ASU discovers QB relief

As much as defensive coaches don’t like to hear it, there’s little question that the Pac-10 is a conference of quarterbacks.

Get an experienced signal-caller under center, and you’ll probably win some games. Play without one, and the road ahead could be filled with potholes.

So Arizona State University head coach Dirk Koetter should have felt at least a little queasy last week, when, mired in a three-game losing streak, he had to turn to backup Rudy Carpenter, a freshman without a collegiate start to his name.

Fortunately for Koetter, every rule has its exception – and his new quarterback appears to be it.

“I really didn’t think that if we didn’t play well I wasn’t thinking it would be Rudy that didn’t play well,” Koetter said. “I thought Rudy would be fine.”

Against Washington, Carpenter led his team to a 44-20 win, hit 27 of his 34 passes, piled up 401 yards, threw for three scores and ran for a fourth.

“I was just trying to complete passes wherever I could,” Carpenter told local reporters after his first start. “To be honest, I just wanted to get out with the win. I didn’t really care how good I played.”

The Los Angeles native also had to play the second half against Stanford the week before with starter Sam Keller struggling because of a hand injury. (Keller had season-ending surgery this week.)

Aside from an interception on his first throw in that game, Carpenter has been superb. On the season, he’s completed better than 76 percent of his attempts and has the lone interception compared to eight touchdown passes.

“It’s not like they’re going to the scrap heap to try and salvage the season,” Washington State head coach Bill Doba said. “The thing that I noticed is that (Carpenter is) very, very accurate. He’s a lot like Keller.”

It didn’t always look so rosy for Arizona State’s second-string quarterback.

Koetter readily admits that his new starter wasn’t ready last spring, when even after a redshirt season things weren’t yet coming together for Carpenter.

“He was having a hard time putting it all together in game-like situations,” Koetter said. “So what he did is he went to work. In the summer he lived in the film room and really threw himself into the whys and all the intricacies of why we do the things we do on offense.

“When he got to fall camp, he really knew from the get-go what he was doing here. And that’s the big difference.”

Still, Koetter, a quarterbacking guru by trade, said his freshman has a long way to go.

But if being Pac-10 offensive player of the week, as Carpenter was in his first start, is a jumping-off point, the Cougars could be in trouble.

“We’re just tickled to death with how Rudy played, but there’s so much he has to work on,” Koetter said.

“The last six quarters, in the second half against Stanford and the Washington game he’s gotten an opportunity and made the most of it.”

Notes

Middle linebacker Will Derting did not practice and Doba confirmed afterward that the senior will not play against Arizona State. This will be Derting’s fifth game on the sideline as he recuperates from a partially torn MCL. … Wide receiver Michael Bumpus is also out with a high ankle sprain, though he is walking without a boot now. … Senior wide receiver Marty Martin sustained a concussion at USC and is out for this week’s game. This is Martin’s second concussion of the season and as such it could jeopardize his ability to play in the last two weeks of the season, based on the way WSU has treated other multiple-concussion situations. … Defensive tackle Ropati Pitoitua (leg) missed another day of practice, but Doba said the sophomore will play. The same is true for reserve linebacker Jason Stripling (leg bruise).