Bourguet Adjusting Well to New Offense, Battle for Starting Job

Trenton Bourguet and four others at ASU are competing for the starting quarterback job.

Author:
Donnie Druin
Publish date:
Apr 1, 2022 6:51 PM EDT

TEMPE -- Arizona State quarterback Trenton Bourguet has always been a leader.

So when former Sun Devils passer Jayden Daniels entered the transfer portal, it was only natural for Bourguet to step up to the plate.

"Growing up, I'm the oldest of six kids in my family, so I've always kind of had that leadership role. Since Jadyen entered the portal, I kind of took that role to make sure everybody's on the same page. It stinks to see him (Daniels) go and I hope nothing for the best for him," Bourguet told reporters.

"But ASU is still a special place, we have a lot of special coaches and players here and I think if we all stick together, we could really do something special and it'll be exciting to see what we do this year."

The Sun Devils certainly hope Bourguet is correct in his assessment. After a season filled with ups and downs both on and off the field, Arizona State aims to rebound in a major way in 2022.

That won't be done without a strong quarterback, and with Daniels out of the picture, many around the country are skeptical the Sun Devils can reach their desired heights.

But that's the case with the guys in the locker room who quickly praised Bourguet on social media in his support after Daniels left.

"Personally, it felt good to know my teammates believe in me," he said. I have guys coming up to me all the time. I don't take it for granted to have their trust and to have their belief in me, but at the end of the day I'm just trying to get better and better each and every day so, we can do what we want on the field and go win some ball games this year."

The quarterback competition is as open as ever, with a total of five passers in the mix. Leading the charge is Bourguet and Alabama transfer Paul Tyson.

"One thing about Paul; he's a really smart football guy coming from Alabama. He knows his Xs and Os. (Paul is) really talkative, a really good friend, but it's been really good to bring somebody new in and bring that room up a little bit," Bourguet said.

Whether you're a starter or buried on the depth chart, the task of learning a new offense under freshly promoted offensive coordinator Glenn Thomas is a challenge that levels the playing field for everybody.

Bourguet said, "The verbiage is a lot different. He (Thomas) uses the tight ends as well like coach (Zak) Hill does. So I think there's some similarities in that. We try to keep some things the same, but there's a lot of new verbiage and stuff like that. It's going to take some time but I think over spring ball it's gotten a lot smoother.

"I think the first couple days of spring ball were kind of tough, just getting chemistry and verbiage and stuff like that. But the last couple days the offense has been picking it up and it's going a lot smoother."

While no quarterback may have the advantage, you could argue Bourguet has the upper hand in terms of chemistry with receivers. This will be Bourguet's fourth season at Arizona State (he enters 2022 as a redshirt junior), and he's thrown to practically all of ASU's wideouts at some point in their careers in practice.

"When Coach Thomas first got here, we got together as players only working in the bubble and getting timing down, footsteps and stuff like that. When spring ball started, it wasn't the first time we were running these routes. We're trying to be a step ahead so we come to spring ball locked and loaded and ready to get after it," Bourguet said.

"I think at the beginning it was just getting used to the new verbiage and personnel and stuff like that. Today in practice, I think we had the least amount of penalties we've had this whole spring so you can definitely tell we're getting used to personnel, substitutions, play-call and stuff like that. So I think we're definitely growing in the right direction and I just think we'll keep getting better and better."

For a variety of reasons, it's one of the most important offseasons for Arizona State's football program. The Sun Devils are in search of their next quarterback, where even head coach Herm Edwards alluded to the possibility of bringing in another guy after spring practice concludes.

Bourguet admits he's working on being the best version of himself, but ultimately the job will go to whoever separates themselves.

He said, "Personally, (I'm) just trying to be the best quarterback I can be and not worry about the other quarterbacks in the room. I'm trying to get better each and every day. If I have a mistake one day, (I try to) make sure to not do it again. We're just all pushing each other to be the best quarterback (we can be). Obviously, we all want to win and you know at this position, there's only one guy on the field.

"We're trying to push each other and make each other better, and at the end of the day, the best guy will play."

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