ASU quarterback Jaden Rashada to miss most of spring drills with hand injury
A knee injury sidelined Arizona State true freshman quarterback Jaden Rashada much of his rookie season. Now a hand injury will keep him out of most of spring football drills.
Sun Devils' coach Kenny Dillingham met with the media on Thursday and confirmed his quarterback will be out when his team takes the field to begin spring drills on Tuesday. That will leave veteran Trenton Bourguet and Michigan State transfer Sam Leavitt as the only scholarship players getting reps. The Sun Devils also have a preferred freshman walk-on in Navi Bruzon, out of Peoria Liberty High School, who also is in the mix.
Rashada completed 44 of 82 passes with four touchdowns and three interceptions in three games last season. He played in the first two games but then had surgery on an injured knee to address an ailment that lingered from high school. He missed the next nine games and returned for the Territorial Cup game that ended the 2023 campaign.
The latest injury is to the thumb on his throwing hand, which resulted from an off-the-field mishap earlier this year.
"He'll be out until we think he's in a good space to get back and hopefully by the end of spring ball he's taking some 7-on-7 reps, some non-team reps, you know, dipping his toe in the water and stuff like that," Dillingham said.
"We're going to have a good competition in the spring. I think adding Sam (Leavitt) to the room, adding Navi (Bruzon) to the room adds pretty good depth there. And I think putting in a new system and we've been able to get a bunch of walk-throughs in leading up to spring ball, and now we'll be able to get spring ball reps with three guys taking reps and then Jaden adding back in, they'll be a plethora of reps for these guys. So by the end of spring ball these guys are going to have a really good grasp of this system and what we're trying to get accomplished."
ASU was hit hard by injuries at the position last season. Not only did Rashada miss nine games, Drew Pyne, who has since transferred out, missed 10 games with multiple leg injuries. Bourguet missed four. ASU used four different quarterbacks and the situation was so bad that at the end of the season that tight end Jalin Conyers and running back Cam Skattebo were lining up at the position.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU QB Jaden Rashada to miss most of spring drills with hand injury
