spikecop02 said:I have lost a lot of respect for Dirk, he basically toyed with Keller
You actually had respect for him?
spikecop02 said:I have lost a lot of respect for Dirk, he basically toyed with Keller
Mike Keller said he's spoken with Oklahoma, Colorado, Louisville and Texas-El Paso, and that Notre Dame and Iowa also have interest. He also said that staying at ASU still is on the table and even mentioned the possibility of redshirting at ASU while completing his undergraduate degree then transferring under the new NCAA rule allowing such a move without sitting out.
AZCB34 said:My two cents...
I did not go to ASU or U of A so no bias there. I am not a Dirk appologist...I think his tenure at ASU has been very up and down.
I have tried to take in all the info that has been spewed out this week via radio, TV and message boards. Much of what I am going to say here is hypothetical since nobody really knows what happened...at least not yet...but it is the best I can formulate based on the known facts and made opinions.
Rudy did well filling in for the injured Keller last year. According to the stats I found Rudy's line was 156-228 (68.4%) 2273 yds 16 TD 2 INT. One could argue Carpenter didn't see the top conference teams when he got those but I still fall back on the idea that he still played very well regardless of competition.
After the year ends, Carpenter sits down with Koetter to discuss his future. Rudy wants to win an open competition so Koetter tells him to put in the effort this offseason/spring practices. So Rudy does. Unsubstatiated info says Rudy was a workout stud and spent alot of time watching film this summer in a effort to get better. Rudy supposedly outplayed Keller in spring ball but some of that could be attributed to Keller returning from injury.
Summer comes an Carpenter continues to be a gym rat and film guy while Keller doesn't quite show the same commitment (this theory is the result of reports of Kellers partying ways). Tontozona opens and Carpenter probably feels like he is ahead but not by much. Koetter doesn't do anything to decalre a leader so Rudy thinks he has a shot. Reports out of Koetter's mouth and from Camp T show the race is very close...I have heard Carpenter was playing better and I have heard it was dead even.
Media starts spouting off about the QB controversy (QB blessing as Koetter put it) and applying additional pressure to the situation to the point that the players are forced into the awkwardness of discussing their relationship and are saying all the "right" things which neither of them really believe. IMO, both QB's have already decided if they do not win the job, they transfer. Keller will not ride out his senior year on the bench and Rudy, at this point, probably believes he has won the job so if he doesn;t get...well...he is gone.
Fateful Friday scrimmage arrives and there is Keller trots out with the first team. Here is obviously where things start to fall apart. Carpenter now knows he is gone and probably informs Koetter of it. Rudy believes he won the job and he got shafted by Dirk and probably believes he will never get a fair shake from Dirk (whether it is true or not) so he wants to leave.
Senior leadership council comes to the plate and clearly they are split as evidenced by Richardsons comments. MY best guess given what has ahppened is that some of the seniors were loyal to their classmate Keller while others saw that the better QB was actually benched (Carpenter). At some point in this Koetter finally starts to doubt his evaluatrion and probably there were some off field issues (nothing major but enough to start thedoubt creeping into Koetters melon) brought up.
Koetter is now in a no win situation. He now thinks Carpenter was better and won the job and he looks at the bigger picture of the next couple years. There is enough doubt in his mind about Keller that the idea of having Carpenter around for a couple more years trumps Keller's "senior leadership". Koetter flip flops on his decision and Keller is now off to Nebraska.
I don't buy the attacks on Carpenter by people on radio over Rudy's ego being too big. Show my a successful QB and I will show the biggest ego outside of Denny Green. A QB has got to believe he is the best even when he isn't.
Koetter made several errors in all this IMO based on my hypothetical reconstruction.
1. I believe he committed to open competition to Rudy when I believe he always intended to pick keller unless Keller fell flat on his face.
2. He should have made a decision after spring ball to settle it but his desire for Keller forced him to extend the competition to give Keller the chance to make up for the returning from injury spring struggles he reportedly had.
3. He allowed the QB blessing to fester and since I believe, based on reports, Rudy was outplaying Keller...maybe by a slim margin but outplaying him nonetheless.
4. He allowed the senior leadership group to hold so much sway. I am not sure what this groups real purpose is but I seriously doubt one of their jobs is to establish the depth chart for ASU.
5. And maybe worst of all...changing his mind. Koetter set a very bad precedent by flip flopping bsaically showing that enough resistance by players to his decisions will result in Dirk changing his mind. Maybe he loses Carpenter (probably although we do not know for 100%) but he has to stick to his guns to show he is the boss.
Anyways...if ASU tears off a bunch of wins, Keller will become a distant memory and Rudy and, eventaully, Dirk will be praised.