Four Downs: Arizona State digging into Gannon film to prepare for Oklahoma State defense

TEMPE, Ariz. — Oklahoma State hits the road for the first time this season, with the desert heat awaiting at Mountain America Stadium on the campus of Arizona State.

The temperature is expected to be above 100 degrees at kickoff — which is 9:30 p.m. Oklahoma time — and could set the record for the school’s hottest game.

Handling the heat will be obstacle No. 1 for the Pokes, looking to show further growth following their season-opening 27-13 win over Central Arkansas last week.

Which quarterback will start? How many will play? And how much will each of them play?

All good questions, and the answers primarily reside only in the mind of Mike Gundy. The Cowboy coach said he would decide how to split quarterback snaps between Garret Rangel, Alan Bowman and Gunnar Gundy based on their performances throughout the week.

With that, let’s focus on things we know a bit more about in this week’s edition of Four Downs:

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Cowboys in the crosshairs

The offensive line: While so much attention was given to the quarterbacks in the season opener, the offensive line struggles were far more concerning. OSU should’ve been able to dominate the line of scrimmage against an FCS opponent. Now they’ve got to get the job done against another Power Five school.

Right tackle Jake Springfield missed all but a couple series last week with an ankle injury. Right guard Preston Wilson was out because of non-football issues. Both could be back on the field Saturday, which should help.

But the Cowboys need to find a way to run the football, regardless of who is blocking. All the offseason talk about re-emphasizing the run game feels moot after the way the Pokes rushed it last week.

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Dirk Koetter’s Cowboy juke

Once upon a time, Dirk Koetter was going to be the Oklahoma State head coach. Then he changed his mind and bolted for Arizona State. OSU instead hired Les Miles as head coach, bringing in a brash, young offensive coordinator named Mike Gundy. And the rest, as Gundy said earlier this week, “is history.”

While Gundy went from OC to head coach and has yet to leave Stillwater, Koetter has made quite a few stops. After five years at Arizona State, he moved to the NFL where he was the offensive coordinator in Jacksonville, Atlanta and Tampa Bay, eventually becoming the head coach at the latter stop.

After he was let go as the Buccaneers’ head coach, he landed back with Atlanta and served last year as an offensive analyst at Boise State. Currently, he’s not on a coaching staff.

“I was just kind of a backseat guy,” Gundy said earlier this week. “They were basically doing me a favor, being nice to me. In my opinion, they weren’t really putting me in a position to hire me, which they shouldn’t have. We had just gotten fired at Maryland. I was out of a job. I felt like if Les got the job, I would have a chance to come and work for him.

“Then I got the word that Koetter got the job, or he was walking around, somebody had him on campus, right? So they pretty much thought it was his job, which I guess he took it then went the other direction. Then after that is when Les got the job. Then Les called me, I don’t remember how soon after that — it wasn’t long — and offered me a job, which I was very thankful for. And the rest is history.”

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Kenny Dillingham chasing ghosts?

ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham is digging deep to prepare for the defensive scheme of OSU coordinator Byran Nardo. With only one game of Nardo at OSU, Dillingham has gone back to last season, when Nardo ran his 3-3-5 scheme at Division II Gannon University.

“We only have one game,” Dillingham said earlier this week. “So we have a freshman quarterback who has one game to watch and then he gets to watch film from (Nardo’s) last school, and you get to watch 12 games of different people. I think that’s the challenge when you play new coordinators early in years is you’re watching different people run the scheme. Well, how much is he running this scheme because the people he has at his last school and the schemes he is facing at his last school versus how much is he gonna change at this new school?

“This defense hasn’t hit the Pac-12. That’s the reality is this defense isn’t in the Pac-12. This defense is in the Big 12. I don’t even know if it’s, I can’t even process, I never faced it in any other league other than the Big 12. This is a predominantly Big 12 and American Conference defense. I faced it in the American, too. So those are the only two leagues that really run this, and you can’t simulate it until you play it. It’s like triple-option, so it is very difficult from that standpoint.”

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Uni-guess

White-white-orange: This isn’t a frequently used combo, but could be a legit look with the new jersey style, which has orange or black number options. Mix in the orange numbers and a cursive Cowboys helmet logo — maybe even an orange face mask? — and this could be strong. The uniform combos are planned well in advance, but if the equipment crew was thinking ahead, an all-white look wouldn’t be bad either, considering the expected high temperature is 107 degrees in Tempe on Saturday.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State football defense a mystery for Arizona State Sun Devils