ASU football didn't offer spot to Chandler championship QB now at Fresno St.

A lot has been made of the large number of local players on the Arizona State roster. But there will be another homecoming on Saturday when the injury-plagued Sun Devils (1-1) entertain the Fresno State Bulldogs (2-0) at 7:30 p.m. at Mountain America Stadium, with the game to air on FS1.

Fresno State, the defending Mountain West Conference champion, is led by redshirt sophomore quarterback Mikey Keene, a graduate of Chandler High School. He is in his first year in the program after transferring from Central Florida. No doubt he will have a good representation of friends and family in attendance, but he is staying focused on the task at hand.

"It's just another game for me. There are some things that are a little cool like I'll get to have some people there that haven't seen me play since high school but all of that is just outside noise in all honesty," Keene said in a video interview posted on the Fresno State football website. "I'll just focus on my preparation this week and getting ready to face a tough opponent in ASU."

Keene went 23-0 as Chandler’s starting quarterback, leading the Wolves to the first two Open Division state championships in 2019 and 2020. The Open Division is the highest playoff level in Arizona high school football, taking in the top eight ranked teams in the state regardless of their conference.

Yet, Keene wasn't recruited by ASU out of high school. Also, both of his parents attended rival Arizona, but the Wildcats didn't offer him a scholarship, either. His highest-profile offer came from Iowa State of the Big 12. He had others from non-Power Five schools including Tulane, Utah State, San Jose State, Western Kentucky, Eastern Michigan, Coastal Carolina and Central Florida.

He signed with Orlando-based Central Florida, which got a heads up on him from of all people, current ASU coach Kenny Dillingham, whose expertise is on the offensive side of the ball and has worked closely with quarterbacks in his previous college coaching positions.

"It was actually one of my good buddies, Alex (Golesh) who’s now the head coach of South Florida, went from Iowa State to UCF at the time and he reached out about different quarterbacks," said Dillingham, who coached at Chandler and ASU before Keene's time in high school and who was offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Florida State in 2020-21. "I said, `There’s this kid Mikey Keene who’s a heck of a player out here. If you’re looking for one, this guy fits what you guys do.'

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"So he came out here and he signed him and I think he is an incredible, accurate, smart (quarterback). I remember recruiting him and he had over a 4.0 GPA, watching him throw live super, super accurate. So you see that play style on Saturdays, you see him be accurate, you see him be decisive."

Keene played in 11 games for the Knights as a true freshman in 2021, completing 173 of 272 passes for 1,730 yards, 17 touchdowns and six interceptions. Last season he appeared in only four games, throwing for 647 yards and completing 72.3% of his passes, and opted to enter the transfer portal in December. Since he played in just four games he got to use his redshirt season, allowing him to play three years at another school.

Fresno State appeared to be a good fit, with the Bulldogs headed by one of the nation's most respected coaches in Jeff Tedford. So far, so good. Keene has led Fresno State to wins over Purdue and Eastern Washington, completing 54 of 83 passes (65.1%) for 599 yards and six touchdowns with just two interceptions.

Last Saturday's 34-31 overtime win against Eastern Washington extended the Bulldogs win streak to 11 games, second only to reining national champion Georgia's 19 among FBS schools.

Keene is familiar with some of the players on ASU from his days at Chandler, most notably redshirt freshman linebacker Tate Romney, who signed with BYU out of high school and is in his first year with the Sun Devils.

Keene had good things to say about the ASU defense, which enters the contest allowing an average of 265 yards per game, 24th among 130 FBS schools and third in the Pac-12. The Sun Devils resurgence on that side of the ball has been led by junior B.J. Green and Oklahoma transfer Clayton Smith.

"They do a lot of unique things on third downs. They have athletes all over the board. They got some long (line)backers that can move," Keene said. "There are some guys from my high school that play on the team but (they have) a very athletic defense, long and big defense that can present problems."

Dillingham knows his team is facing a tough task.

"Their quick passing game, I think it fits their quarterback's skill set," he said. "I know their head coach has been throwing the ball successfully for a long time. You can tell that the quarterback and the coordinator and the head coach are all on the same page and the confidence he plays with and compare that with his intelligence at the quarterback position. He gets the ball out quick, doesn’t take too many negatives. So that will be the challenge this week is can we get to him or get him rattled to get him off the spot.”

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU football didn't recruit this local champion QB, face him Saturday