A-State Birthdate - Troy Mabone

Happy Birthday to Former A-State Indian – Troy Mabone

Troy Mabone played at Arkansas State from 1988-1992.  Mabone was a second on the team in rushing in 1990 and third in 1992.   Mabone was a physical runner at 5’11 220 but also had running back speed to finish his career with 536 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns from his fullback position.  The Memphis Hamilton product was also a special teams star during his time with the Indians.

Happy Birthday to #42 - Troy Mabone - from the RedWolfNation!

A-State Birthdate - Najel Byrd

Happy Birthday to Former A-State Red Wolf - Najel Byrd - @BYRDS_iVIEW116

Najel Byrd was a senior in 2011 for the 10-3 Sun Belt Conference Champions.  The West Helena 2X All-State star came to Arkansas State in 2007.  Byrd spent time at A-State playing a role on defense and the Special Teams.  In 2011, Najel was instrumental in helping lead the defense to being ranked as one of the best defenses in the country.  Fast and athletic, Byrd finished 6th on the 2011 squad in tackles with 50 including 7.5 for loss.  He also finished with 2.5 sacks. 

Happy Birthday to #34 - Najel Byrd - from the RedWolfNation!

Today in ASU Athletics History - Oct. 10

Today is my son's 8 year old birthday, so I figured that I needed to check into what has happened on this date in ASU athletics history.  I reviewed the football games played on this date and came up with, well very little.  However there were some interesting things that happened on October 10th throughout the A-State football timeline.

First I found that Arkansas State has played 9 games on October 10th.   ASU has 2 wins, 4 losses and 3 ties on this date. In one of the wins the Indians (1981 - we were still the Indians) set a record for the best passing defense in a game.  A-State held the Southwestern Louisiana (now UL-Lafayette) Ragin' Cajuns to a total negative 3 yards passing!   The Tribe went on to defeat USL 14-3 under Larry Lacewell and finished the season 6-5.

The other win happened in 1970.  It was the second home game of the season, but the first in Jonesboro.  Yes in 1970 A-State opened the season with a home game in Little Rock.  But in this opening Conference game the Indians took on Trinity University out of San Antonio Texas.  The following is the summary of the October 10th game in 1970...

Tough Sleding Before The Home Folk

ASU 21 - TU 14

The Southland Conference opener was also ASU's first Jonesboro appearance of 1970  and a near capacity crowd was on hand to applaud the nation's No. 1 college division team.  An early injury to Calvin Harrell gave Johnnie Carr his initial opportunity and the DeWitt junior responded with a 74-yard toss and 122 yards rushing to pace the win over surprisingly tough Trinity.  Trinity tied it 14-14 late in the third, but Carr sparked his mates 76-yards in nine plays for the clincher early in the fourth period.

The 1970 Arkansas State team went on to finish 11-0 and won the College Division National Championship.  The team was the first ASU team to go undefeated and untied (I'll get to this later) and was named National Champions by the AP Writer's Poll, the UP Coaches' Poll and the Washington Touchdown Club.  Head Coach Bennie Ellender was named the National Coach of the Year.  The 1970 season had 5 All-Americans - Guard - Bill Phillips, Tailback - Calvin Harrell, Defensive Back - Dennis Meyer, Linebacker - Gary Cleve and Guard - Wayne Dorton.

Back to the undefeated and untied seasons.  In ASU history there have been 4 seasons where the football squad has gone undefeated.  Two of those seasons were undefeated and untied years - 1970 and 1975.  The other two seasons were years of zero losses but a couple of ties both seasons.  In 1953, head coach Forrest England took A-State to an 8-0-2 season.  In 1964, coach Ellender led the Indians to a 7-0-2 season.  What is so interesting to me is that 3 of those four seasons had a game on October 10th.  The aforementioned 1970 win over Trinity and then 2 ties.   In 1953, on October 10th, Arkansas State College tied Florence State (now North Alabama) 7-7 and in 1964 on the same date, the Indians tied Arlington State (now Texas-Arlington) 7-7.  

3 of the 4 undefeated seasons in A-State history had an October 10th game.  I have routinely been telling everyone that the 2014 season was going to be special at ASU because it would be Malzahn's 3rd year at ASU.  This amazing crop of freshmen that are playing right now will be juniors and Gus could have his first quarterback to ever be in his 2nd year in the Malzahn offense in 2014.  However, October 10, 2015 is a Saturday!  Maybe I need to move my prediction of an undefeated season from 2014 to 2015.

Run With the Pack Poll Question - Best Freshman

RUN WITH THE PACK POLL QUESTION
Best Freshman at Arkansas State

JD McKissic                                     23 (50%) 
Rocky Hayes                                    13 (28%)
Bryce Giddens                                   6 (13%)
Chris Stone                                         2 (4%)
Fredi Knighten                                   1 (2%)
Chris Humes                                       1 (2%)

Total Votes: 46

Wolf Tracks Trivia - 10.9.12

Qushuan Lee was named the Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against Florida International.  Arkansas State has had 38 different players named Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week since the beginning of Sun Belt Conference play in 2001.  ASU has had players named Offensive POTW, Defensive POTW and Special Teams POTW.  Many of the players have won the award more than once.

What Arkansas State football player has been named Sun Belt Player of the Week more times than any other ASU player?

Answer: Corey Leonard

Corey Leonard was named Player of the Week 6 times.

Sept 1, 2008 - Named Off POTW after the 18-14 win over Texas A&M.

     Leonard ran for 86 yards and passed for 160 yards and 1 TD.
Sept 22, 2008 - Named Off POTW after the 31-14 win over MTSU.

     Rushed for 74 yards and passed for 292 yards and 3 TDs.
Sept 3, 2007 - Named Off POTW after the 21-13 loss to Texas.

     Leonard rushed for 37 yards and passed for 259.
Oct 1, 2007 - Named Off POTW after the 35-31 win over Memphis.

     Rushed for 74 yards and passed for 255 yards and 3 TDs.
Oct 15, 2007 - Named Off POTW after 52-21 win over ULL.

     Rushed for 84 yards and 1 TD and passed for 275 yards and 5 TDs.
Oct 16, 2006 - Named Off POTW after the Memphis Miracle.

     Rushed for 35 yards and passed for 219 yards and 2 TDs.

Give me 60 Minutes

It was late sometime last week when Arkstfan and I were having a conversation about the upcoming Western Kentucky game that I heard a comment that was absolutely on point.  “We haven’t played a full 60 minute game yet” was what Mark said.  It was exactly what I had been thinking.

In every game this season the Red Wolves have played in spurts.  Some of those spurts not so good, others, very good.  The first half against Oregon was a total disaster.  I felt like I woke up and was in 1991 watching LSU treat us like their kid brother, toying with us on the way to a 70-14 victory.  But it wasn’t a dream and the Ducks embarrassed us.  In the second half we showed that we have ability albeit against backups.  The Oregon game made me realize that we definitely weren’t going to be like last year’s squad.  The Memphis game showed me that we have lots of talent on the offensive side of the ball.  We moved the ball at will against the hapless Tigers.  But when it came to putting the ball in the endzone we showed we had issues.  Whether it be an outcome of the spread offense, a lack of physicality from the offensive line, inefficient play calls in near the goal line, or lack of execution of those plays, the Red Wolves struggled to score touchdowns.     The biggest thing that came out of the Memphis game to me was the poor play and decision making by the special teams.  Without those special team mishaps that game is a 33-14 win.  At 1-1, we had seen two poor team performances with mixed in flashes of brilliance.  There were some very impressive individual showings as well as some lack of focus by players. 

I felt like the Nebraska game would allow the offense to continue to grow and let the defense build on what the improvements made the previous week.  For the first time the Red Wolves were getting pressure on the quarterback.  The defensive backs struggled and Cornhusker offensive line just overpowered our defensive front.  I saw lots of 3-4 in that game and there were some obvious growing pains.  The offense is where I was most surprised.  The Nebraska defense that had given up a number of points and yards previously really stifled the Red Wolves.  The offense and Aplin were out of rhythm in the second half.  Was it the loss of Stockemer and Muse or was it that the ‘Husker defense was the first real group D we had seen since the first half at Oregon?  Either way, once again we had put together some excellent plays but maybe not great drives.  Or we had played fantastic defense one series but gotten pushed around the next.

Alcorn State even gave us a viewing that we still were not clicking on all cylinders.  We went 3 and out in our first drive, something that should never happen against a team like Alcorn State.  We did do some great things offensively against the totally overpowered Braves, but even then the offense sputtered at times.  The defense was the bright spot in this game.  They had been challenged by coaches to get a shut-out, and they responded well.   There were some breakdowns as the Alcorn QB ran for a couple of longer read option runs but for the most part the defense was figuring out the 3-4.  The special teams play was once again the thorn in my side.  Kick offs out of bounds, another muffed punt.  The problem with the special teams play was it was the same mistakes made in earlier games.  Not improving – not learning from their mistakes.

The first half of the WKU game was the best 30 minutes of football A-State had played this fall.  There were still issues though.  I remember telling my dad sitting next to me that the field goals would come back to haunt us.  We have to score touchdowns.  But we had played 30 minutes of football that we needed to in order to win the game.  The problem was the last 30 minutes.   Our offense looked very similar to the offense that came out after halftime at Nebraska.  We struggled to stop any pass rush.  The offensive line could not open a hole and sustain a block.  We were not much of a threat to add points to the total.  The special teams play kept us either pinned deep in our own territory or gave the Hilltoppers the ball in great position to score.  Our defense play valiantly but the size and physicality of Western Kentucky wore them down.  This game was another show of positives and negatives for A-State and again not a full game of solid play.

7 games left in the season.  The young Red Wolves are learning new systems trying to improve weekly, even daily.  When I say young, I am not just referring to the players.  A first time head coach, leading a number of coaches that are, as coach Malzahn likes to say, “in their first rodeo”.  Sure they’ve been graduate assistants or quality control guys.  But take it from a former GA, it is different when you are the guy.  There is no doubt in my mind that given the time Malzahn will build this team into a very good football program.   There were a lot of people that had expectations that were too high.  I predicted 8-4.  That may still be a possibility.  But right now, I’m more interested in a full 60 minutes of solid football.  Then we can go from there!

Run With the Pack Poll Question 

Most Anticipated Conference Game 2012

Western Kentucky                           26 (41%) 
Louisiana-Monroe                           22 (35%)
Louisiana-Lafayette                        13 (20%)
Troy                                                     1 (1%)
FIU                                                      0 (0%)
MTSU                                                  0 (0%)
North Texas                                        0 (0%)
South Alabama                                   0 (0%)

Total Votes: 60

POLL QUESTION