Ragin' Dave's Arkansas State Preview 2022
ASU Red Wolves Preview
ASU has struggled out of the gate once again under Butch Jones and much of it is because of the ASU defense, not the offense which has been the case for most of the last few years in Jonesboro. ASU started the season with a 58-3-win vs Grambling but has lost 5 of the last 6 games with losses to Ohio State, Memphis, Old Dominion and USM on the road and a home loss to JMU. The only win in that was a few weeks ago at home with a 45-28-win vs ULM. They are coming off a loss to USM where they gave up 13 points in the 4th quarter after being ahead 19-7 at the end of the 3rd quarter.
Butch Jones who is famous for success at Central Michigan and Cincinnati before having modest success at Tennessee leads the Red Wolves after being an offensive analyst for Alabama under Nick Saban. Overall Jones has a respectable 88-69 record, but at ASU he is overall 4-15 and only 2-10 in conference in his season and a half in Jonesboro. In Jones’ defense he took over a program that was struggling when he got there. The Cajuns have won 4 straight over ASU and 7 of the last 10 dating back to 2012. Overall UL holds a 27-20-1 record over ASU and since about 1988 this game has been played every year.
QB—Butch Jones has his man at QB, ASU has a history of having pretty good QB’s and when Johnson came in, they had 2 good ones, but of which have left. Logan Bonner left to follow Blake Anderson to Utah State and last year Layne Hatcher transferred to Texas State where he is the starting QB there. In enters James Blackman, a 6’5 190 lb. transfer from Florida State. Blackman was expected to compete with Hatcher for the starting job last year but was injured early in the season and never returned. Now with Bonner and Hatcher gone the job is 100% his and he has looked good in the process. Blackman has completed nearly 70% of his passes with 11 TD’s and only 1 INT. He is not a huge threat on the season with his legs and much of that could be because of him coming back from injury. Blackman was at one point in his career named the starting QB at Florida State back in 2020. Blackman was a 4-star QB coming out of Glades Central in Belle Grade, Florida. He is a pro style QB but does have the athleticism to run the ball when needed. His biggest weakness was size coming out of HS has he was listed at 6’5 163, he has since added some weight but is still not the biggest of QB’s now listed at only 190 lbs. at 6’5” tall. Blackman will be backed up by AJ Mayer a transfer from Miami of Ohio but make no mistake this is Blackman’s job.
RB—While this team has had success throwing the ball, the running attack has not been as good. They are only averaging 2.9 yards per game on the ground. They have mostly gone with a 2 headed approach on the ground. Johnnie Lang (5’8” 186) and Brian Snead (6’1, 212) have been the main rushers. Lang is a transfer from Iowa State that played last year for them and was their 2nd leading rusher and Brian Snead is a transfer from Austin Peay and Ohio State. Snead was a very highly recruited kid out of HS. Neither has gotten it going this year with Lang averaging 3.8 yards per carry and Snead averaging 3.7 yards per carry. Snead does have 6 TDs on the ground as he is the bigger of the two backs and used more in short yardage situations. Ja’Quez Cross a transfer from Purdue and Marcell Murray are also in the mix, but neither has really performed well in limited duty. Both Lang and Snead are threats catching the ball out of the backfield as Lang has 15 receptions for 156 yards and 2 TD’s while Snead has 9 for 46. Blackman has used his running backs well out of the backfield with a total of 34 receptions going to 5 different RB’s.
WR/TE—This team is led by 2 main guys in the receiving area, and they could not be more different in size, but this team does spread it out quit a bit. Seydou Traore (6’4 225) TE leads the way. Traore has 28 receptions for 416 yards and 2 TDs on the season. He is followed by Champ Flemings (5’5 142) Senior transfer from Oregon State who has 29 catches for 352 yards and 1 TD. The other players to what out for are Jeff Foreman (6’0 173), Adam Jones (6’2 188) and their top returning receiver in Te’Vailance Hunt (6’1 208). Foreman has 13 catches and 4 TD’s; Jones has 14 catches, and 0 TDs and Hunt has 12 catches and 2 TD’s. Hunt ended last year with 51 receptions and 6 TDs. Hunt has only appeared in 4 games this year and that is why his production has been substantially down, 11 of his 12 receptions have been in their last 3 games, so getting him back has been huge to this offense, he is a guy to watch out for on this offense.
OL—The OL has been where many of the ASU struggles have come in. And most of this is because they are young on the OL. Their 2 deep has 6 Freshman, including 4 true and 2 RS, 2 Sophomores and 2 Seniors and only one of those seniors is in the starting 5. Jordan Rhodes (6’5 350) Senior transfer from both South Carolina and Ole Miss where he played sparingly starts at RG. After that it is a bunch of youngsters. At LT they start Thomas Makilan (6’3 306) RS Freshman, at LG Mekhi Butler (6’3 338) RS Sophomore, at Center they start Ethan Miner (6’2 278) Sophomore and at RT they start Noah Smith (6’7 311) RS Freshman or Ernesto Ramirez (6’4 300) Senior. This unit, like the Cajuns has been better in pass protection than the running game but they have struggled to protect as well as they have given up 23 sacks on the season through 7 games or more than 3 per game.
Offense—Where they are good is passing the ball and not turning it over, they only have 3 lost fumbles and 1 INT given up on the season. The struggle has been in running the ball and protecting their QB as well as 3rd down conversions as they have only converted 38% of their 3rd downs. They do lead quite a bit in TOP over their opponents by a 33 – 27 advantages. So, while they do not run the ball well, they can put some longer drives together. They have also been pretty good in the red zone, scoring on 24-27 attempts, but only 18 of those have been for TDs.
DLine—This team will play a more traditional 4-3 then we have been used to in the recent past vs our recent opponents but have a guy that they can move around both by putting his hand on the ground or as a stand-up edge guy. On the outside will be Thurman Geathers (6’2 225) and Kvon Bennentt (6’2 241). Bennett is a special player for them on Defense. He was a 2nd team all SBC performer last season and is putting together a pretty good start to this year, he can move around and play that edge rusher or a down linemen for them, he finished last year with the team lead with sacks with 8 on the season. On the season he has 24 tackles including 2 sacks, on the other side of him will be Thurman Geathers (6’2” 225). Geathers has 18 tackles on the season and 1.5 sacks. These two guys are pretty good on the outside. They are not super deep on the outside as Dennard Flowers (6’2 239) and Ethan Hassler (6’2 245) are the other guys. Flowers does lead the team in sacks with 3 this season for a team that does not have a lot of them on the year. In the middle will be TW Ayers (6’1 275) and John Mincey (6’4 291) Mincey started his career at Tennessee and is a solid player for them, but Ayers has been the big surprise as a RS Freshman who has 16 tackles on the season. This will be a good matchup between a team that struggles to run the ball and a team that has struggled to stop the run.
LB—Their top tacklers this season come from the LB position in Jordan Carmouche (6’1 222) and Malique Straker (5’10 201). Carmouche is a transfer that played last season at Houston and has been good this year for them. He leads the team with 48 tackles and 29 solo on the season, while Straker has 34 tackles and 18 solo. The other LB’s for them to watch out for is Jaden Harris (6’1 224) RS Junior who is 4th on the team in tackles. Cam Jeffrey (5’11 189) is an undersized guy off the bench but is a really good player for them. The starting 3 LB’s are good and veterans, but behind them is some real youth as the 2 deep group are 2 Sophomores and a Freshman.
D-Backs—The two DB’s starting for them are Kenneth Harris (6’0 193) and Leon Jones (6’1 195). Samy Johnson (5’10 192) is the nickel corner for them. Samy Johnson has been a pretty good player for them over the years and has bounced between a starter and a backup. The other guy to watchout for is Denzel Blackwell (5’9 184). They will all get some playing time at corner vs us. Samy Johnson and Blackwell could struggle against our bigger receivers, so we might see more of Jones and Harris due to their size not that any of them are big. Eddie Smith (6’0 201) is the leader at the Safety position. A RS Junior that was on the roster for 3 years at Alabama and 1 at Illinois is leading the team with 2 INT’s. The other safety position will be manned by Trevian Thomas (5’11 188) and/or Taylon Doss (5’10 186). Doss is quietly putting up a nice season with 21 tackles and ˝ a sack on the season. While this back group is not real big, they are athletic and could give us some challenges down the field.
DEFENSE—Arkansas State is giving up 30.14 points per game as well as allowing teams to both run and throw against them. Teams are rushing for 140 yards a game and passing for 253 yards per game. Last year their big issue was the big play and this year while not as bad, they have still given up 11 TD plays of over 30 yards. They have been susceptible to the big play over Butch Davis’ tenure. They have also struggled to turn their opponents over. On the season they only have 2 recovered fumbles and 3 pass intercepted. A nice matchup here of one team, in the Cajuns who have turned opponents over quite a bit vs a team that struggles to turn teams over. Interestingly, ASU has caused 13 fumbles, they just don’t seem to recover many. They have also struggled to pressure the QB as they only have 13 sacks on the season. The other interesting fact for this defense is that while they do not let teams in the redzone a bunch teams score on them when they get there. They have only given up 18 RZ appearances but 16 have resulted in scores and 14 have resulted in TD’s. This is not good news for ASU who tend to give up big plays on Defense and can’t stop teams once they get into the RZ.
Special Teams—This team is perfect on kicks this season. Dominic Zvada is the starting PK, and he is a perfect 23 for 23 on XP and 10 for 10 on FG with a long of 46 and 4-4 over 40 yards. Punting is an interesting story, in the last 3 games they have used 2 different punters, the starter has been Ryan Hanson who has 26 punts on the season for a 43.88-yard average and William Przystup has 6 in the last 3 games for a 47.83 average. In those last 3 games that Przystup has punted 6 times, Hanson has punted 9. Their Kickoff guy has been Tristan Mattson who has 41 kickoffs for a 62.1 yards average with 20 TBs, so he has a strong leg.
Return Specialist—RB Johnnie Lang is the punt returner for this team, and he has 8 returns for 55 yards or a 6.88 average with a long of 15. Has not been super dangerous as a punt returner. He is also the main weapon on Kick returns with 23 returns for a 27.83 average including a 98-yard KO return, if you take that 98 yarder out of his average, he is returning them for about 25 yards per return. That is still a pretty good average.
My Prediction
Cajuns 27
Red Wolves 13
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