speaks highly of the third-year Sun Devil’s ability to “take a profit” and make positive gains on most plays, avoiding turnovers and negative plays.
“He’s developed with his time here, and his arm strength has gotten better,” said Hill. “What shows up for him is just the consistency. The day-to-day consistency of him knowing what to do, you can trust him, and he sees the field really well. He doesn’t panic under pressure.”
“He can distribute really well,” Hill continued. “Different skill-set than Jayden, but within this offense, he functions well.”
Now that Yellen has transferred to Pittsburgh and Long moved on to play other positions, Bourguet and Daniels, are the elder spokesmen in the ASU quarterback room. Daniels provides Arizona State with a rarely possessed combination of athleticism at the quarterback position, while Bourguet approaches it with a game-manager-like style. Because Daniels, Bourguet, and assistant coach Trey Anderson are the most experienced faces in the ASU quarterback room means greater expectations and responsibility in the eyes and evaluation of Edwards and Hill.
“It’s definitely kind of weird because I’m older now,” said Bourguet, who enters this fall as one of the longest-tenured members of the ASU quarterback’s room.
“This will be my third season, but it’s really my redshirt freshman season. People come up to me and ask me about what they see on the field, what they should do better on their routes, and I’ve kind of got that player-coach mentality on the field.
“That’s what comes with the quarterback position.”
Luckily for Edwards and Hill, the situational awareness that helped Bourguet follow instructions during his first year in the program have aided him in his development as a quarterback. The 5-foot-11 Marana, Ariz., native is self-aware, and knows what his strengths are.
“Like (Edwards) says, I take my profit,” said Bourguet, who set the Arizona 5A state record for career touchdown passes during his time at Marana High School. “I know my strengths, my weaknesses, I don’t have the strongest arm, but I can move the ball around here and there.”
The on-schedule, profit-taking mentality is almost conductor-like for Bourguet, who excelled during the second week of fall camp. When the Sun Devil offense worked in the red zone, Bourguet got reps against one of the better second-team defenses in recent ASU history – and utilized his savviness to beat the ASU defense with a bootleg touchdown run.
“Especially with this being my second year in this offense with coach Hill and understanding the checks, kills, all the things like that. I can kind of anticipate with my size and my ability.
“I know I’m not going to be able to see over the (offensive) line every time, so I’m going to have to anticipate the throws and where the defenders are going. I try to use that to my advantage and take what they give me and not force anything.”
Frequent shuffling at the wide receiver positions throughout the fall by Hill has allowed Bourguet to work with a variety of ASU’s highly touted receivers. The diminutive ASU back-up has managed to build a connection with a plethora of ASU receivers, but threw impressive touchdown passes to Ricky Pearsall and Geordon Porter during the first two weeks of fall camp.
“We have a lot of talented wide receivers,” Bourguet claimed Monday while speaking to reporters. “You look at the roster and if you take one of these guys anywhere else, they’re starting automatically. You see LV (Bunkley-Shelton) and Ricky (Pearsall) in that H position, and they are battling for the starting position. Both are talented. Ricky is a little bit faster; LV is good on his routes and has good hands.
“Bringing in Bryan Thompson with more speed and Geordon Porter is somebody who has been here in the system and will finally get that opportunity now… the whole wide receiver room is talented and if anybody goes down we’re not worried because we know somebody can step up and fill in that position.”
While Hill and Daniels work to find the best fits to play alongside Daniels this fall, Bourguet has solidified that he’s capable of handling the responsibility of backing up Daniels ahead of the Sept. 2 opener against Southern Utah. In his battle with Collins, Bourguet entered with an extra year of experience running Zak Hill’s offense. That, along with his study habits and on-field execution helped the 5-foot-11 Bourguet beat out the 6-foot-3 Collins in the battle for the No. 2 job.
“You’ve got to know that offense inside and out. You’ve got to be able to anticipate and you’ve got to be able to visualize,” said Bourguet of what it takes to run Hill’s offense successfully. “That’s the word that coach Hill always talks about. You’ve got to be able to visualize in your room where your checks are because you can do everything on the book, but until you get on the field and you verbalize everything, it’s way different. There are a lot of words, but once you get it all down you can settle down and just play.”
If Hill is the professor of the ASU offense, Bourguet is one of his most-engaged pupils. Each night, Bourguet said he and teammates gather around a large whiteboard in his room to break down concepts, watch film and evaluate plays.
“I trust him with what we’re doing offensively,” said Hill, whose spent the preseason installing more of his offense ahead of his first full 12-game schedule as ASU’s offensive coordinator. “The guys do, too. He’s been a good leader and between Jayden and Trenton I feel really good.”
“You’ve got the motions, the jumps and everything like that,” Bourguet said of Hill’s offense. “We’re really just trying to take advantage of the spare time that we have and really trying to get it down.”
Bourguet further embodies the back-up quarterback mentality in his avoidance of credit and constant desire to improve. Despite great moments in fall camp and wide praise from the ASU coaching staff, the Sun Devil signal caller continues to press on in pursuit of better scheme comprehension and play execution.
“You can always improve,” Bourguet said when asked to evaluate his play through the first two weeks of camp. “People want to come up to me and say, ‘good job,’ and I appreciate it, but I know that there are some throws that I missed that I should’ve easily made. I’m just trying to take what (the defense) can give me and not try to force anything.
“You’re gonna have bad plays. It’s about how you respond to that.”
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