16 days until kickoff: Trenton Bourguet has lived the Life of a Sun Devil

As we've worked our way through the countdown to the season, we've covered everyone; from linebackers to wide receivers, and everywhere in between. Yesterday we examined the first quarterback in our countdown, none other than Brock Osweiler. With 16 days until the season opener against Northern Arizona University, we stay at the quarterback position to honor the most recent quarterback to complete his career in the maroon and gold, Trenton Bourguet.

Hailing from deep behind enemy lines at Marana High School, the Bourguet bloodlines run deep through Tempe, with both of his parents being Arizona State graduates. Trenton would follow in his parents' footsteps and enroll at Arizona State for the fall of 2019, but with football prospects thin, had to settle for a walk-on spot. He proved to be an incredibly valuable asset, moving up from the scout team to compete for backup QB reps, but would not see any playing time.

The shortened 2020 season would see Trenton named as the backup to Jayden Daniels, and he made his season debut in the 70-7 blowout win over Arizona, going 1-for-2 passing for 24 yards and leading two scoring drives. He would spend 2021 in a reserve role once again, completing 7 of his 10 passes for 91 yards, including his first career touchdown pass in a 34-21 loss to Washington State.

The 2022 season brought a lot of upheaval for the Sun Devils, but presented Trenton with great opportunity. Trenton's first action of the season came in mop-up duty during a 40-3 blowout win over Northern Arizona, but his coming out party came in Week 6 at home against Washington. After starter Emory Jones left in the second quarter following a huge hit.

Entering with the game tied at 10, Trenton showed that there was a quarterback controversy brewing, throwing for 181 yards and 3 touchdowns against 1 interception as the Sun Devils upset No. 21-ranked Washington, making interim head coach Shaun Aguano just the second coach in program history to earn his first win against a ranked opponent (Darryl Rogers the first). Furthermore, Bourguet was named the Manning Award Quarterback of the Week for his incredible performance.

Following the bye week and a 15-14 loss at Stanford, Coach Aguano added fuel to the fire, saying:

"Going forward, it’s an open competition, a true open competition for both of those guys."

It took until gameday, but fans got their answer: Trenton Bourguet would get his first career start on October 29th at Colorado.

If Trenton's performance earlier in the month was heroic, then his starting debut was nothing short of monumental. All he did was complete 32 of his 43 passes, three of those completions for touchdowns, while racking up 435 passing yards, good for the second-most passing yards in a first career start in program history as the Sun Devils won 42-34 at Folsom Field. His 435 passing yards also ranked fourth-most by any Pac-12 quarterback in his first start since 2007.

While the win at Colorado would be the last of the 2022 season for the Sun Devils, Trenton's season still wowed onlookers. He finished the season with 1,490 passing yards, 11 touchdowns against 5 interceptions, and a 71.4% completion rate, ranked 3rd in FBS (min. 200 attempts). He would throw for more than 300 yards twice more on the season, including 376 yards in a 38-35 shootout loss in Tucson to Arizona.

Despite his performance, Trenton would not find himself at the top of the depth chart to open the season in 2023 as Jaden Rashada would get the first two starts against Southern Utah and Oklahoma State.

He would make his season debut in Week 3 against Fresno State, but struggled before leaving in the first quarter in what was a microcosm of the entire season, completing 6 of 8 passes for 47 yards and one interception in the 29-0 loss.

Trenton would rebound after missing the following week against USC, throwing for back-to-back 300 yard games in losses to Cal and Colorado. From there the overall consistent struggle of the season would take its toll, but threw for a respectable 1,486 yards and 1 touchdown against 4 interceptions behind an injury-riddled offensive line that allowed him just 2.29 seconds to throw, third-worst snap-to-pass time in the country.

2024 saw Trenton take on a new role in his redshirt senior season, serving as a mentor to incoming redshirt freshman transfer Sam Leavitt. He would have to wait until the waning minutes of the Territorial Cup to see his only meaningful action of the season but made the most of it, completing two of his three passes on his first drive in the 4th quarter.

The first of those completions was to his younger brother Coben, followed by a 64 yard touchdown pass to Derek Eusebio that put the exclamation mark on a 49-7 win that clinched the Big 12 regular season title. He would appear on the final drive of the Big 12 Championship Game, taking the final three kneeldowns that finished off the 45-19 win over Iowa State, propelling Arizona State to the College Football Playoff and the 2025 Peach Bowl.

Even though he only played 20 games across his six seasons in Tempe, Trenton's five games of 300+ passing yards rank 8th in program history, representing 5 of the top 59 passing games by Sun Devil quarterbacks.

He holds program records for completion percentage (min. 200 attempts) with 71.4% in 2022, as well as career completion percentage with 65.5%. His 2.16% interception rate ranks third in program history among quarterbacks with at least 400 pass attempts.

Now as he enters the next era of his football career, Trenton will make the transition to coaching and serve as the assistant running backs coach for Arizona State. His tenacity and perseverance during the lean years to open the 2020's will set him up for success as a coach, and sets him apart in today's countdown.