ASU passed on Ryan Finley. Will it come back to haunt them?

The N&O pointed out a couple days ago that Ryan Finley may have ended up at Arizona State if it were up to his high school coach.

That didn’t happen because ASU prioritized Joshua Dobbs, who at the last second picked Tennessee over the Sun Devils. After that happened, Finley’s high school coach once again pushed ASU to offer Finley. They finally gave him a look, but it was too late, he stayed committed to Boise State.

ASU ended up with nothing in 2013, but in 2014 they got a commitment from 3-star QB Manny Wilkins.

Wilkins will be behind center when ASU takes on NC State today and he’s a big reason why they are where they are. He finished with 2,918 yards passing (235-370), 17 TDs and 5 ints. He’s also rushed for 269 yards and 6 TDs.

Meanwhile, Finley has thrown for 3,200 yards (288 of 450), 16 TDs and 6 INTs. He’s also rushed for 195 yards and 3 TDs. Both quarterbacks have thrown for just about 64%.

The storyline is interesting. ‘QB ignored by ASU faces off against them in a bowl game.’ But honestly, on paper, these two guys are pretty identical. Based on stats and tangibles alone, it wouldn’t seem like either guy had an advantage it this one.

However, sometimes it’s the intangibles that end up tilting the scale.

There is a chance that this is it for Ryan Finley. The junior is being graded pretty well in mock drafts and in a year where the QB class isn’t all that strong, he could opt to make the jump. Couple that with the fact that Finley has been a ‘beat the odds’ kind of guy his whole career and you could see where he may have more riding on this one.

He came out of high school as 3-star recruit, was passed up by a lot of big-name schools, and then had to come back from a major surgery. He loves a good challenge, and what better challenge then rubbing his success in the face of the school who passed him by.

All things considered, we are predicting Finley has a huge game against the Sun Devils and makes them pay for their mistake.