ON TAP: Arkansas State will play Louisiana-Lafayette Saturday in its first Sun Belt Conference game at Indian Stadium, where ASU is 2-0 this season and holds a 10-1 record over the last three seasons. Every Arkansas State game can be heard live on 95.9 FM in the Jonesboro area and the live radio broadcast can be accessed through the Arkansas State athletic web site (ASUIndians.com).
THE PRINCIPALS: Arkansas State will try to rebound from a 30-13 setback at Louisiana-Monroe in its Sun Belt Conference opener when it hosts Louisiana-Lafayette, which picked up its first league victory last Saturday with a 38-29 victory over North Texas to bring its league record to 1-1.
HEAD COACH STEVE ROBERTS: Arkansas State head coach Steve Roberts is in his sixth year at Arkansas State after leading the Indians to the 2005 Sun Belt Conference Championship and its most single-season wins over Division I-A opponents in 2006. During his first five seasons as the Indians’ head coach, he guided ASU to 26 wins for its most over a five-year span at the school since winning 33 from 1986-1990. Roberts was named the 2005 Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year. Under Roberts, the Indians have had 44 All-Sun Belt Conference selections, a Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year and a SBC Offensive Player of the Year.
ROBERTS CLIMBING VICTORIES LADDER: In his first six seasons as the Indians head coach, Steve Roberts already has the fifth most victories among ASU's 26 all-time head coaches with 28 wins. Larry Lacewell (1979-89) holds the record for victories with 69 and is followed by Bennie Ellender (1963-70) with 52 wins, Bill Davidson (1971-78) with 51 and Forrest England (1946-53) with 49.
SCOUTING THE RAGIN’ CAJUNS: Louisiana-Lafayette brings a 1-5 overall record and 1-1 mark in Sun Belt Conference play into Saturday’s game after picking up its first victory of the season last Saturday against North Texas, 38-29. The Ragin’ Cajuns offense has been led by its rushing attack, currently ranked first in the Sun Belt Conference with 248.3 yards per game. The Cajuns are led in rushing by quarterback Michael Desormeaux with 110.7 yards per game and is the only quarterback ranked among the top 50 players in the nation in rushing. The Louisiana-Lafayette defense, ranked seventh in the Sun Belt Conference in total defense, is led by linebacker Brenton Burkhalter with a team-best 40 tackles to rank 14th in the league. Cornerback Jarrett Jones leads the secondary with a team-high three interceptions. The Ragin’ Cajuns return 19 starters from last year’s team that finished 6-6.
THE ARKANSAS STATE - LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE SERIES: Louisiana-Lafayette leads the all-time series 18-16-1. The series dates back to 1953 and the two teams have split the last two meetings as ASU won 39-36 in 2005 at Indian Stadium, while Louisiana-Lafayette won 28-13 last season at Cajun Field. Seven of the last eight meetings between ASU and Louisiana-Lafayette have been decided by six points or less
Does anyone else notice how poor the lighting is at Cajun Field? I mean it is bad. We have games on TV but I can't imagine you can see very well. I have a hard enough time standing on the first row in the student section. When I watch other games on TV I can see a HUGE difference in light quality. What's with this? Isn't there an NCAA regulation? We need to step it up.
Bloodletting might be what the UL program needs. It didn't work with Stokley or Baldwin but Bustle has built the program back to a point where it can afford a little boloodletting. If fans stay away the program will be deprived of the iron it needs and a change will be forced upon us.
Bloodletting a long-discredited cure may hold a promising secret. Microbiologists at the University of Chicago found that when infectious Staphylococcus aureus bacteria were deprived of the iron in red blood cells, they did not spread and cause disease in the body. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/hea.../bloodletting/
Chalk that up to stupid, what this program needs is a blood transfusion.
Having sat on both sides, the lighting is worse from the student side.
Big play Smith got his wish. Me too!
"In each of those four seasons, it was one pivotal game that turned things around and pointed the way toward success, or made moot any positives created early in the season. Each time, UL had no idea going into that game that things were about to turn for the better ... or worse."
FOR BETTER, I think UL turned the corner Saturday
I know when we hosted the New Orleans Bowl we had to make some adjustments to the lighting due to ESPN mandating that a certain level of lighting was maintained for the broadcast. Now was that only temporary? I have no clue.
I plead drunkenness in the stands! I have not really noticed but I will definitely have an eye peeled at homecoming! Thanks for the heads up!
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