Arkansas State Preview

Fear the Indians uh.. wait the Red Wolves.  Yeah that's it the Red Wolves. I am not making fun of political correctness, but Arkansas State's website which still has the indians in it.  I don't know anything about this team.  Everything I know about this team basically comes from my Phil Steele 2009 College Preview Magazine.  I have never seen them on tv.  The Jonesboro newspaper's internet sports section seems to have no archive to speak of and they have no Scout or Rivals site.  One site had them traveling to Ames, Iowa to face the mighty Hawkeyes.  I guess what I am trying to say is it is hard to research this team.  The only game I could have watched would have been a Pay Per View against Nebby and my money is way too valuable for that.  So there will be no matchups this week.  Really Iowa should be able to physically win every matchup this week anyway.  To say otherwise would be blowing smoke up the Ind... er Red Wolves rears.  What I do plan to do this week is highlight the players for the opposition you may want to pay attention to, give a brief synopsis of Arkansas State's season so far, and give a prediction of what I think will happen and the final score.  I am also going to provide an excellent link to the Hawkeyenation Forums from a poster named Bearhawk22 who has season tickets to Arkansas State games and did an excellent job of breaking them down on the free football boards.  If he happens to read this I would like to thank him.

Players to watch: #1 Corey Leonard 6'1 207 Leonard is entering his third season as the full time starter and the third season running this system.  He also started games as a red shirt freshman.  Leonard is a dual threat qb.  He averaged over 10 rushes a game last season and is right around that number this season.  He is not an accurate passer ( season best 54%) and was benched for a series last week vs. Troy for a series in favor of red shirt freshman Ryan Alpin ( 6'1 213).  He is a very tough player however and plays through injuries.

#2 Reggie Arnold 5'9 219 Arnold is also entering his senior year.  He is a four year starter.  He has rushed for 1,000 yards every season of his career.  He is averaging over 6 ypc this season and has 7 rushing TDs.  However he is only rushing for 80 yards per game.  He is not a weapon in the passing game.  He caught 11 passes last season and has 1 this season.  His backup #22 Derek Lawson also gets a lot of carries.  He rushed for nearly 700 yards last season as a red shirt freshman and already has 25 carries in three games this season.  He is averaging 4.8 ypc. 


#14 Brandon Thompkins WR Thompkins is a big play threat as a receiver and a returner.  He was already the Sun Belt's career return yardage leader entering his senior year and is averaging over 20 yards '\per catch on 6 receptions through Arky State's three games this season.  He like all of the Red Wolves' experienced receivers are on the smallish side (think a thicker Paul Chaney) at 5'9 191.
#9 Jahbari McLennan WR McLennan is more of a possesion guy as he leads the team with 9 catches for 94 yards this season and tied Thompkins last season with 32 catches but for 60 less yards.  He is listed at 5'11 188

#89  Josh Arauco K Arauco was a Groza finalist last season and converted on 17 of 20 of his field goals last season including 4-5 from over 40.  His long was only 44 though.  He doesn't kick off which leads me to believe he doesn't have that strong of a leg.  He is probably their best chance to score though.

#98 Alex Carrington 6'5 285 Carrington is a NFL prospect.  I think he lines up on the right side most of the time which should be a nice test for Bulaga coming back.  Carrington had 19 tackles for lost last season including 10.5 sacks.  He is really the only player to pay attention to on the defense as they have been hit hard by injuries already this season.  Carrington is the reigning Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year.

#1 Cordarius Mingo This is really a joke.  I only highlighted him because they have two #1s starting and I am from Colfax- Mingo.  He is a first year starter.  He did have one game where he was the second leading tackler though.


Arkansas State so far...: The Red Wolves pounded Mississippi Valley State 61 to 0.  Nebraska beat them 35 to 9 fairly soundly.  Troy, Arkansas State's main rival this season for the SBC crown, came to Jonesboro and beat up their QB and came from behind to win in a see- saw type of game 30 to 27.  Arkansas State has been hurt by some tough injuries to their defense.  Darius Glover, a returning starter has been lost for the season and I believe another starting safety Evan Van Dolah has been lost for the season also.  Arkansas may be running a 4-2-5 instead of a more traditional 4-3 but teams (other than MSVSt.) have been passing at will against their defense.  This could be just what the doctor ordered for Iowa's underperforming passing game.  ASU will have a 10 day lay off following the Iowa game.  Here is the promised link to the aforementioned Bearhawk22 Scouting ASTATE

What I would like to see and what I think I will see: I would like to see the gameplan Iowa came out with against UNI and ISU.  Have Ricky come out firing with 3 step drops and get the passing games' kinks worked out.  Let Bulaga work against a solid pass rushing threat in Alex Carringtion and knock off some of that rust.  I think Iowa can run at will against the 'Wolves but the passing game is slightly broken and this would be a good game to work on it.  I think that this a nice opponent to play before Michigan as they run a similar form of the spread formation, although Coach Ferentz said it is more similar to Northwestern.  I would love to see a four touchdown lead by midway through the second quarter and the 2nd team for the entire second half.  I would love to see Jeff Brinson get some carries as I think he will be needed some time this season.  Iowa needs to clean up some coverage issues on the kicking game.  They should get plenty of chances to kick off.  I think we will see is some of those things.  I think that Iowa's defense is so dominant that the offense might be given some short fields and the Good Captain may run the ball so as to keep the clock moving instead of trying to look like he is running up the score.  I think that this defense is really having fun and wants to dominate teams and will eliminate any chance of Iowa having a let down.  They could score by themselves. I think the only defense keeping Iowa's offense from totaling over 450 yards could be Iowa's defense complete domination of this game.  Final Score: Iowa 48 Arkansas State 6 (two field goals)