TEMPE – On a warm Tuesday morning, Arizona State’s four quarterbacks walked off the Kajikawa Practice Fields in lockstep, smiling and laughing after the Sun Devils’ final spring practice.
At first glance, they wouldn’t appear to be fixed in a fierce quarterback competition. With former ASU quarterback Sam Leavitt departing for LSU, however, Arizona State is in the business of finding a new signal-caller.
To fill the vacancy, coach Kenny Dillingham brought in a mix of young talent and an experienced veteran pair to compete with the room’s lone returner: redshirt freshman quarterback Cameron Dyer.
“I thought they did a good job,” offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo said. “We got a really new room. Three or four or some guys are new to it, with Cam (Dyer) being the guy who hasn’t played much. … The quarterbacks did a nice job of being demanding and sitting in there and letting me be really critical of them every day from the start of spring to the end of spring.”
Sophomore Cutter Boley entered the spring as the quarterback with the most buzz around his name. At 6-feet-5, 213 pounds, the towering Kentucky transfer is hard to miss.
Boley landed on the Southeastern Conference All-Freshman team in 2025, completing 65.8% of his passes – a single-season school record for a freshman – and passing for 15 touchdowns.
However, his 12 interceptions and limited passing yards, playing in a talent-bereft offense with the Wildcats, highlight areas for possible improvement heading into next fall.
Still, his athleticism for his size and raw arm talent, which he displayed numerous times during spring practices by pushing the ball down the field, make him an enticing option for next season.
Boley, who grew up in Kentucky and had spent his entire life in the Bluegrass State before packing his bags for Tempe, has enjoyed getting acclimated to the culture and environment that Dillingham has fostered at ASU.
“It’s almost felt seamless,” Boley said. “It’s felt like I’ve known this group of guys and these coaches for a long, long time, and I’ve only been out here for a few months. So I’ve just had a great time out here, and it’s been awesome how seamless my transition’s been.”
The other quarterback Arizona State nabbed out of the transfer portal, graduate Mikey Keene, is more familiar with the Valley. The Chandler native made stops at Central Florida, Fresno State and Michigan before returning home to play for ASU.
His experience makes him a stable option under center, as he’s proven he can spearhead an efficient offense, nearly passing for 3,000 yards with Fresno State in both 2023 and 2024.
In the spring, Keene, who turns 23 in June and is by far the QB with the most experience in a room filled with undergraduates, took on a mentorship role. His veteran presence supplies the room with a knowledgeable presence to lean on as his peers continue to develop and mature.
“You can’t replicate reps,” Arroyo said. “You can’t take 1,000 reps in college football and not have them be really evidence to a guy who knows what’s going on. It’s as simple as breaking the huddle or calling plays, having command for the young guys to see it, for guys around them, for the O-line, for a lot of the new guys, to see what those reps look like after you have them, regardless of where you’re at, is really evident. I think that’s really good for us.”
As the lone returner in the room from last year, Dyer also helped with the integration process of the new quarterbacks.
He missed almost all of last season, recovering from an ACL injury he suffered in his senior year of high school. It gave the former Gatorade New Mexico Football Player of the Year a chance to fully ingest the offense and learn from a pair of multi-year starting quarterbacks, Sam Leavitt and Jeff Sims.
“I think it’s helped me a lot,” Dyer said. “I get images all the time when we’re going through progressions and stuff like that of Sam and Jeff’s reps last year, and so, seeing that, watching that film last year and really being able to digest it in the offseason has been big for me.”
Meanwhile, highly touted freshman quarterback Jake Fette came to Tempe by way of Del Valle High School in El Paso, Texas. At just 18 years old, Fette stepped foot on campus this spring as a senior in high school. By enrolling early, he had a chance to grasp the playbook in the spring and get his feet under him.
“I loved being out here for spring ball. It’s really helped me,” Fette said. “If I didn’t come out for spring, I would have been lost in the fall, in the heat of the fire, in the season.”
If he wins the job, it wouldn’t be the first time Dillingham has named a true freshman a starter. Back in 2023, he handed the quarterback reins to now Mississippi State quarterback Jaden Rashada.
Can Fette earn the same distinction?
That remains to be seen. However, he took a strong first step toward doing so this spring, impressing Dillingham.
“Jake’s had a great, great spring, super mature for his age,” Dillingham said. “I’ve been really happy with how he’s progressed and his competitiveness.”
With a room filled with quarterbacks who bring different skillsets, it’s clear that whoever lines up under center won’t have to fit into a rigid mold set by the coaching staff. All the quarterbacks regurgitated one word when asked about Dillingham and Arroyo’s offense: quarterback-friendly.
“(They’re) two very quarterback-friendly guys that understand how to make it easier for a quarterback,” Keene said. “How to get them into good plays, how to teach the game to them, and then conceptually wise, knowing their bread and butter, having a lot of confidence in what they’ve been able to do here on their own, and then coming together as one. So ultimately, (we) have a lot of confidence in those guys. And when you step on the field, you trust their coaching.”
As the season creeps closer, Dillingham will continue to evaluate the group and eventually pick a starter for next fall. Perhaps the biggest indication of maturity in the youthful room has been how they’ve handled the competition.
“I think we all just focus on what we have to do, and focus on ourselves getting better,” Dyer said. “We just put the faith in our coaching staff, put the faith in the players around us, and really just leave it up to that. And you know, I know for sure, I just focus on what I can do better and how I can best lead this team, and I don’t really worry too much about anything else.”
That approach has allowed the quarterbacks to grow tight in just a short amount of time, despite the fact that they’re all vying for the starting spot next season.
“This is like the closest QB room I’ve been a part of in terms of hanging out outside of football and just being around each other,” Boley said. “All three of these (other) guys are awesome dudes, and it’s been great to get to know them. All three have really different personalities, and we’re all, we’re all kind of from different places, so it’s just, it’s just been cool to gel with those guys and get to know them more.”
For now, Dillingham hasn’t announced a starter. But as the spring draws to a close, he’s comfortable with where the group is.
“It’s a good battle,” Dillingham said. “It’s definitely going to go into fall camp. I like where we’re at.”
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