Arizona State’s Brock Osweiler worked hard, ready to pursue goals

For Brock Osweiler, the “long journey” is nearly over.

“I’ll never forget my first day of spring practice here in ’09. I go in the [quarterback] room where we have the depth chart and I was number 7,” a reflective Osweiler said Monday, three days before he leads Arizona State against UC Davis in the 2011 season opener.

“I just said to myself I’ve got a long road ahead, but I just got to put my head down and work as hard as I possibly can and that’s what I’ve done.”

Osweiler has gone from seventh on the depth chart to back-up a season ago, and now to this year not only a starter, but one of the Sun Devils’ team captains.

“This is something that I’ve almost been preparing for my whole life. This has been a dream and goal of mine since I’ve been five years old. For now, me to be able to go out and live it every single day I’m just trying to do it to the best of my abilities and represent my school in a positive light.”

Osweiler saw action in six games last year, completing 57% of his passes for 797 yards and five touchdowns. He started the season finale at Arizona, throwing for 267 yards and a touchdown in earning MVP honors of the Territorial Cup.

“To me this is the first year we’re going in with — in my mind, a quarterback that we feel can do what we want to get done in our offense,” explained head coach Dennis Erickson, who will be starting his fourth different quarterback (Rudy Carpenter, Danny Sullivan, Steven Threet, Osweiler) to begin his fifth season at ASU.

It’s a season where the expectations are high according to Osweiler.

“The only goal that I have set for this football season is win the PAC-12 Championship. If we do that, then every other goal that I could ever try to write up or think about will be taken care of. If this football team wins games and we win that championship that’s all I care about.”

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Osweiler credits offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone for making his throwing motion more compact “to get more power from my core and my legs” that he hopes will increase his accuracy. Osweiler said he believes last year he was a 50% passer in camp, whereas this year he’s made “significant improvement” to over 70%.

Erickson added that they plan to “throw the ball 50 times a game….We’re going to throw the ball vertically up the field a little bit more than we have just because (Osweiler) can throw it up the field vertically.” ASU averaged just over 38 pass attempts last season.

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