The teacher handed each of the kindergartners a notebook and gave them a task.
Draw what you want to be when you grow up.
So the kids got to work. Some drew superheroes. Others sketched out pop stars or millionaires. But what was in Trenton Bourguet’s book confused the teacher.
What are these weird shapes and lines?
At the end of the semester, Trenton’s notebook was given to his father Toby.
“Your son must really be into Star Wars,” said the teacher, taking a guess.
“He’s never seen a Star Wars in his life,” Toby replied.
So Toby opened up the notebook to see what his six-year-old son had drawn. He recognized it instantly.
It was a playbook.
The plays came complete with notations explaining the thinking behind them. At that young age, Trenton already understood pass patterns, player spacing, and levels.
The Force was strong with this one.
A season ticket holder called the Arizona Cardinals’ offices. He had a tip.
You gotta come see this kid.
So a team vice president asked Mo Streety, the franchise’s Youth Football Manager, to head down to Tucson to follow up on it and check out Trenton Bourguet.
By the time Streety returned to the Valley, his perspective on the game had changed.
“You come back like Moses with two tablets.”
Football was the Bourguet family’s thing.
Toby had been a scrambling high school quarterback who loved Joe Montana and wore his No. 16. He went on to attend Arizona State University, and in 1997, Toby coached a dominant women’s intramural flag football team whose best player, Vanessa, would become his wife. To this day, Toby plays competitive flag football with a number of former NFL players.
Toby and Vanessa’s passion for the game was passed on to their children. By the time their first child Trenton was two years old, he was running routes in a local park with Toby.
The kid proved to be a natural.
(Photo: Toby Bourguet)
“He was catching footballs at such an early age, people thought we should take him on the Jay Leno show,” said Toby.
Trenton got involved in flag football and basketball early on, and there was rarely a time when he wasn’t carrying around either a football or basketball. While he loved basketball, it was football which held his true passion.
Trenton was a football junkie, devouring any and all content he could get to further his understanding of the game. It was a habit many close to the family were happy to enable.
When Mike Bell, a family friend who played running back at the University of Arizona, was signed by the Denver Broncos in 2006, he made a stop at the Bourguet’s house on his way to Denver. Before he left, he dropped off two video tapes for Trenton. It was the coaches’ film of Bell’s carries during his career with the Wildcats.
Trenton watched the tapes. Then rewatched them. Over and over again. When he had friends over to the house, instead of watching cartoons, he’d put on the tapes and explain to them why Bell made that cut or hit this hole.
Trenton was just wired differently.
When Trenton was seven years old, Toby created the Tucson Turf football program. Along with Trenton, it launched with just four other players at the time, two of which were Trenton’s younger brothers and another was his cousin.
4-year-old Trenton (right) plays in the backyard with younger brother Coben (Photo: Toby Bourguet)
As he developed the squad, Toby opted to use the up-tempo style of offense that was gaining popularity at the time, and in Trenton, Toby knew he had the perfect quarterback to run it.
Just a couple short years after drawing plays in his kindergarten classroom, Trenton was calling them on the flag football field. While some kids that age may have been fazed by the pressure of playing quarterback, Trenton embraced it.
“All the eyes are on you,” Trenton said of his love of playing quarterback. “I just like being the guy out there that everyone is looking at to see what he does.”
What those onlookers saw was a little kid doing something remarkable.
“Watching him walk up to the line of scrimmage, and you’re looking at him wondering what the heck is he thinking?” said Streety. “He’s looking at you and walking up to the line like Peyton Manning calling out things and pointing out stuff. As an adult, you see what this kid is about to do to you, but you can’t convey to your kids what’s about to happen to them.”
“What’s the next step of the opponent has always been super intriguing to me,” Trenton said. “I know where the defensive guy is going before the snap. Even on the playground, people wanted to be on my team.”
Toby was quick to realize what his son was able to do, how he processed the game like adults with years of experience. He knew to just step back and let Trenton do his thing.
“We didn’t even have a playbook,” Toby said. “It was all in his head.”
Tucson Turf game days became a sight to behold, a schematic chess match between Trenton and the adult coaches trying to stop him.
“He was really up against grown men that were so-called defensive coordinators, including myself,” Streety said, laughing. “At a pretty early age, he was figuring it out and calling plays at the line of scrimmage to his friends.”
But knowing what to do and doing it are two different things, especially on the football field. Fortunately for Tucson Turf, Trenton had that part covered too. He was an accurate passer who was able to make the plays he called out.
Trenton throws a pass during a flag football game (Photo: Toby Bourguet)
“Football, like reading music for some people, he just understands,” Toby said. “Not only does he understand it, but the beautiful part is he’s actually been able to put the ball in places where very few would even imagine there’s a place to throw a football.”
Trenton became the foundation upon which Toby built the Turf program, and wins came at a rapid pace. From those humble beginnings practicing in a Tucson park, Tucson Turf became one of the elite flag and 7-on-7 programs in the country, with their squads now boasting over 150 players and 38 national championships.
That level of success became the template other flag and 7-on-7 programs aimed to replicate. They wanted to be the Turf, and they wanted their own Trenton Bourguet.
“You see these kids walking up to the line of scrimmage, looking at the landscape, going ‘Omaha!’ and you go ‘What the F is this? They’re only six!’” Streety said. “Because of (Trenton), these kids are becoming more savvy with coverages. Now, these six- and eight-year-olds are walking up to the line of scrimmage and calling out plays. Their counterparts are on the other side of the line of scrimmage trying to call it.
“It’s becoming a kid’s game again because of his legacy.”
When he wasn’t busy directing his own offense on the field, Trenton Bourguet could often be found helping his younger siblings direct theirs.
“That’s what we do,” Trenton said of his siblings, “throw dimes left and right and have fun with the game.”
Even as Trenton aged out of different age divisions, the Bourguet quarterback lineage continued with his brothers Coben and Treyson and sister Rylen. Each step of the way, Trenton stayed involved, coaching them and their teammates.
As to be expected from someone who drew up a playbook in kindergarten, coaching came naturally to Trenton. He showed an innate ability to lead a huddle and communicate with players, and he often out-coached his counterparts that were three or four times his age.
“He has a knack for (coaching),” Toby said. “He has a knack for explaining and seeing the game conceptually.”
Over the years, Trenton guided Turf teams to several championships at multiple levels. This past February at the NFL’s Pro Bowl, Rylen quarterbacked her team to their second consecutive national championship, all while Coach Trenton looked on.
Trenton (left) and Rylen’s back-to-back national championship team poses with Pittsburgh Steelers star JuJu Smith-Schuster at the Pro Bowl (Photo: Toby Bourguet)
Even with teams on which he played, his coaching instincts were on display. When he was a freshman at Marana High School, he ran his 7-on-7 team’s two-hour practices by himself.
“We wouldn’t have to intervene,” said Toby.
Trenton continued to hone his coaching craft as he authored one of the most prolific quarterback careers in southern Arizona high school history.
At Marana, he passed for 7,612 yards and 89 touchdowns, and earned several awards in the process. However, despite that production, his recruiting attention was limited to offers from NCAA Division II and NAIA schools. Larger schools saw Trenton’s statline, but other numbers jumped out more: 5-foot-11, 170 pounds.
“A lot of recruiting is based on potential,” Toby said, “and when you’re an undersized quarterback, and it’s weird to say in the age of Kyler Murray, there’s still a stigma that you’re taking a big risk on a kid like that.”
There was disappointment, but Trenton was able to step back and see the big picture.
“I knew that I could go to a D-2, NAIA,” Trenton said. “No shame on them, it’s still football, but where I want to go in life is further than just going to a small school and playing in the cold.”
That was the key. Trenton knew where he wanted to go in life. He had always known. Playing was great, but ultimately, his dream was to become a coach.
The next step, wherever it would be, had to facilitate that goal.
“I wanted to go somewhere where I could learn from the guys, I could compete, I could make guys around me better on the scout team,” Trenton said. “Pushing the other quarterbacks in the room. It will help me in the long run.”
The Bourguet family in 2014
In shaping his future, Trenton had the benefit of having seen that exact plan come to fruition up close.
Josh Pastner was a family friend who had played basketball at the University of Arizona. Like Trenton, Pastner had coaching aspirations, and he chose Arizona as much for the chance to learn under legendary head coach Lute Olson as any on-court opportunity. Pastner would join Olson’s coaching staff two years after the end of his playing career, and he later became head coach at Memphis before taking over at Georgia Tech in 2016.
With Trenton’s 3.9 GPA, the family knew he could get an academic scholarship to wherever he wanted to go. What they were searching for, and what some of those smaller schools could not offer, was a coaching mentor that could prepare Trenton for a career in coaching.
They were looking for his Lute Olson.
Growing up, Trenton never missed a home Arizona Wildcats games. The family had season tickets and cheered on the Wildcats from their seats in the corner of Arizona Stadium.
So the thought of going heading up to Sun Devil Country was…well, it wasn’t done.
Months after Trenton Bourguet threw his final pass for Marana, the search for his college destination continued. By April, he was considering going to a junior college in California.
Little did he know that he had been on the radar of Arizona State offensive coordinator Rob Likens.
Likens had watched Trenton’s film earlier in the spring but believed Bourguet was destined to stay down south as a Wildcat. So he moved on.
When ASU hosted Treyson Bourguet, now a Class of 2022 prospect, for an unofficial visit in the spring, the Sun Devil staff asked about Trenton. Upon learning that Trenton remained unsigned, Likens pounced.
“When Coach Likens called me up to come for a visit and told me what they had to offer me, I couldn’t say no,” Trenton said.
Heading to the ASU campus may have been crossing enemy lines, but it made a strong impression.
“It was my first time coming up here, because being from Tucson, you don’t come up here,” said Trenton. “It was super cool. The facilities are amazing. The coaching staff treats you like family no matter who you are.”
Trenton made the trip knowing the Sun Devils were flush with quarterbacks. ASU had redshirt junior Dillon Sterling-Cole plus three other highly-rated true freshmen in Jayden Daniels, Joey Yellen, and Ethan Long. Those four had participated in spring practice and were still vying for the team’s starting job.
ASU’s coaching staff had no intention of inserting Bourguet into that competition or even offering him a scholarship. Instead, they wanted him to walk on to the program to play a very specific, and important, part.
“I told him, ‘Here’s your role. If you can’t accept this, you probably don’t need to walk on here,’” said ASU head coach Herm Edwards. “You’re going to service our defense for most of the practices.”
Trenton Bourguet and Herm Edwards
With his high football IQ and ability to quickly digest playbooks, Bourguet had the makings of an ideal scout team quarterback. He’d be tasked with running a new offense each week in practice, one that mirrors the upcoming opponent so the Sun Devil defense can prepare.
“You’d be surprised how important that is for us defensively to get a quarterback that can throw the football and understands the concepts of offenses,” Edwards said. “Every week, it’s going to change where he can get guys lined up. I told him, ‘You’re the captain over there. You gotta run it. You’re the starting quarterback.'”
That was the offer: No. 5 on ASU’s depth chart, but No. 1 for the scout team. Plus, Edwards offered a rare perk to the mix, especially for a true freshman walk-on.
“Do a good job, and you’re going to dress,” said Edwards. “When we travel, you’re going to travel. You’re going to be the starting quarterback for every week’s team. I want you to handle the huddle.”
“When he said that to me, my mom started crying,” Bourguet said. “To hear that from Coach Herm and to say that, ‘We don’t give many promises around here, but that’s one thing we can guarantee you as a walk on.’ That’s when I knew that I didn’t want to go to a juco and try to bust it out for two years. I had a place here that wanted me and needed me. I’m going to do whatever I can to help them. To be on the travel squad, to experience those types of games and those types of experiences, it’s once in a lifetime.”
At ASU, Bourguet would get to run the scout team, dress and travel with the team, and learn about the art of coaching from Herm Edwards.
“To have this opportunity come his way, it’s pretty fairy tale,” Toby Bourguet said. “You have to pinch yourself sometimes.”
After months of searching and worry, they had found the place where he was meant to be.
Like his parents, Trenton Bourguet was going to be a Sun Devil
Excited For This Next Chapter That Is About To Begin..
In early August, before ASU began practice, Toby Bourguet stood atop a grassy hill behind the west endzone at Camp Tontozona and watched as his son warmed up.
Trenton wore the gray jersey issued to the team’s quarterbacks. On the front and back was a gold 16. Just like Toby used to wear. Just like ASU legend Jake “The Snake” Plummer.
Just like Trenton used to wear too. As a baby, Trenton had a onesie with his name and 16 in a stitched football.
It’s like it was meant to be.
“For him to wear No. 16 at ASU, it’s a pretty magical deal,” Toby said.
Left: Trenton as a baby in the No. 16 onesie (Photo: Toby Bourguet) Right: Trenton during an ASU practice (Photo: Brad Denny)
Trenton joined the program over the summer and set about digesting the playbook.
“I was the last (quarterback) here, but everyone took me in and treated me like I was here already,” he said. “Learning under them and asking them for tidbits, what they think. Now, I feel like I’m up to the level where I understand the plays. If I have any questions, I can ask them or they can ask me.”
To the surprise of no one, Trenton made an immediate impression with his intellect and willingness to help his teammates.
“He’s really smart. He answers all the questions in the meetings,” Likens said. “He helps out. We do this developmental scrimmage every day after practice with the young guys, and I can call the whole offense. I could never have said that before. He knows everything and throws touchdown passes! I really love that kid. Great heart.”
“I sit in those quarterback meetings sometimes, and he has all the answers,” Edwards said. “He picks it up very fast. You like a guy like that. He has a plan for his life. He wants to play football. He’d like to play quarterback. He understands the situation here, and he’s willing to accept it to help the team.”
ASU opened fall camp on July 31. The structure and efficiency of ASU’s practices—part of the program-wide “pro model”— helped him acclimate to the college game, as well as give him ideas for the future. He’s worked on his techniques with Mike Bercovici, the former ASU quarterback who now serves as a grad assistant on the coaching staff. He participated in drills and scrimmages with the other quarterbacks.
Bourguet (to right of No. 13) looking at plays to run for the scout team. (Photo: Brad Denny)
A few weeks into camp, with the season opener approaching, the Sun Devils split and the scout team was formed. Gold jerseys were issued, and Trenton assumed his “starting” role. It was time to prepare ASU’s defense for Kent State.
Soon, he’ll be under center emulating the smashmouth style of Michigan State. Later, it will be Washington State’s Air Raid attack. In a few months, Trenton will assume the role of Arizona’s dynamic dual-threat quarterback Khalil Tate as the Sun Devils prepare for the annual Territorial Cup showdown.
“That’ll be a fun one,” Trenton admits. “I have a lot of friends in Tucson, a lot of guys I grew up playing with and playing against. I’m excited to be a part of that rivalry and be in that fire.”
When ASU faces Kent State on Aug. 29, all eyes will be on Jayden Daniels. The winner of that four-man competition will be the first true freshman quarterback to ever start a season opener for the Sun Devils. His every pass and decision will be scrutinized, and how No. 5 in the maroon and gold performs will be discussed for days.
Meanwhile, few in the stands will notice No. 16 on the sidelines, but they’ll all see the result of the work he’s done.
Trenton Bourguet is a good football player. He’s been one since he was running around the playground and slinging passes for the Tucson Turf.
But one of the core tenets of that program is “the chapter of football is very miniscule in your book.”
Prepare for life after your playing days are over.
It’s a hard lesson for many players to learn. Some never do. But Trenton’s been doing it from the start. He could have chased a starting job at some junior college. But, unlike many peers, he knows exactly what he wants to do.
So to get there, he came here.
Trenton admits that being a longshot to ever see game action is tough to reconcile with his past accomplishments and his competitive spirit, yet he hasn’t allowed it to change his approach.
“A lot of people in today’s world want to be that guy, and if they’re not the starter, they transfer,” Trenton said. “I know what my role is. I’m going to help the team in any way.”
Bourguet (16) throws with the other QBs during preseason practice.
Paul Yee
“The kid hit the lottery,” said Toby Bourguet. “Whether or not he steps on the field on a Saturday as a starter for Arizona State University, that’s not our expectation. Our expectation is that he will continue his journey, and it will play out the way God intends it to play out. As long as his attitude and his effort, which it has been his entire life, we expect him to excel in whatever role that is.”
Even though he’s been here just a few months, Trenton has been flexing his coaching muscles with an eye on the future. He’s already trying “to be another GA” with his teammates by helping the other quarterbacks in the meeting and film rooms and giving the wide receivers tips from a quarterback’s perspective.
Most of all, he’s been watching how Herm Edwards and his staff approach the game as teachers, first and foremost.
“The amount of detail that I’m going to learn here under Coach Herm you can’t get anywhere else,” Trenton said. “I’m making connections that I really couldn’t get anywhere else. With these guys, there’s so much possibility out there.”
A few years of learning under Edwards would seem to equate to a PhD-level degree in coaching.
“That’s going to make him even more of a beast,” Streety said.
Ever since he designed those plays in his kindergarten notebook, Trenton’s had a plan. He’s in the right place, with the right skills, and learning from the right people.
“It’s like Christmas,” Trenton said. “Jesus was watching over me and handed me something that was very special. Everybody who knows me, knows this is a perfect place for me, no matter if I play one play or start three years. I’m just going to do whatever I can and be ready if my name is called.”
He may not get the call. But one day, he’ll be the guy making those calls.
“He wants to be a coach, and he’s going to be a good coach,” Edwards said.
Just like Trenton drew it up all those years ago.
Courtesy of a family.com
