Arkansas State at Nebraska
In the middle of the 1980′s, I was growing up in Batesville, AR. We all, of course, were Razorback fans. Ken Hatfield had shown up, and he was in the middle of rebuilding a great tradition at Arkansas, but over in Jonesboro, AR, a guy by the name of Larry Lacewell was building his own tradition.
The Arkansas State Indians (ehem) Red Wolves were emerging as one of the best teams in Division I AA football, uh, I mean the Fooball Chamipionship (played on the field) Subdivision. Lacewell, was running the wishbone at st-A-te (we called them ASU, but everyone else didn’t know that, so they referred to Arizona State as ASU), excecuting the triple option with precision behind the quarterback Dwane Brown.
Brown may quite possibly have been a top 5 option quarterback during his time at ASU in all of the divisions. I think only Oklahoma’s Jamelle Holieway and Georgia Southern’s Tracy Ham may have ran it better. Of course, Lacewell came to ASU from the staff of Oklahoma, so he knew how to run it too.
Those Indian teams were good. They finally got over the hump of losing in the second round of the playoffs and advanced to the 1986 championship game only to play the legendary Georgia Southern team of the 1980′s and QB Tracy Ham. They finished number two that year.
They began the long ascent to Division I A after that year, playing as an independent in D I AA before climbing in to the division with the big brothers, and things have not always been so good for them.
Fast forward to this year and you will see that the Red Wolves are led by senior quarterback Corey Leonard and senior running back Reggie Arnold. The Red Wolves pasted the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils 61-0. Such as what a Bowl Subdivision team should do to a Championship Subdivision team, but you know (wink, wink) that doesn’t always happen (see Virginia and Duke).
The Red Wolves held the Delta Devils to a total of 69 yards offense. Arkansas State rolled up 358 total rushing yards. Now I am sure that MVSU is no Nebraska, but are they that bad? Shouldn’t a high school team get at least 100 total yards of offense.
So, can the Red Wolves go in to Lincoln and pull off a shocker? Well, before you frown, don’t forget that they “shocked” Texas A&M in College Station last year. I actually expected that to happen. The year before, the Red Wolves came within a hair of knocking off Texas in Austin.
Sure, the Aggies were in a new system and administration and not really ready for the Red Wolves. Also, that Longhorn team didn’t really find their groove until later in the year. But, it’s not inconceivable that the Red Wolves could go in to Nebraska and get a cornhusker-sized upset.
My observation has been that the Red Wolves have been rather inconsistent the past few years, but when they take on the big teams early in the year, they come out swinging and focused. They take on an “us against the world” mentality and they make it work for them.
To my Cornhusker fan friends (read, John Boehler), beware of the very quick QB Corey Leonoard and the equally dangerous running back Reggie Arnold. They will run multiple sets, but a spread offense is kind of their base. Leonard runs the zone-read pretty well. And, when he is “on” passing the ball, he becomes really dangerous. As a senior, maybe, many of the young player-mistakes are behind him.
If the Red Wolves knock off the Cornhuskers, well, “I told you so.” However, if they are another Nebraska victim, “everyone knew all along.”
Beware the Wolves!!
