ASU offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo ‘couldn’t be more excited’ about Jeff Sims as a starter
With a slim chance at the Big 12 title still in play, ASU offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo has liked what he's seen from Jeff Sims in two starts.
Watch: State of the Sun Devils: Previewing Arizona State's offense ahead of the college football season | 22 mins
TEMPE — When Sam Leavitt was ruled out for the season with a foot injury, the Sun Devils were 3-2 in conference play and all but certainly needed to win out with backup quarterback Jeff Sims to keep any hopes of another Big 12 championship alive.
So far, Sims has led the team to two wins, and while the chances are slim, Arizona State has paths to the conference title game.
Sims is a redshirt senior in his sixth year of college eligibility. As he has not had regular starting reps since 2022 with Georgia Tech, offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo is thrilled that Sims is getting a chance.
“You couldn’t be more excited about anybody,” Arroyo said. “I haven’t been (so) excited about someone (who’s waited) this long, who’s put in that much work in their entire career to go out and, at this stage, (to) have an opportunity.”
In two seasons at Arizona State, Sims has appeared in 11 games, starting four. He’s thrown for 734 yards and five touchdowns with only one interception. He also has three rushing scores and 512 yards on the ground, 228 of which came in a single game against Iowa State.
Arroyo noted that being the top quarterback on the depth chart should be beneficial for Sims from a reps perspective, particularly because he has been a backup throughout his time as a Sun Devil.
“When you go from being a backup, when you talk about percentage of reps you get … you’re going to get 30% or 40% of a practice. And so, if you put that over the entire career, it’s really hard to get really, really good at anything.
“He’s a little more tired after an entire practice, which is good. I think the results in the game and the ability for him to be able to build the bandwidth, to be able to go through and play a whole game, has been really good.”
The next test for Sims and the Sun Devils (7-3, 5-2 Big 12) will be Saturday against the Colorado Buffaloes (3-7, 1-6) on the road.
In 2023, Sims and Arizona State separately matched up with Deion Sanders’ team.
With Nebraska, Sims threw for 106 yards with one interception on Sept. 9 in Boulder, though he did have a 57-yard rushing touchdown.
The Sun Devils, meanwhile, hosted the Buffaloes on Oct. 7, where they fell 27-24 after a 43-yard field goal was made with 12 seconds left.
Arizona State and Colorado will kick off Saturday at 6 p.m. MST. Listen on 98.7 or the Arizona Sports app. It will be televised on ESPN2.
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Comments
1 Comments
Arizona State catches a break weather wise in Boulder, Colorado this weekend. Saturday looks like the only good weather day in a long string of crappy cold, wet weather. Another plus is that except for RCB Rodney Bimage, everyone else on Defense is a go. They have no injuries Offensively except for Sam Leavitt and Kyson Brown, which is great because this is a game where it really helps ASU if they can rotate a lot of players in and out. Offensively, ASU Line should have a big matchup advantage on both sides of the ball vs the Colorado.
HOWEVER IMHO, this is still a big trap game for ASU. It's still going to be played at altitude and at night, where the cold can zap everything there is out of someone, who doesn't live there. I gotta believe Tyson will play and have a monster game, because he carries a gigantic grudge against Deion, who forced him out at Colorado, and told him he wasn't good enough. IMHO even if Tyson plays the potential is there for ASU's receiver corp to put up a ton of yards. The Colorado D in general really sucks, especially their secondary and their pass rush. Colorado plays man-to-man press almost solely, and they loves to blitz. They've also been burnt a lot. Both Arizona and Utah put up 50 Burgers on them, that easily could have been 70 Burgers if they hadn't called off the dogs in the 3rd Qtr. That D ranks at the bottom in yards and points allowed. They've also struggled stopping running QBs - which may explain why ASU coaches are excited for Jeff Sims.
ASU's receiver corp has been improving for several weeks, especially the last 2. There are less dropped passes, less wrong routes. If ASU can get out to an early lead, IMHO, Colorado could quit Defensively. IMHO, this game rests in the hands of Jeff Sims. I worry about his accuracy and him losing his confidence when he makes mistakes. I hope he proves me wrong.