SEATTLE – When Dirk Koetter says he’s never seen a quarterback pick up a system faster than Sam Keller, that’s quite a compliment.
Koetter, in his fifth season as the head coach at Arizona State, is one of the foremost quarterback coaches in the country. As the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at Boston College in 1994 and ‘95, he handled the development of Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.
From there, he moved on to become offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Oregon, where he saw A.J. Feeley, Akili Smith and Joey Harrington drafted (Smith and Harrington in the first round). In his first head coaching job, at Boise State, he turned Bart Hendricks and Ryan Dinwiddie into all-conference passers. And under Koetter at Arizona State, Andrew Walter broke nearly every school passing record and became the Pacific-10’s career leader in touchdown passes (surpassed last week by USC’s Matt Leinart).
So Koetter has a pretty good idea of what he’s talking about.
“We knew he was talented,” Koetter said of Keller. “But I’ve never seen someone pick things up as quickly as he did. We just threw things at him and he figured it out right away. It’s allowed us to do things we wouldn’t be able to do because we know that Sam will be able to execute whatever we ask him to do.”
Keller and the Sun Devils host Washington at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Sun Devil Stadium.
Despite his impressive statistics, questions remain about Keller. How talented is he, and how much a product of Koetter’s system is he? After all, when Keller struggled with injuries in last week’s loss to Stanford, redshirt freshman Rudy Carpenter came on and passed for over 300 yards and three touchdowns.
Koetter, though, says Keller has to be talented to put up the numbers he is.
“Our job as coaches is to try to put our players in position to succeed,” Koetter said. “But they have to do it. Sam is executing our offense. He’s making plays and moving the ball, as the numbers show. That doesn’t just happen. It takes good players to make plays and Sam is a really good player.”
“An offense like his, so much of it is handed off to the quarterback,” Washington defensive coordinator Kent Baer said. “So much of it, the quarterback runs. Anytime you have an offense like that, you better have a kid that can play.”
Washington coach Tyrone Willingham said figuring out whether a player is truly talented or the product of a system begins with evaluating him in high school.
“That’s always very difficult,” Willingham said. “That starts to border on the intangibles, both the mental and the emotional, that are so difficult to evaluate.”
So, what about Keller?
“He’s done it all pretty well,” Willingham said. “He’s been a good leader for them. He has the physical tools. He’s completed and done everything in a very exciting and excellent manner in their system. When you combine those, then you say it’s the individual functioning very well in a nice system.”
Athleticism is in Keller’s genes. His father Mike was an All-American under Bo Schembechler at Michigan and was a third-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys. At San Ramon Valley High School in Danville, Calif., Keller was one of the nation’s top recruits and played in six games as a true freshman at Arizona State in 2003.
Last season he played in six more games as Walter’s backup, but burst on the scene in the Sun Bowl. Making his first career start in place of the injured Walter, Keller completed 25 of 45 passes for 370 yards and three touchdowns and was named the game’s MVP as ASU made a fourth-quarter comeback.
“We knew Sam would be good enough to put us in position to win,” Koetter said. “But to see him play with that kind of confidence, especially late against a really good team, told us that he would be special. But we had confidence that he would be a good player for us all along.”
Baer says Keller is “awfully good.”
“He’s got a strong arm,” Baer said. “He’s a typical good, strong Arizona State quarterback. He looks like he’s got a good grasp of what they want him to do. He looks like he’s got great vision. I watched the game he played in the bowl game and the vision he had, it’s pretty impressive. That comes from good coaching and a kid that has some talent.”
This season, the 6-foot-4, 233-pound Keller picked up where he left off in the Sun Bowl, establishing himself as one of the nation’s top passers. Keller is the Pac-10’s leader in passing yards (309.3 a game), is second with 20 touchdowns and is completing 58.7 percent of his passes. With Keller at quarterback, the Sun Devils are third in the nation in passing (372.7 yards a game), fifth in total offense (520.0) and 10th in scoring (38.3).
Keller has been limited recently by injuries to his ankle, shoulder and thumb, but Koetter said his quarterback is as healthy as he has been in awhile and should start against a Huskies team that is allowing 282.6 yards passing a game.
Notes: Willingham said that running back Kenny James is healthy after suffering shoulder and groin injuries against USC, but that it still isn’t determined who will start on Saturday. Louis Rankin (toe) and fullback Ty Eriks (knee) are both day-to-day and have been limited in practice. Freshman linebacker Darrion Jones (stinger) is questionable. Cornerback Josh Okoebor could be out another week with a hamstring injury. … Kick returner Marlon Wood will not need surgery to repair his broken ankle suffered against USC, and is likely out 4-to-6 weeks.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
