Breaking news came out of Arizona State’s postgame presser as head coach Kenny Dillingham announced that quarterback Jaden Rashada is out 4-6 weeks due to an injury dating back to high school that Rashada re-aggravated last game.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!His injury has been lingering since high school, and it was aggravated last game
— Burn City Sports (@BurnCitySports) September 17, 2023
Rashada was ruled out before tonight’s game. Since being named the starting QB late in fall camp, the freshman amassed 403 yards, three touchdowns and an interception for the Sun Devils in his two starts.
Players can use a redshirt year if they appear in four or less games, which is the plan for Rashada, Dillingham said.
“When you talk nine weeks, we’ll probably try to make sure we keep his redshirt alive at that point because that’s just not fair to him to play him in five games,” Dillingham said. “We’ll do what we can from that standpoint to play him in four, if needed.”
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only injury news that occurred at the quarterback position tonight. Quarterback Trenton Bourguet was injured in the game against Fresno State. His replacement, Drew Pyne, suffered a “muscular injury” in the same leg that he pulled his hamstring on during fall camp. Bourguet awaits an MRI on his left leg, Dillingham said.
Trenton Bourguet now injured #ArizonaState. Limping off the field, not putting any pressure on left leg
— Burn City Sports (@BurnCitySports) September 17, 2023
Pyne’s injury forced quarterback Jacob Conover into the game. Conover is now one of two healthy ASU quarterbacks left on the team after neither Pyne nor Bourguet returned.
Conover transferred to Arizona State from BYU in December. He appeared in very few contests for the Cougars in his three seasons in Provo.
Conover was a four-star quarterback in the 2019 class coming out of Chandler High School. He served a mission in Asunción, Paraguay before attending BYU.
He completed 6-of-16 passes for 89 yards and 2 interceptions during his time in the second half of the game. It’s not set in stone, but it looks like he’ll be the starting quarterback for his hometown team moving forward barring a miracle to the health of the quarterback. This is an overall unfortunate situation for the Sun Devils, who faced at least six other injuries tonight as well.
At least eight injuries I counted tonight for #ArizonaState after the Sun Devils had nine coming in.
QB Trenton Bourguet
QB Drew Pyne
DE Clayton Smith
RB Tevin White
WR Melquan Stovall
TE Bryce Pierre
RG Joey Ramos
RT Max Iheanchor@BurnCitySports https://t.co/NeRAAZZwJy— Brendan Mau (@brendan_mau) September 17, 2023
The backup quarterback moving forward would be true freshman Hunter Herrera from Redlands, California. He was seen warming up at one point in the game.
Arizona State blown out by Fresno State at home for second straight loss
Arizona State now has to look ahead to No. 5 USC next week. The Trojans will be coming off a bye week healthy and ready to go.
