The Arizona State Sun Devils were halfway through their second fall football practice. It was an 11-on-11 team period and newcomer Jeff Sims dropped back in the pocket, then lofted a perfect spiral 60 or so yards downfield where Jake Smith made the grab without breaking stride. An easy touchdown despite good coverage on the play.
The throw and catch drew gasps from those on hand and cheers from his teammates. It was the highlight of the practice sessions thus far. Sure, it was just practice, but the message was loud and clear — Sims is more than prepared to compete for the job despite being the new kid on the field
Sims joined the quarterback mix over the summer and he doesn’t have the benefit of participating in spring drills. That put him behind the other candidates for the starting spot — veteran Trenton Bourguet, Michigan State transfer Sam Leavitt and preferred walk-on Navi Bruzon.
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At 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, Sims, who previously played at Georgia Tech and transferred to Tempe after one season at Nebraska, looks the part of a starter at a Power Five program. He has a strong arm and he’s equally as dangerous as a runner. That dual-threat capability adds a dynamic to an offense lacking explosive plays. Sims came to ASU looking to rebound from a poor 2023 campaign in which he was injured and had a knack for turnovers when he was in the game.
He says he learned from the adversity.
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“I’m not really trying to prove anything to anybody. At the end of the day it is what it is,” he said. “I’m not worried about it. I had a bad year. Sometimes that happens. I got to take it on the chin, learn from it, and just try to be better.”
ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham’s expertise is on the offense side of the ball. Before coming to ASU, he worked with future first-round NFL pick Bo Nix at Oregon
Dillingham noted Sims’ athletic talent and said the key is to minimize the handful of bad plays.
“He has a huge arm, talented. Throughout his career he’s had a lot of successful times and then to be honest there were some horrible plays. When you look at a guy and say, `OK there’s 78-85, 90 percent plays you play 60 plays, 55 of them are really good and five are catastrophic,” he said. “It’s how do you limit those five, you’re going to get a guy that played 90 percent of the snaps, 50-60 plays out at a super high level, that’s what I challenged him with is let’s remove those five plays a game. How do we do that? We have a plan every snap, take a deep breath and go through your reads, whether it’s first-and-5, first-and-10, first-and-goal from the 2. Every play is the same play, you just have different circumstances.”
Sims, a native of Jacksonville, Florida, started 23 games over three seasons at Georgia Tech, including 10 of those as a true freshman in 2020. He accounted for more than 5,500 yards of total offense. In 2022, Sims started seven games before being sidelined with an injury. His best game came against Duke when he threw for 227 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 95 yards for Yellow Jackets in a 23-20 win.
Sims began the year as the starter for Nebraska, but had four interceptions and two fumbles lost over the first two games. The second game was a 36-14 nationally televised loss to Colorado.
Sims sprained his ankle late in the game and was in and out of the lineup for the rest of the season.
He said he tried not to let the negativity on social media and around the program get to him.
“Just have to keep going. Never quit, never give up,” said Sims, now 22. “Always believe in yourself. Never lose confidence in yourself and just go out there and play ball. Don’t make it bigger than it is.”
Sims appreciated Dillingham for throwing him a lifeline. After leaving Nebraska he returned to Georgia Tech to finish his undergraduate degree in child, youth, and family studies. He committed to ASU on May 11 — six months after entering the transfer portal.
It’s more than three weeks from the season opener against Wyoming. It appears Sims and Leavitt are the two vying for the starting spot. Dillingham acknowledged Leavitt had the edge after the spring although Sims had not yet arrived.
“I said to him, listen I’m watching your tape. You play a game, you’re like, holy cow a freak show for 85% of the plays, and these 15% of the plays it’s like you lose your freaking mind. You come here and we’re going to calm down those 15% of the plays. We’re going to try and give you some peace of mind in those moments,” Dillingham said.
“Then I said listen, we got a quarterback right now on our roster, I think he’s really good so if you want to come in here and battle your butt off to compete against this kid, bring it on. Just understand he’s a good player. And I think Jeff’s a good player too. He showed it to me to, across his body 60 yards down the post on a half roll which is one of the best throws I’ve seen live and it’s one of those things you see in a pro day with nobody playing football around you. He did it in a real live setting. So kudos to him.”
Sims is looking forward to the fresh start and he likes the offensive personnel around him.
“I was in the portal waiting for awhile and I was just kind of sticking it out waiting, hearing from schools. ASU just sounded like the best opportunity,” he said. “I feel like this is a good offense. We have a lot of weapons. There are lot of pieces, sets that can be made in this offense and I feel like it’s an offense that can set any quarterback up for success.”
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Publish date : 2024-08-06 01:01:00
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