Utah football: Can Utes slow Ollie Gordon II in Big 12 opener? – Deseret News

Last year's Doak Walker Award winner is off to a slow start.

Oklahoma State's Ollie Gordon II, who was crowned the best running back in the nation in 2023, hasn't found his groove yet this season. Gordon was unstoppable a year ago, rushing for 1,732 yards and 21 scores on 285 carries (6.1 yards per carry) to lead the country in total rushing yards as Oklahoma State secured its spot in the Big 12 championship game.

In his third year in Stillwater, most thought Gordon would start the season on a similar trajectory, but through three games he has only totaled 216 yards and four touchdowns on 62 carries. In a 39-31 double-overtime win over Arkansas, he had just 49 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries, and fared worse in a 45-10 victory against Tulsa last week with 41 yards on 17 carries.

Gordon's early-season struggles come after a tumultuous offseason in which he was arrested on "complaint of DUI, transport of an open container of alcohol, failure to maintain single lane traffic and speeding," according to ESPN.

That led to some speculation on whether Gordon would be suspended by the program, which coach Mike Gundy quickly put to rest, saying there would be internal punishment, but that Gordon wouldn't miss any games.

Preseason, all of the ingredients were seemingly there for a productive start to the season from Gordon — returning quarterback Alan Bowman, a good passing game to keep defenses honest, and an experienced offensive line returning all five starters from last season.

Three games in, what's gone wrong for Oklahoma State's rushing attack?

Gordon's reputation precedes him, and Cowboy opponents have been stacking the box, just like teams did against Utah much of last year, to try and shut him down. It's worked so far. Against Tulsa, Gundy said, Oklahoma State only saw four plays without an extra defender in the box.

"We didn't run the ball well when they had one or two people extra there (in the box)," Gundy said.

An additional issue for Oklahoma State's rushing attack against Tulsa? Jake Springfield, the Cowboys' stalwart right tackle, missed the Tulsa game and could possibly be out against the Utes. That would be a blow for an offensive line that returns the most experience in college football.

The No. 1 priority for No. 12 Utah defense's against No. 14 Oklahoma State is going to be to try and slow down Gordon, and Gundy is expecting that they'll likely be facing a loaded box yet again for much of Saturday's showdown.

"They stop the run, that's what they do. Very, very high percentage, 90% plus, they're having an extra guy in the box all the time," Gundy said of Utah's defense. "They play with a high free safety, plays about 16 yards back, he defends the length of the field longwise and they put an extra guy in the box to stop the run."

Even though Gordon has yet to have a breakout game, Utah knows exactly the damage he's capable of doing when he gets going, and that's why he has the coaching staff's full attention. The last thing the Utes want is for Gordon to have his first explosive showing of the season in both teams' Big 12 opener.

"He's got all our respect and all our attention and he's a guy that's one of the premier backs in the country," Whittingham said.

After a stingy performance against the run in its first two games, Utah State running back Rahsul Faison rushed for 115 yards on 19 carries, his best performance of the season, against the acclaimed Utah run defense.

Postgame, Whittingham said that the Utes' defense was trying to disorient USU quarterback Bryson Barnes, who played three seasons at Utah, with new defensive looks before switching back to their bread-and-butter defense. While that may help partly explain the early rushing success by Faison, even after Utah went back to its normal defensive looks, Faison still had big runs, including a 17-yard gain on fourth-and-5 that set up a Barnes quarterback sneak touchdown in the third quarter.

It didn't help matters that linebacker Karene Reid, one of Utah's best run stoppers, was out due to injury. The senior is the leader of the defense, wears the in-helmet communication to get direction from defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley, and makes sure everyone on defense is where they're supposed to be.

If Reid misses the Big 12 opener against Oklahoma State, it would be a big absence.

"He's a team leader. He's a very experienced, very fundamentally and technique-sound linebacker that does everything right and seldom, if ever, makes a mental mistake," Whittingham said. "And he's one of our captains. So he definitely provides a lot and brings a lot to the table and you do miss those guys when they're not there."

Sione Fotu, Utah's LB3, and safety-turned-linebacker Johnathan Hall would fill in for Reid if he can't go, and while they had a mostly positive performance against the Aggies, the linebacker corps as a whole had their share of struggles against the run.

The Utes' defense is going to have to be much better if they want to slow down Gordon.

"We're going to have to be good tacklers. He's a guy that breaks a lot of tackles," Whittingham said. "He's a big back, over 6 feet and over 220 pounds and just wears you out."

"He's kind of a bully back there and that's his style and very rarely is the first guy going to stop his charge. It's going to have to be a concerted effort by the whole front seven to gang tackle and wrap up, which we didn't do a good job of early in the game this past weekend."

Even if the Utes follow the lead of Oklahoma State's past opponents and manage to limit Gordon, they'll have to deal with Bowman, a seventh-year quarterback who has taken advantage of the stacked boxes.

Bowman has stepped up as OSU's run game has floundered, throwing for 967 yards (No. 6 in the nation) and eight touchdowns with two interceptions to lead the Cowboys to a 3-0 record.

So far, the game plan has been to try and take away Gordon and force Bowman to beat you, and he's been happy to do just that.

"When you play teams that are going to defend you the way that these people have shown they will defend, you're going to be throwing more passes than what some people would say they would want to," Gundy said.

Aided by some talented wide receivers — De'Zhaun Stribling (295 yards, two touchdowns), Rashod Owens (188 yards, one score) and Brennan Presley (172 yards, three touchdowns) — Oklahoma State has proven it can do damage through the air.

Of course, it all starts in the trenches, and for the issues that the Cowboys' front has had in the run game, they've been sensational in pass blocking and have kept Bowman clean — Oklahoma State has yet to allow a sack this season.

"They're not only good individual O-linemen, but they all work well — really well — with each other and you can tell that they had so much success from last year," defensive ends coach Lewis Powell said.

It'll be strength on strength on Saturday when Oklahoma State meets Utah's defensive line, which has proved to be one of the most disruptive in the nation with 11 sacks and 24 tackles for loss this season.

The Utes will be walking into a hostile environment at a sold-out Boone Pickens Stadium (as they do every week, they've been practicing with crowd noise blasting) for their first official conference game as a member of the Big 12. While it's still early in the season, depending on how the rest of the year shakes out, the winner of the Stillwater showdown could get a leg up in the Big 12 title race.

It'll be a fantastic atmosphere for a huge game featuring two top-15 teams.

"That's all you ever dreamed of as a kid is just playing in big-time football games," Utah quarterback Cam Rising said. "And this is a great Oklahoma State team, so just chomping at the bit to get out there and get this thing going finally."