Imagine if Foles had kept commitment to ASU

Dirk Koetter made his way up the steps from the Arizona State locker room.

His Sun Devils had just beaten the Arizona Wildcats, 28-14. The stadium was emptying quickly except for the hundreds of ASU fans who wanted to savor the moment a while longer.

Koetter took one step onto the field and was surrounded by reporters. There were few questions about the game. Instead, all anyone wanted to know was whether he would remain ASU’s coach.

Less than 24 hours later, the answer came: He was fired by Athletic Director Lisa Love.

Thousands of miles away, in Austin, Texas, a quarterback with long hair and the mellow personality of a surfer was thinking about his future.

Nick Foles had committed to ASU. He liked Koetter and was particularly impressed by offensive coordinator Roy Wittke. Plus, his father, Larry, owned a restaurant in Scottsdale.

ASU seemed the ideal place to spend his college career.

Then Koetter was fired. That started a chain of events in which Foles de-committed, transferred to Michigan State, left the Spartans, wound up at Arizona and will be the Wildcats’ starting quarterback Saturday in Sun Devil Stadium.

"It’s a rivalry game. I’m an Arizona Wildcat. That’s all that matters," Foles said.

Tell that to Sun Devil fans.

While ASU has gone through quarterbacks this season as if they were disposable razors, Foles has become a star at Arizona. The redshirt sophomore has completed 69 percent of his passes, thrown for 2,033 yards and has 17 touchdowns to just seven interceptions.

"(He is) awfully, awfully good," ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. "He gets rid of the football as well as, and as quick as, anyone that I’ve seen. (He’s) very accurate. What they do offensively fits him perfectly. He’s had a heck of a year, obviously."

Foles didn’t immediately turn his back on ASU after Koetter’s firing. He met with Erickson, but when Erickson started recruiting a quarterback out of Southern California, Foles decided to move on.

The quarterback’s name: Samson Szakacsy.

Think fans might do a little comparison shopping Saturday?

"I just thought it was the best thing personally and for my family to go somewhere else," said the 6-foot-5, 235-pound Foles.

Envy can turn ugly, so Foles should expect a particularly hostile reaction when he emerges from the tunnel in Sun Devil Stadium. Arizona has what ASU craves — talent and stability at the quarterback position.

And for Foles to once have pledged his future to the Sun Devils?

Ouch.

Even worse, imagine if Foles had kept his commitment. Chances are he would have won the starting job in spring ball and ASU would be, at the very worst, 7-4 instead of 4-7.

Just what does Arizona have in Foles?

Well, an elite Pac-10 quarterback for the next two years, for one thing. At least on the football field, Foles, 20, doesn’t act his age. Other than a momentary brain lapse against California — he caught his own batted pass and threw it again, a penalty that cost his team a shot at a potential game-winning field goal — he plays as if he’s a fifth-year senior rather than someone who played in just one college game before this season.

Perhaps that’s because Foles isn’t like most 20-year-olds. He’s in the football offices most mornings at 7 a.m. to study film of that week’s opponent. Often, he beats the coaches in.

"My philosophy is the quarterback should always be the hardest-working guy on the team," Foles said. "There’s a thing my mom cut out when I was younger. I forgot exactly what it said, but it was something like, ‘Champions are made when no one is watching.’ That’s something I’ve always taken to heart."

No one could have imagined on that chilly November night in 2006 that Koetter’s firing would come back to haunt ASU three years later.

Now here comes Foles.

That groaning you hear is from ASU fans pulling their hair out of their heads.