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| Friday, August 16 Krohn trades Pac-10 for A-10 By Amy Chou ESPN.com |
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Jeff Krohn walked away from Arizona State just as assuredly as he had walked on the team. When the Sun Devils' quarterback made the decision to leave Tempe last December following his sophomore season and transfer to I-AA Massachusetts, there were two subsequent reactions.
First, a collective cheer came from the struggling Minutemen, who finished 3-8 last season. The team has been wrought with inexperience and injuries since winning a national championship in 1998. Meanwhile, the Sun Devils are predicted to finish near the bottom of the Pac-10 without their former starter. Krohn said the coaching change from Bruce Snyder to Dirk Koetter prior to last season is what prompted him to look for a new start. "I had differences with the new coaches and it was a completely new staff," Krohn said. "Also, (Coach Koetter) and I are two very competitive people." "Competitiveness" is a word that followed Krohn from coast to coast. UMass coach Mark Whipple had been hearing of Krohn's progress for years from his friend Doug Shaffer, the former football coach at Krohn's high school in Phoenix. Initially a walk-on at ASU, Krohn started the first three games of his redshirt freshman year. He cemented his starting role in nine games last season, completing 54 percent of his passes, becoming the fastest quarterback in Sun Devils history to reach 1,000 passing yards in four games. During his ASU career, he completed 240 of 467 passes for 3,693 yards and 31 touchdowns with only 13 interceptions. "I followed his progress to ASU, and told (Shaffer) to give Jeff my number if he ever wanted to transfer," Whipple said. "(Shaffer) told me I was crazy, but things happen, and now Jeff's playing for us." While other coaches called in their interest, Krohn never took their offers seriously, and quickly signed on with UMass. "I just wanted to make the decision quickly and get it over with," Krohn said. The changes from sun to snow, from Sun Devil Stadium with a capacity of nearly 75,000 to UMass' Warren P. McGuirk Stadium which seats 17,000, are all changes Krohn doesn't mind. "There are some things we don't have here, like the larger facilities and an adidas contract with free shoes," Krohn said. "But that doesn't really matter to me or affect my game." Krohn started school in Amherst in January and has been able to do some light practicing following arthroscopic surgery last December to repair a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder. Whipple was impressed with Krohn's work this spring, which had him running routes and reading coverages. His new teammates were equally impressed. "(Krohn) has 20 or so starts under his belt and that speaks for itself," said wide receiver Neal Brown, a transfer from Kentucky. "Any time you get a quarterback with Pac-10 experience, you're going to be excited as a receiver." Krohn just wants to play good football and is ready to take on the leadership role expected of him. "The guys respect me, and I'm used to being a leader," said Krohn. "(Whipple) runs a wide-open playbook that will exploit everybody's talents, and it's going to be exciting." After surgery, Krohn's weight dropped to 176, and left him unable to bench press or practice throwing this spring. At summer's start, Krohn began lifting again, and has added considerable weight to his 6-foot-3 frame. He is now at 205 pounds. And though there is still uncertainty if he has completely rehabilitated from the injury, or if the time off has affected his throwing game, Krohn is at least back to looking like and playing the part of quarterback. And what is more certain is that Whipple and the UMass football community are anxiously waiting to showcase their new transfer with the hope that Krohn's arrival signals a return to national prominence. Minutemen fans are bracing for the impact. Amy Chou is an intern at ESPN.com. She can be reached at amy.chou@espnpub.com. |
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