Taking care of the football and cutting down on turnovers is a recurring point of emphasis for ASU football head coach Todd Graham.
While miscues on special teams and turnovers in high leverage situations in 2015 were enough to fray the nerves of many Sun Devil fans, a longer look at the statistical picture of last season indicates that offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey is actually positioned quite well to succeed with his new system and a new quarterback in either redshirt sophomore Manny Wilkins or redshirt freshman Brady White.
Then-starting quarterback Mike Bercovici (now with the San Diego Chargers) threw nine interceptions in his final season in Tempe, which was the third-fewest behind only USC's Cody Kessler and Stanford's Kevin Hogan.
According to NCAA.com's passing efficiency metric, Bercovici and ASU ranked 49th nationally with a rating of 136.25. Despite a depleted receiving corps which was hampered by Cam Smith's knee injury that required season-ending surgery in March 2015, Bercovici threw 30 touchdown passes in his first full season as a starter.
But there is plenty of room for improvement in a category Graham loves to be able to tout — ASU's turnover margin fell from +14 in 2014 (good for sixth overall) to +2 in 2015, dropping out of the top 50 in Division I FBS.
In a tight quarterback battle, it is likely that whoever wins the job between White and Wilkins will be under intense scrutiny once the season begins.
"We're taking care of the ball a lot better," White said. "That's a very high priority – you can't be winning ballgames and turning the ball over."
Offensive gurus like Lindsey know that they will have to make some allowances given that no matter who starts the season opener on Sept. 3 vs. NAU, neither will have thrown a collegiate pass prior to taking the field for their first drive.
Lindsey groomed Southern Miss quarterback Nick Mullens into one of the top pure passers in the country, finishing with the sixth-most passing yards among eligible FBS quarterbacks for a total of 4,476.
Both ASU quarterbacks possess the ability to make big plays from sideline to sideline, and given Lindsey's propensity to improve an offense virtually overnight, fans should expect the Sun Devils to remain in the top 10 nationally in pass attempts and hovering around 300 passing yards per game. Oddly enough, ASU ranked No. 7 last season in pass attempts with 534 while Southern Miss ranked No. 8 with 531.
The separation between Southern Miss and ASU was in completion percentage, and the resulting gap in production was staggering — the Golden Eagles out-gained the Sun Devils by more than 700 yards through the air and averaged 30 yards more per game while throwing only three more interceptions.
With the caveat that ASU's attack will be more predicated on the running game than Southern Miss, this high-risk, high-reward strategy certainly appeared to pay off for Lindsey in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
Wilkins said at Media Day that one of the most sobering lessons of camp thus far has been that often the best decision he can make is one that puts the ball out of his hands and thrusts it into the capable arms of junior running backs Demario Richard or Kalen Ballage, or ace wideout Tim White.
"We've got a lot of talent," Wilkins said. "It's eye-opening to see how everybody goes through each day and gets better."
This is music to the ears of the ASU coaching staff, who were unable to fully recover from the offensive imbalance that resulted from Ballage's illness in the beginning of 2015 and Richard missing the Utah game with an injury.
Graham and Lindsey will determine who it is they believe puts them in the best position to maximize their offense's potential while minimizing the likelihood of a dangerous outcome — and that still remains to be seen.
Reach the reporter at smodrich@asu.edu or follow @StefanJModrich on Twitter.
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