Brock Osweiler is going back home to Montana.
Not for a few weeks, though. He needs to walk in his high school graduation, after all.
Listening to the poised 6-foot-7-inch freshman quarterback, one wouldn’t guess he should be finishing up his senior year of high school.
But he already has. We’ll call it a senior semester, to be accurate.
You can find Osweiler’s hometown of Kalispell, Mont., just north of Lake Flathead, 75 miles south of Canada.
It’s also a four-and-a-half-hour drive from Gonzaga University.
“Personally,” Osweiler said. “I can’t stand the place during the winter and the spring. It’s dark, it’s gloomy because we have so many mountains and the clouds get locked in. But summer, there’s no better place in the world to me. ”
Over the past week, Kalispell hasn’t been more than 48 degrees. It’s dipped as low as 18.
Mom and Dad tell Brock they’ve been getting hammered by snowstorms lately.
Got to love that classic Arizona weather.
“I’ve been loving every single minute since I’ve been down here,” Osweiler said. “You wake up, it’s sunny, clear skies every day. Never changes, I love it.”
The transition to Tempe has been an easy one for Osweiler. Growing up, he traveled around the country with his AAU basketball team, so the city lights don’t scare him.
Osweiler could have played basketball for Gonzaga coach Mark Few if he wanted to.
Just weeks after finishing his freshman year of high school, Osweiler committed to play basketball in Spokane.
“I just turned 15 and it was kind of a big deal,” Osweiler said. “I just kind of jumped on it and really didn’t think about it. Then my sophomore year rolled around, my junior year rolled around and I just realized I loved football, so I had to make the switch. It just hit me.”
He just had to do it. He also had to call the Gonzaga coaches and tell them of his change in heart. That was awkward.
“Hardest conversation I’ve ever had in my life,” Osweiler said.
As soon as he got off the phone with Gonzaga, Osweiler called ASU football coach Dennis Erickson.
That was last April.
In the summer of 2008, Osweiler signed up for a couple of online classes from Brigham Young University so he could graduate a semester early.
By the time he inked his offer letter on Feb. 4, Osweiler was already a couple weeks into his first college classes.
Oswelier said he picked ASU because the quarterback job would be “wide open” with the departure of Rudy Carpenter.
“I wanted to jump on that,” Osweiler said. “At least get my name in the hat. Even if I don’t get the job, at least you get another half a year — you get all those practices.”
So far in spring camp, Osweiler has been taking snaps as the No. 3 quarterback behind senior Danny Sullivan and sophomore Samson Szakacsy — who calls Osweiler “Brock and Roll.”
If Thursday’s practice was full contact, the quarterbacks would have spent a lot of time on their backs. The defensive line dominated during the 11-on-11 portion of practice.
However, there was a scary moment for sophomore defensive end James Brooks, who had been practicing with the starting unit.
Just before practice ended, Brooks collapsed and held his right knee.
He spent about five minutes on the ground before getting carted off the field.
Erickson said the injury wasn’t anything serious. A team doctor said X-rays came back negative.
Reach the reporter at alex.espinoza@asu.edu.
