A road matchup against the no. 11 team in the country is hardly a contest any unranked team should look forward to. Yet, if Oklahoma State's performance in a 58-44 win over Central Michigan in week one wasn't an aberration but rather a true and current reflection of the team, especially on defense, are there areas ASU can exploit? Let's examine the Sun Devils' hots from Stillwater.

Oklahoma State Offense

One of the most accomplished Power Five quarterbacks in the country yet one of the most underrated, OSU’s Spencer Sanders is poised to make his 34th career start this Saturday after leading Oklahoma State to a 12-2 record and Fiesta Bowl victory last season.

The First-Team All-Big-12 pick at quarterback last year, Sanders (6-1, 210) is one of only two players in program history to have thrown for at least 5,000 career yards while also having rushed for at least 1,000 career yards.

In 2021, Sanders completed 61.9% of his passes for 2,839 yards with 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 13 games and added 668 net rushing yards with six touchdowns in 146 carries. In all, he has six career 300-yard passing games, including two 400-yard games – one of which was his career-high 406 passing yards he tallied last week against Central Michigan. Sanders also has three career 100-yard rushing games.

Sanders was named Big 12 Conference Offensive Player of the Week for his season-opening performance against Central Michigan as in addition to his 406 passing yards; he had four touchdown passes with no interceptions and rushed 11 times for 57 yards with two scores.

A primary knock on Sanders’ game has been a tendency to commit turnovers as he has eight multi-interception games in his career, including three games with three or more interceptions.

Third-year player and first-year starter Dominic Richardson takes over as the team’s top tailback in place of Jaylen Warren, who rushed for over 1,200 yards in 2021 and now plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Entering the season, Richardson (6-0, 210) had totaled 111 carries in 20 games for 462 yards and five touchdowns. In OSU’s season opener, Richardson carried nine times for 61 yards (6.8 avg.) with a touchdown and also had an eight-yard reception.

Last year, Richardson had three games with at least 75 rushing yards, including 134 yards and two touchdowns against TCU. In 2020, Richardson had what remains the top game of his collegiate career with 169 yards on 23 carries with three touchdowns against Baylor.

Behind Richardson, Jaden Nixon (5-10, 185) carried five times for six yards and caught two passes for 25 yards with a touchdown in week one.

At wide receiver, Brennan Presley (5-8, 175), Braydon Johnson (6-0, 205), and John Paul Richardson (6-0, 180) are top performers as the team works to replace the productivity of Tay Martin, now with the San Francisco 49ers, who caught 80 passes for 1,046 yards with ten touchdowns in 2021.

In week one, Johnson had a monster day with 133 yards on six catches with a touchdown, while Presley had five receptions for 83 yards and Richardson grabbed four passes for 73 yards and a score.

Presley is the leading returning receiver from 2021 after he caught 50 passes for 619 yards and five touchdowns, while Richardson had 21 catches for 145 yards and two scores. Johnson only appeared in one game last year and tallied a pair of receptions.

Jaden Bray (6-2, 200) missed OSU’s season opener but also figures to see ample action at wide receiver after missing week one. He had 13 catches for 250 yards with two touchdowns last season.

The team’s “Cowboy Back” – or its version of a tight end – is likely to either be Jake Schultz (6-3, 235) or Braden Cassity (6-2, 240). Both Schultz and Cassity notched one reception against Central Michigan. In 2021, Cassity was an Honorable Mention All-Big 12 selection after he caught five passes for 66 yards.

The Cowboy offensive line figures to feature (from left-to-right) tackle Caleb Etienne (6-7, 325), guard Taylor Miterko (6-6, 295), center Preston Wilson (6-5, 295), guard Hunter Woodard (6-5, 300) and tackle Jake Springfield (6-5, 310). Last season, Woodard was an Honorable Mention All-Big-12 pick.

Woodard entered the year with 22 career starts, Springfield with 16, and Wilson with 12, while Miterko started one game last year, and Etienne is a first-year starter.

Oklahoma State Offense Summary

It may not be Mike Leach-era Texas Tech Big-12 gunslinging, but Oklahoma State is going to pass the ball all around the field and use a quick tempo to keep ASU on its heels.

In his last three games – dating back to last season – Sanders has more than 130 combined pass attempts, so it stands to reason that he could yet again attempt in the ballpark of 40 passes this Saturday.

ASU will need to be sound in its assignments defensively to keep the OSU offense in check, and, similarly, the Sun Devils cannot over-pursue or have lapses that allow Sanders to gain chunk yards with his feet.

Though he can be turnover prone from time to time, Sanders is likely one of the three best quarterbacks ASU will face this season, and his dynamic skillset can wreak havoc if the Devils are not sound in their preparation.

Oklahoma State Defense

Operating out of a 4-2-5 base defense, the Cowboy line is deep and talented and figures to pose a significant threat to the Sun Devil offense.

Ends Brock Martin (6-3, 245) and Tyler Lacy (6-4, 285) are listed as the starters, with Collin Oliver (6-2, 235) and Trace Ford (6-3, 240) as backups who should see a significant amount of time.

Martin and Oliver were standout stars last season for the Cowboys, as Martin was a First-Team All-Big-12 selection, and Oliver was named the Conference’s Defensive Freshman of the Year and a Second-Team All-Big-12 pick.

Statistically, last year, Martin had 41 tackles, including 14.0 for loss with 9.0 sacks in 13 games, while Oliver had 29 tackles, including 15.5 for loss with 11.5 sacks in 14 games.

Lacy wasn’t too far behind as he had 34 tackles, including 11.5 for loss with 3.5 sacks, while Ford missed last season due to injury but earned Honorable Mention All-Big-12 recognition both in 2019 and 2020.

Against Central Michigan, Lacy had five tackles, including 2.5 for loss with a sack, Martin had four tackles, Oliver had two tackles, including a sack, and Ford notched a tackle.

At tackle, Brendon Evers (6-2, 295) and Sione Asi (6-1, 310) are tagged as the starting pair. Asi had two tackles, including one for loss in the season opener, while Evers also had two tackles and split a TFL.

In 2021, Evers had 21 tackles, including 6.0 for loss with 3.0 sacks in 14 games, while Asi had eight tackles, including 1.5 for loss in 14 games.

The two linebackers in the starting lineup figure to be Xavier Benson (6-2, 224) and Mason Cobb (6-0, 230). In week one, Cobb shared the team-high of 11 tackles, including 2.5 for loss. Benson had eight tackles and a pass breakup.

Last year, Cobb had ten tackles, including 2.0 for loss with a sack in 13 games, while Benson, who began his career at Texas Tech, came to Oklahoma State this year after spending the 2021 season at the JUCO level.

In the secondary, OSU’s cornerback duo of Korie Black (6-0, 185) and Jabbar Muhammad (5-10, 180) are slated to be joined in the starting lineup by safeties Thomas Harper (5-11, 180), Kendal Daniels (6-4, 205) and Jason Taylor II (6-0, 215).

Last week, Daniels tied for the team-high of 11 tackles and also nabbed an interception, Taylor had nine tackles and a pass breakup, Harper, had five tackles and a pass breakup, while Muhammad and Black each had four tackles.

Taylor, an Honorable Mention All-Big-12 pick last year, is OSU’s leading returning tackler from 2021 (48) and had ten pass breakups last season. Muhammad had 23 tackles last season; Harper had 20, Black had 19, while Daniels saw action in three games as a true freshman in 2021 but was still credited with a redshirt season.

Oklahoma State Defense Summary

OSU faces a significant defensive overhaul from 2021 as the Cowboys have lost their top four tacklers and six of their top eight. Three of the departed defenders from last year earned First-Team All-Big-12 honors; a fourth earned second-team all-conference accolades, and a fifth was named Honorable Mention All-Big-12. Additionally, all three players selected from Oklahoma State in the 2022 NFL Draft came from the defensive side of the ball.

On top of the personnel turnover, Oklahoma State had to replace its defensive coordinator as Jim Knowles left for Ohio State and was replaced by former Vanderbilt head coach – and Phoenix native and graduate of both Camelback High School and NAU – Derek Mason. Mason was Auburn’s defensive coordinator in 2021 after leading the Vanderbilt program from 2014-2020.

The clear strength of the Cowboy defense is its line, which boasts both elite first-string talent as well as highly qualified depth.

In week one, Central Michigan averaged a below-average clip of 3.1 yards on 39 carries while OSU generated 13.0 tackles-for-loss with two sacks. However, the pass defense was a completely different story as Central Michigan threw for 424 yards and four touchdowns on the Cowboys.

Strategically from the Sun Devil standpoint, the most urgent issue is to keep the OSU line attack away from the backfield. If time is permitted to Emory Jones, the numbers are encouraging as far as the potential for ASU to gather yardage through the air.

Oklahoma State Special Teams

In the kicking game, Tanner Brown figures to handle placekicking duties with Tom Hutton slated as the team’s punter.

In 2021, Hutton averaged 42.4 yards on 72 punts, while Brown connected on 17-of-21 field goals with a long of 49 yards.

On returns, Brennan Presley, a Second-Team All-Big-12 returns specialist in 2021, is listed as the top option at both kick and punt returns.

Last year, Presley averaged 32.7 yards on 12 kickoff returns with a 100-yard touchdown and also averaged 4.1 yards on 16 punt returns.

Overall Summary

Clocking in at No. 11 in this week’s Associated Press Poll, Oklahoma State is the highest ranked opponent ASU will have played on the road since the Sun Devils’ September 2018 loss at No. 10 Washington.

Under Herm Edwards, ASU is 3-2 against AP top-15 teams but just 1-2 on the road against such foes. The Devils’ lone road victory among that group under Edwards came in 2019 at No. 15 California. ASU has had home wins against No. 15 Michigan State in 2018 and versus No. 6 Oregon in 2019 and also lost at No. 13 Utah in 2019.

This will be the fourth all-time meeting between the two programs as ASU was demolished by a Cowboy team featuring Thurman Thomas by a score of 45-3 in Tempe in 1984, but the Sun Devils claimed a 30-3 win in Stillwater in 1991 and a 12-10 victory in Tempe in 1993.

Arizona State has had 12 all-time meetings with teams who at the time were active members of the Big 12 Conference and is 6-6 across those 12 games.

Most recently, ASU lost on the road to Texas Tech in 2017, a year after Kalen Ballage’s record-setting upstaging of Patrick Mahomes in Tempe in 2016. The Sun Devils have had four bowl appearances against active Big-12 members, most recently the 2015 Cactus Bowl against West Virginia and, prior to that, the Holiday Bowl in 2013 (Texas Tech), 2007 (Texas), and 2002 (Kansas State). ASU’s one road victory over an active Big-12 member came in 2006 when the Sun Devils defeated Colorado in Boulder.

ASU also played Big-12 foes in Missouri in Tempe in 2011 – the Tigers’ final season in the conference – as well as Colorado in 2007, Nebraska in Lincoln to start the 2002 season, and Texas Tech in Tempe in 1999.

Arizona State’s first matchup with a Big-12 team was an unforgettable one and came in the inaugural season of the conference, when the Sun Devils took down top-ranked Nebraska by a score of 19-0 on Sept. 21, 1996.

The topic of conferences and conference alignment will undoubtedly be an undertone of Saturday’s game, as the Pac-12 and Big-12 have been connected in a variety of conversations, projections, and indirect and direct trash talk over the past several months.

On the field, ASU has to make life difficult for Spencer Sanders and, ideally, push him into turnovers and other mistakes. However, that pressure and pursuit cannot be sloppy in nature, as he can equally wreck opponents with his legs and his arm.

Offensively, the Sun Devils have to create a wall of protection for Emory Jones against the vaunted Cowboy defensive front. If the OSU line can he held relatively in check, ASU can potentially find advantages in the pass game, as evidenced by the totals racked up by Central Michigan last week.

A victory would be a mammoth step of vindication for the early stages of ASU’s 2022 season, but Arizona State also must avoid a defeat marred by turnovers and penalties to keep some momentum alive after an encouraging week one win over Northern Arizona

Join your fellow Sun Devil fans on our premium message board, the Devils’ Huddle, run by the longest-tenured Sun Devil sports beat writer, to discuss this article and other ASU football, basketball, and recruiting topics. Not a member yet? Sign up today here and get all the latest Sun Devil news!