ASU’s Norvell: Kelly, Bercovici preparing to be the starting QB against Stanford

Arizona State junior Mike Bercovici put up some monstrous numbers in his first two full games as the Sun Devils’ featured quarterback.

Bercovici finished with around 500 yards through the air in each of the contests — one being a lopsided ASU loss, and the other being a thrilling comeback victory at USC last Saturday.

Not bad for a guy that failed to land the starting job two years ago and recently revealed that he nearly transferred schools.

Given that Taylor Kelly, the Sun Devils’ regular starting QB, still isn’t at 100 percent, Bercovici would appear to be a shoo-in to start his third straight game for the team when it hosts Stanford on Saturday, Oct. 18.

Not necessarily.

ASU offensive coordinator Mike Norvell joined Arizona Sports 98.7 FM‘s Burns & Gambo show Tuesday and gave an update on Kelly’s progress.

“Taylor’s coming along day by day. I think we’ll know more here probably (in the) middle of the week, toward the end of the week,” Norvell said. “(We’ll) try to get him back out there moving around. It’s something that I know he’s feeling better. Everything’s progressing well. We’re going to get a chance to see just exactly where he’s at as we’re moving closer to game time.”

Kelly — who has thrown for 7,330 yards and 63 touchdowns as a Sun Devil — suffered a right foot injury in the third quarter of ASU’s Week 3 win at Colorado. Head coach Todd Graham told Arizona Sports 98.7 FM‘s Doug & Wolf last Friday that he expects the senior QB to make his return against Stanford (3-2; 1-1).

Norvell added that the Sun Devils (4-1; 2-1) currently have “two guys preparing to be the starting quarterback” in next Saturday’s inter-conference matchup.

Even though Kelly has more than a week and a half to get ready for the Stanford matchup, Norvell said that the coaching staff is not going to jeopardize any player’s health by rushing him back to the field before being fully healthy.

“I’ve got a great deal of confidence that Taylor’s going to be able to progress on and be ready to play, and we’re going to get him ready as fast as he possibly can,” the offensive coordinator said. “For us, (the starting QB) is just really based on that.”

Norvell then put any notions of a quarterback controversy to rest.

“Taylor Kelly is our starting quarterback,” he said. “He’s a guy that just done a tremendous job for us, and a tremendous job for this football program. Obviously, we’re all extremely excited about what Mike Bercovici’s been able to do. But we’re going to go out there each day from here until kickoff and continue to track where Taylor’s at and make sure he’s progressing, and we’ll see where it’s all at. But I’ve got tremendous confidence in both the guys that we have that have taken snaps for us this year, and I know those guys are going to do great things.”