Sam Keller took his role on the ASU football team as seriously as anyone.
Never mind the fact he had thrown only 13 passes all season. The sophomore quarterback knew he had to be as prepared as any Sun Devil.
On Friday, Keller watched his friend and mentor Andrew Walter come crashing to the turf at Arizona Stadium in Tucson, then lie on the field wincing in pain.
"I checked him out for a couple seconds," Keller said. "Then, I just didn't think about anything except 'I got to grab my helmet.' "
And so it goes for the life of a backup quarterback. After two years of learning the team's game plan each week just in case of an emergency, the time finally came, with the Sun Devils trailing by two touchdowns at the home of their biggest rival.
"Coach [Dirk] Koetter just smiled at me and said 'here you go.' " Keller said. "I went in there, the team came over, we got the play, and then it was like we just didn't skip a beat."
On his first meaningful action of the season, Keller predictably faced a heavy blitz and seconds later, he found himself being pulled down by a UA defender. But Keller didn't panic, and he hoisted the ball to junior tailback Hakim Hill for a 5-yard gain. It would be the first of five straight complete passes for Keller, who ended up finishing the drive with a 3-yard touchdown to sophomore H-back Jamaal Lewis.
On ASU's next series, Keller led ASU 57 yards downfield in less than a minute, completing passes of 15 and 42 yards. If not for a dropped pass on fourth down by junior Matt Miller, the young signal caller would have had the ball in his hands in the red zone with more than a minute remaining and a chance to send the game to overtime, or win it.
After the heartbreaking 34-27 loss to the Wildcats, Koetter and the rest of the Sun Devils were not at all surprised by Keller's performance. After all, he only got a smile and a one-liner from the head coach before taking some of the team's most important snaps of the season. But Keller appreciated the vote of confidence saying, "I will always remember that."
"We've had confidence in Sam all year long; we know what he can do," Koetter said. "That was a lot of pressure for Sam, and I thought he did a nice job."
'The man'
Keller insisted he was able to perform against the Wildcats because of his dedication to be as prepared for each game as Walter.
He said there were plenty of opportunities for him to learn throughout the season despite not being the team's starter. While backup quarterback is a position few wish to play, it was one Keller relished.
"Somebody has got to do it," he said. "You never know when that guy could become the man; that's just life. You have to accept it because it's part of the position.
"I stayed focused all year. Being the No. 2 guy, you have to go out there every week and prepare yourself for anything drastic to happen. I think I did a good job of that, just going out there and just pretending I was going to be the starter, if anything."
Keller will no longer have to pretend. When ASU begins practice Friday in preparation for its bowl game at the end of the month, Keller will indeed be the "man."
He was expected to eventually have the responsibility anyway, but that wasn't until after Walter, ASU's all-time leading passer, finished his career at the bowl game. That won't happen, as the senior suffered a third-degree shoulder separation against the Wildcats.
But the 6-foot-4, 228-pound Keller doesn't mind having the offense turned over to him nearly nine months sooner than expected, and without an entire offseason to prepare.
"It's not very many times you get to start your first game in a bowl game," he said. "It's good because I will be able to get a solid game under my belt for next season.
"I'm not going to think about anybody else's expectations. All I can think about is that I expect a lot out of myself. I'm going into this bowl game expecting to perform and expecting to win."
With the solid performance in Tucson fresh in his mind, Keller said his confidence is higher than at any point in the last two seasons. While he quickly won the backup quarterback job as a true freshman last fall, Keller's first two years weren't always smooth.
In the only other significant playing time of his career, he was forced into action during a visit to UCLA last season after Walter suffered a severe ankle sprain. Playing the entire second half, Keller completed 11 of 22 passes for 79 yards, as the team lost 20-13. That didn't help matters coming into this season, as Keller had a mostly poor Camp Tontozona.
"When I thought about what would happen if I got thrown in a game with it on the line, all I had to judge myself off of was [UCLA]," he said. "Now that I've got [UA] where I was more successful, that only helps my confidence."
Almost a Wolverine
Thanks to Keller, it appears Koetter and the rest of the Sun Devils will enjoy a smooth transition to the post-Walter era. But if not for a simple gut instinct, they never would have enjoyed that luxury.
In late 2002, Keller, who was rated the No. 25 quarterback in the nation, had committed early to Michigan. The decision made sense to many people considering Keller's father, Mike, was a former All-American for the Wolverines and a third-round draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys. But something just didn't feel right.
With signing day just weeks away in February 2003, Keller, a native of Danville, Calif., felt he had made a mistake. The school he liked best was ASU, with an offensive-minded coach and a system that relies heavily on the quarterback. After a few phone calls to Tempe, Koetter was thrilled to sign Keller, despite the fact he had already gotten a commit from the country's No. 13-ranked quarterback, Mike Affleck, who has since transferred.
"I feel like I made the decision [to commit to Michigan] for all the wrong reasons," Keller said. "I thought that if I came to my dad and told him -- as hard as it was -- it would end up benefiting me and being better for my future. I didn't know how he would take it because he bleeds maize and blue.
"But ASU looked like a place I was going to be comfortable, and if you're comfortable, you're probably going to play well."
As it turns out, dad took the news better than Keller had hoped. Two years later, Mike Keller, who was present for the game in Tucson on Friday, couldn't be happier about his son's position.
"After the game, I could tell by my dad's face that he feels good about how I am going to do in the future," Keller said.
And just wait until he starts taking the job as starter as seriously as he did backup.
Reach the reporter at christopher.drexel@asu.edu.
