Most casual college football fans would be hard pressed to find a team with more preseason question marks than ASU.
Well, look no further than the Sun Devils’ first opponent on Saturday night, Portland State.
Entering the 2010 season, the Vikings, out of the Big Sky conference, will debut entirely different schemes on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
Spearheading the overhaul in Northwest Oregon is first-year coach Nigel Burton.
The defensive coordinator at Nevada the past two seasons, Burton was hired to replace former NFL coach Jerry Glanville, who stepped down after tallying a 9-24 record in three losing seasons with PSU.
Last year, the Vikings went 2-9, the school’s worst record since 1982.
Prior to Glanville’s tenure in Portland, the Vikings were a quality FCS team, posting winning records in seven of eight seasons between 1999-2006.
Burton was the defensive backs coach for PSU for two of those seasons in 2001 and 2002 before moving on to Oregon State to coach the secondary for five years.
Offense
PSU and ASU have an eerily similar quarterback situation. Both schools feature three signal callers with starting experience.
For the Vikings, however, the competition is far from over.
Burton plans to use senior Drew Hubel, sixth-year senior Tygue Howland and redshirt junior Connor Kavanaugh in his offense.
Hubel is the incumbent starter, but missed the final three games of the 2009 season as well as spring practice due to knee surgery. The senior is a prototype drop back passer, throwing for 1,961 yards and nine touchdowns last year.
Kavanaugh, meanwhile, resembles ASU’s Samson Szakacsy. The junior made two starts last season when Hubel went down and made the most out of the opportunity. Despite his lack of top-tier arm strength, Kavanaugh brings the running game an extra dimension with his speed. In 72 rush attempts in 2009, he totaled 390 yards and three touchdowns.
Howland was granted a sixth year of eligibility after suffering three separate season-ending injuries during his career. He has just four career starts.
Under Burton, first-year offensive coordinator Bruce Barnum will implement the Pistol offense.
Created at Nevada, the Pistol is a shotgun, single back combination offense that aims to expose mismatches in the defense.
Expect to see a healthy diet of draw and option runs from Kavanaugh, while Hubel looks more down the field.
In 2009, the Vikings turned the ball over 34 times, ranking them dead last in turnover differential in the FCS.
How PSU’s quarterbacks handle the widely heralded ASU defense will be crucial to the Vikings’ chances in Tempe.
Defense
PSU will switch from a 3-4 to a base 4-3 this season.
The Vikings will stack between seven and nine players in the box while trying to jam ASU’s wide outs on the outside.
With the likelihood of single man coverage, the defensive line for PSU will make or break the Vikings on Saturday.
If the front five can’t break the pocket quick enough, ASU junior quarterback Steven Threet will have his way with a secondary that gave up 281 passing yards per game in 2009.
Reach the reporter at tyler.emerick@asu.edu.
