The 25th-ranked Arizona State football team drew its share of attention this offseason with its quarterback drama.
Coach Dirk Koetter initially settled on quarterback Sam Keller only to change his mind and hand the starting spot to Rudy Carpenter.
Media heavily criticized Koetter’s decision making.
Starting the season may have been Arizona State’s next best way to move past the controversy that led Keller to transfer to Nebraska.
Carpenter and Arizona State needed a fourth quarter offensive burst to beat Northern Arizona 35-14 last Saturday. A 14-14 tie entering the fourth quarter was broken open with a 21-point fourth quarter, including a 35-yard interception return by Chris Baloney followed by a 15-yard run by running back Keegan Herring. Dimitri Nance completed the scoring with a 6-yard touchdown run with a little more than three minutes left.
Keller completed 17-of-24 passing for 261 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.
Arizona State utilizes four running backs to balance out its ground game. Herring ran for 34 yards, Nance 61, Shaun DeWitty 34 and Ryan Torain 13.
“I purposely tried to spread the carries out,” Koetter said in his weekly press conference. “I could have had one guy carry it 28 times for 150 yards, but those running backs take a pounding. We are going to need all four of those backs over the course of the season.”
Arizona State’s next challenge comes Saturday from Nevada. The Wolf Pack, who fell short against Fresno State in their opener, have a veteran-dominated team with 38 letter winners back from a year ago. Senior running back Robert Hubbard gained 103 yards on 17 carries in the opener.
Minnesota at No. 22 California
If this matchup happened a year ago, it would have been the potent comparison of running backs Laurence Maroney and Marshawn Lynch. The New England Patriots drafted Maroney during the offseason and Lynch remains. Based on early results, Lynch faces a large challenge.
Lynch and California visited No. 12 Tennessee last Saturday and limped away 35-18 losers. Lynch formed a versatile combo with Justin Forsett last season, but in the opener Lynch’s senior experience showed. He gained 74 yards on 12 carries and caught five passes for 22 yards.
However, quarterback play remained a question mark for the Bears.
Nate Longshore, who broke his leg in last year’s season-opener, returned as the starter and completed 11-of-20 passes for 85 yards. Coach Jeff Tedford inserted quarterback Joe Ayoob and he made nine completions in 22 attempts for 187 yards and one touchdown.
Minnesota started its season with a 44-0 thrashing of Kent State. Alex Daniels paced the Gophers on the ground with 155 yards and three touchdowns.
Amir Pinnix followed close behind with 114 yards and a touchdown.
“Most people realize we’ve had awfully good running backs here at Minnesota and all of a sudden they think we have another good running back who is a larger version of Laurence Maroney,” Minnesota coach Glen Mason said in his press conference. “Daniels is not a 260-pound Maroney. I wish he was but he’s not. He’s getting better.”
Stanford at San Jose State
Stanford and San Jose State are both aiming to recover from season-opening losses. The Cardinal dropped a 48-10 decision at Oregon and San Jose State narrowly lost 35-29 to Washington.
Stanford quarterback Trent Edwards completed 20-of-34 passing for 224 yards and a touchdown against Oregon. The running game struggled as Oregon held the Cardinal to 100 net yards on the ground. Wide receiver Mark Bradford caught nine passes for 108 yards and a touchdown.
San Jose State, trailing 28-15 entering the fourth quarter, outscored Washington 14-7 in the fourth quarter to make it close.
Washington at No. 15 Oklahoma
Washington starts Oklahoma’s two-game stretch of Pac-10 Conference teams. The Huskies visit Norman, Okla., this Saturday and Oklahoma visits Oregon next weekend in a rematch of last year’s Holiday Bowl.
The Huskies escaped a close matchup with San Jose State with a 35-29 win. Oklahoma survived its contest with Alabama-Birmingham in a 24-17 victory. Paul Thompson took over at quarterback and showed none of the inexperience he displayed in Oklahoma’s 17-10 upset loss to TCU.
Thompson threw for two touchdowns and completed 14-of-24 passing for 227 yards.
Rice at UCLA
Rice visits UCLA with a daunting challenge – slow UCLA’s new starting quarterback Ben Olson. Olson shed any lingering dust from his five years between his first college start and his last start in high school at Thousand Oaks High.
Olson passed for 318 yards and three touchdowns.
The performance earned the sophomore Pacific-10 Offensive Player of the Week honors. UCLA defeated visiting Utah 31-10 at the Rose Bowl.
The Bruins did struggle on the ground. They gained 107 yards, led by Kahlil Bell with 34 yards and Chris Markey with 32.
Rice let a 16-point lead disappear in the final 17 minutes to lose 31-30 to Houston in its season-opener.
Idaho at Washington State
Washington State started with No. 4 Auburn and quickly found out why the Tigers are consistently ranked high. Auburn won 40-14 in a blowout. Auburn running back Jeremy Irons ran for
183 yards.
Washington State gets its chance to recover this weekend with a visit by Idaho. Idaho lost 27-17 to Michigan State in its opener.