Flathead junior Brock Osweiler has verbally committed to play football for Arizona State University.Garrett Cheen file photo/Daily Inter Lake

Oz's audible

Flathead's Brock Osweiler decides to play football for Arizona State

By DIXIE KNUTSON/The Daily Inter Lake

Brock Osweiler is going to Arizona State - to play football.

Flathead's 6-foot-8 junior quarterback verbally committed to the Sun Devils on Wednesday.

He told Gonzaga - the school to which he previously committed to play basketball - his plans the same day.

"It's amazing. I have a feeling that I haven't felt for months, probably since December," Osweiler said Thursday evening.

"I feel like a new person - a person I haven't been able to be for quite some time," he said.

"It's just the right decision at the right time."

According to Osweiler, he'd been wrestling with two decisions - whether to play basketball or football and which school to attend - for some time.

He verbally committed to Gonzaga before his sophomore year, but since then he's generated some incredible numbers on the football field.

He threw for 2,454 yards and led Flathead to the Class AA state

semifinals as a sophomore. This past fall, he completed 63.2 percent of his pass attempts for 2,935 yards and 27 touchdowns.

That all generated a ton of interest from the college football powerhouses. The more interest that was shown, the more Osweiler thought about a football future.

His decision came after months of turmoil, a ton of advice and a flood of phone calls and letters from the likes of Florida State, Alabama, UCLA, Washington State and Stanford.

"It's been a constant thought in my mind. I haven't slept very good for months," he said.

The final epiphany came during advanced multimedia class Wednesday morning.

"I was sitting in third-period class, thinking about a couple of football schools. It all happened in a second. I got this weird, strange gut feeling. I couldn't sit there anymore," he said.

He told teacher Tara Barnes he needed to leave.

"'I've got to go. I've got to go talk to my coach,'" he told her and headed out to find Flathead head football coach Russell McCarvel.

After five minutes of discussion, Osweiler said McCarvel told him, "'You've just completely made your decision based on all the right reasons.'

"I called my parents right away," Osweiler said. "They really couldn't be happier. They're just as excited for me to get down there as I am."

"He's been laboring over this stuff for a long time," John Osweiler said. "It's not like a sporadic thing. He knows (Gonzaga and Arizona State) are both great schools.

"His heart was more with football, and (Arizona State) is a good situation for him," he added.

"We've got family down there. That will be nice for Brock.

"Brock sounds very happy and pleased with his decision. Now he's got it all behind him.

"I think it's great. Wherever Brock wants to go, we support him 100 percent. He's the one who has to go there," he added.

"I know what I'm getting in coach (Dennis) Erickson and his staff. I feel very safe with them," Osweiler said.

"Arizona State, in its own respect, is a national powerhouse. They're only going forward. Last year was coach Erickson's first year. This year should be even better."

According to Osweiler, the Sun Devils' 2008 recruiting class includes some really good wide receivers, a tight end and some solid offensive linemen.

"That just goes to show the direction they're headed. Offensively, they really are going the right direction," he said.

The most difficult phone call may have been the one to Gonzaga, but even that turned out well.

"I called Gonzaga and talked to coach (Leon) Rice. He was very supportive of my decision. He said, 'If that's where your heart is set, that's what you need to do.'

"He really made the conversation go quite easy," Osweiler said.

"Their entire staff has been there for my family, and they'll still be there for me," he said.

Basketball may still be an option. Arizona State has offered Osweiler the idea of talking with the basketball staff.

But for now, it's an either/or situation.

The perfect scenario would be to play football at Arizona State and basketball at Gonzaga, he said.

But since that can't happen, Osweiler says for now he'll concentrate on football - and his studies. He plans to major in sports management and minor in business.