Gary Chambers Views Opportunity as Chance to Improve

One of the best stories to come out of the ASU’s first game of the season against Weber State, was redshirt junior wide receiver Gary Chambers.

It had been a long road for Chambers to get where he is today. He is one of the few remaining players still present on the team who was recruited and brought in by the Dennis Erickson staff and has had to learn, adjust and improve a lot to get the confidence from Todd Graham and company. 

Finally this season, Chambers is being given the opportunity and he is running with it. Not seeing it as he has now arrived, but seeing it as an opportunity to continue to improve.

“I think I am getting better every day,” said Chambers. “I think that is the goal every day is to improve because I am not perfect and I definitely do still make mistakes. But at the same time, there was a lot of things that I had not had the opportunity to get out there and show that I could do. But now that I do have the opportunity, I have to continue to improve.”

Dealing with a change in style and demeanor from a new coaching hire is actually something that Chambers had dealt with before having every stepped foot in Tempe as a member of the Sun Devil football team. He also worked through that change while attending Ironwood High School in Glendale. 

“The same thing happened to me in high school where I had a new coaching staff come in my senior year and I had to adapt,” explained Chambers. “When it happened here it was just one of those things, just changing and getting used to a different offense and re-learning it all again.”

“It was kind of hard at first,” he added. “But overall the last few years I have been able to adapt to everything that is going on and have learned to work with what we are doing as an offense.”

What he has learned really showed last Thursday night against Weber State. He caught his first pass as a member of the Sun Devils which also happened to be a touchdown. He also made a big play on a third and long taking the ball all the way to the pylon before being hit out of bounds in pursuit of a second touchdown. On the game, he had a total of 46 receiving yards on those two receptions which was second on the team for the game.

“I thought it was a pretty good performance,” Chambers mentioned. “The touchdown was definitely exciting and I was able to get another little catch in there and my blocking was good. Personally I think it went pretty good and our receiving core as a whole did pretty good.”

He mentions scoring that first touchdown was a moment that not only was exciting for him, but also his family who is able to easily make it out to games and practices with him attending school in the city he came up in.

“After I scored that touchdown, I was able to look up into the stands and see my mom and my dad so it has been good to have that support system close to me,” he stated. “It’s nice knowing that if something happens or I need a little support, they are there with me.”

Standing on the Ironwood sidelines on friday night, the day after Chambers’ breakout game, there was definitely a sense of excitement about the former Eagle. He could now be on the fast track to the Ironwood Hall-of-Fame if he keeps this up.

“Whatever happens, happens!” Chambers said with a smile. “I still have a long way to go this season and I still have a few seasons to go so I just want to continue to improve and help the team out here.”