With rumors whispered, Carpenter takes the hits

Suffering from strep throat, Rudy Carpenter awoke on the morning of last year’s Territorial Cup game barely able to talk, but plenty of herbal tea got the Arizona State quarterback ready to call signals that day.

Carpenter will need no such first aid in the hours before the Arizona contest on Saturday. His voice is just fine — and if he were so inclined, boy, would he have some stories from this year to tell.

In a 2006 season that began with the nation’s highestprofile camp competition (and its stunning reversal) and could end with a departure by coach Dirk Koetter, Carpenter’s maiden voyage as the Sun Devils’ unquestioned QB has had to dodge one iceberg after another.

The game against the Wildcats represents one last chance to right the Sun Devil ship.

“It’s the UA, and I think the game will define the season,” said Carpenter, a sophomore who has completed 54.8 percent of his pass attempts for 2,118 yards, 18 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

“I haven’t made up my mind on what this season is like. I’m just trying to prepare us to win. I don’t want to go into the offseason knowing that we lost to the UA. That would be terrible.”

The ASU performance against Arizona would have to be smashing to alter the definition of a season that has had a quarterback controversy, seen the Sun Devils’ trademark vertical passing game grounded and now finds the team a loss away from likely missing out on a bowl berth.

Koetter has been in the center of the resulting firestorm. But not far away is Carpenter, who became the starting QB during a bizarre August weekend in which Sam Keller had the job, lost it less than 48 hours later, and eventually transferred to Nebraska.

From that point on, public perception was clear: ASU was Carpenter’s team, for good and ill.

“It’s just part of the position I play,” Carpenter said. “I don’t have a problem with (taking the heat). I think, more than anything, it takes the pressure off the rest of the guys on the team. I think that I’ve been able to handle the pressure and move on.”

The pressure to justify Koetter’s awarding him the quarterback job was no greater than the self-pressure Carpenter has put on himself since he began playing sports. And as the year progressed, tension from all sides mounted.

Defenses were ready for the QB who led the nation in passing efficiency in 2005. Timing problems plagued the ASU offense, dramatically decreasing production and forcing Koetter to rebuild the downfield passing game from scratch. Rumors of Carpenter suffering from hand and arm injuries were rampant.

Carpenter’s interviews after losses turned into selfcritiques, headed by his “Maybe I’m not as good as I thought I was” evaluation following the game at California in September.

“He cares a lot about what is going on in our program, and he puts a lot of that on his shoulders,” Koetter said. “Rudy is very hard on himself, sometimes too much so. I often think that is Rudy’s style. It has worked for him throughout his life. That’s who he is.

“He’s not pretending. That’s Rudy Carpenter.”

The murky circumstances surrounding his sudden ascension to the first string has not helped matters much. With all parties involved saying all they were going to say in the days after Keller’s demotion, the gossip mill took over:

In a meeting with Koetter, Carpenter and his father threatened to transfer. He tattled on Keller for an off-field transgression. Players told the coach they wanted Carpenter, not Keller, as the quarterback.

All season, a college football Internet blog has referred to him as “El Presidente,” a moniker suggesting that he waged a behind-the-scenes power struggle to get the starting job.

Carpenter considers the chatter an attack on his character.

“I don’t know where these reports that I was transferring came from,” Carpenter said. “In that whole situation, no one knows what happened except me, Coach Koetter and Sam.

“All I did was ask why the decision was made like it was. I never threatened anything or tried to make accusations about anyone else. Everyone wants to bring my dad into it, but that wasn’t the case.”

Had both quarterbacks stayed in Tempe, ASU’s season would have been “much worse,” Carpenter said.

“Whether it was me or Sam out there, we would have heard boos and calls all year long for the other guy to go in,” Carpenter said. “That would have made the season 10 times harder.”

ASU’s struggles have created a difficult role adjustment for Carpenter, who last season stepped into an offense that featured veteran, skilled receivers and was operating at a high level. He simply had to “drive the car,” Koetter said.

This season, the inexperience and inconsistency of the wide receiver corps has showed, so much so the Sun Devils’ top two pass catchers are tight end Zach Miller and running back Ryan Torain.

When the Sun Devils became forced to rely on the run, Carpenter, who up to that point had been a happy gunslinger, was out of his element. And if the team fell behind or was in a third-and-long situation, he put too much responsibility on himself.

“Because of graduation, injuries and other factors, Rudy has been counted on to be the center playmaker, rather than the guy who just distributes the ball,” Koetter said. “We are a run-first, passsecond offense. That has forced Rudy to do a little more than he should.

“He has had his ups and downs, but I still wouldn’t trade Rudy for any other quarterback.”

Despite all of the adversity, Carpenter on Saturday will wake up aiming to lead ASU to a victory over its archrival, as he did last year. The strain of the 2006 season has not killed him. And what doesn’t kill you . . . “It’s always been very good for the quarterbacks around here, but this has been a down year,” Carpenter said. “It’s been a down year for me, the rest of the offense, everybody. “But I get a lot of the (blame), and I understand that. I’m the only one who is the quarterback.”