• Slug: Sports-Jack Smith, 980
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below)
• Video planned

By TRISHA GARCIA
Cronkite News

TEMPE – Only one player on Arizona State’s football roster threw for more than 2,000 yards and 15 touchdowns last year. And up until a week ago, he wasn’t even listed as a quarterback.

It was Jack Smith, a freshman wide receiver until circumstances led to a move to quarterback.

Smith was the starting quarterback at Mountain Pointe High in Ahwatukee last year, his first and only season there after he moved to Arizona with his father, ASU baseball coach Tracy Smith.

Norris Vaughan, Mountain Pointe’s head football coach, saw enough in that one season from Smith to know he is a special athlete and competitor.

“He’s one of the best athletes we had in this school, and he’s even a better person,” Vaughan said. “And he’s even a better competitor. I don’t think the game is ever going to get too big for him.”

Smith spent the first half of the ASU season practicing at wide receiver, but a recent rash of injuries at the quarterback position has forced him into a new role.

He is now listed as the third-team quarterback on the Sun Devils depth chart.

Before the season started, three quarterbacks Bryce Perkins, Manny Wilkins and Brady White were engaged in a battle for the starting job.

In August, the options thinned when Perkins, a redshirt freshman, suffered a season-ending neck injury to Perkins.

Coach Todd Graham announced Wilkins, a redshirt sophomore, would be the starting quarterback on the Friday before the season-opener against Northern Arizona. And Wilkins completed 97 of 149 passes for 1,233 yards and five touchdowns and ran for 254 yards and four scores during the first five games of the season.

However, Wilkins suffered a high ankle sprain when he was sacked during the final minutes of the second quarter against Southern California, and he would not return to that game or play the following week against UCLA.

“I tell these guys every week, no matter what the circumstance, is to prepare like you’re going to be the starting quarterback here,” Wilkins said.

Rarely has that lesson been more valuable than during this ASU season.

While Wilkins was recovering from his injury, White got the start against UCLA. But White, the third-stringer, was lost for the season in that game with a foot injury.

Graham decided when White went down to burn the redshirt of freshman quarterback Dillon Sterling-Cole to finish the game. Wilkins has returned, but Sterling-Cole is now the backup and Smith was moved to quarterback.

“These guys have done a really good job preparing themselves and when the time comes, I think they’ll be fine,” Wilkins said.

Smith is now the fifth Sun Devil to suit up at quarterback this season.

“It really feels like home, being back at quarterback and feeling more comfortable,” Smith said. “Personally, I feel like I’d be more beneficial to the team this way.”

Wilkins was back in the starting lineup in a loss to Colorado, but Smith is repetitions in practice as the third-string option.

“He’s just getting reps now that he wasn’t getting,” said ASU offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey “He started out as a receiver with us, so he had a really good understanding of offense. His background as a quarterback in high school helped him there.

“Obviously, when we got hit with these injuries, we made the decision to let him start working with the quarterbacks, and he’s kind of an emergency guy in case something happens.”

From running routes to leading plays, Smith said his short time as a wide receiver has helped him understand the nuances of playing quarterback better.

“Learning certain intricate depths of the routes allows me to place balls and understand where the guys are going to be rather than seeing it on paper and transferring it out onto the field,” Smith said. “I actually now have a feel for where and how they’ll run their routes.”

Smith has had no limit to his success as a quarterback in the past, with over 6,000 passing yards as a varsity football player at Bloomington North High School in Indiana and Mountain Pointe in Arizona.

“The thing that separates him more than anything, he has tremendous ability, but even more than that, he’s got great character and he’s got great competitiveness, ” Vaughan said. “He’s a winner, and that’s about the highest praise I could give somebody.”

Above all, Smith credits his growth to watching Wilkins in the pocket.

“He’s been a great leader for me, being able to watch him play,” Smith said. “Last week, he showed me the intangibles of being a quarterback, and that’s something I really respect.”

Wilkins said the benefit of moving a wide receiver such as Smith into a quarterback position meant having someone who knows the offense. Their job now is to get better every week.

“He’s a very smart young man,” Wilkins said of Smith. “He has a lot of capabilities that he can do special things in the offense. It’s all about him honing down on his talents and just his heart, because even when you say you mastered it, there’s always something to learn.”

While sidelined with his injury, Wilkins was seen embracing White. Lindsey said that kind of chemistry among the quarterbacks makes him proud.

“We’ve got a good group,” Lindsey said. “I said that from the very beginning, they all like each other and care about each other and injuries are part of the game.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been hit here recently, but at the same time we’ve gotta just strap it up and go to work and do the best job we can do to win.”

Smith said he isn’t concerned about the position he gets to play, as long as he gets to be a part of the Sun Devil family.

“It’s all a family. They sell it: Sun Devil family,” Smith said. “Every position I’ve been at, I feel like I’ve been part of it.”