COLLEGE PLAYER NEWS

QB Kelly expected to start for Arizona State

The Sports Xchange

October 20, 2014 at 3:50 pm.

Taylor Kelly will be Arizona's State starting QB against Washington. (Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports)

Arizona State quarterback Taylor Kelly, who missed the past three games with a foot injury, is expected to return to the starting lineup for the Sun Devils next game against Washington on Saturday, Arizona State coach Todd Graham said Monday.

Kelly has not played since suffering the injury in the Sept. 13 victory over Colorado.

Backup Mike Bercovici finished that game and started the next three. The Sun Devils were 2-1 in the games Bercovici started, losing to UCLA, but then beating USC and Stanford in a difficult three-game stretch.

Bercovici has completed 62.2 percent of his passes with 10 touchdown passes and two interceptions. He also threw the Hail Mary pass that beat USC on the final play of the game.

Despite Bercovici’s recent success, Graham has said all along that Kelly would regain the starting job when he was healthy enough to play. Kelly is more mobile than Bercovici and gives the Sun Devils a running threat that Bercovici doesn’t.

For the season, Kelly has completed 42-of-68 passes for 625 yards with six touchdowns and no interceptions while rushing 19 times for 168 yards and two more scores.

The 14th-ranked Sun Devils are 5-1, including 3-1 in the Pac-12 South, while Washington is 5-2 overall and 1-2 in the Pac-12 North.