College Football News Preview 2021: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the Arkansas State football season with what you need to know.
– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Keys To The Season
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Arkansas State Football Schedule
– Arkansas State Red Wolves Previews
2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
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2020 Record: 4-7 overall, 2-6 in Sun Belt
Head Coach: Butch Jones, 1st year (84-54 overall)
2020 CFN Final Ranking: 112
2020 CFN Preview Ranking: 93
2019 CFN Final Ranking: 67
Arkansas State Red Wolves College Football Preview 2021: Offense
– New head coach Butch Jones has been a huge help right off the gate – the talent is coming in through the transfer portal. The Red Wolves were already solid offensively – they led the Sun Belt in total offense but were fifth in scoring, averaging 490 yards and 33 points per game – so there’s not too much of a need to mess with what worked. Offensive coordinator Keith Heckenforf is still around.
– Logan Bonner and Layne Hatcher have been part of a strong quarterback rotation, but Bonner followed former head man Blake Anderson over to Utah State. In comes former Florida State starter James Blackman to at least be part of the mix and a rotation, but Hatcher could be too good to push out coming off a 19 touchdown, two pick season. Neither one adds much to the ground game.
The receiving corps loses leading receiver Jonathan Adams and second-leading target Brandon Bowling – he took off for Utah State – but this should be the team’s biggest strength with a ton of talent in place and several options coming in from the transfer portal.
Dahu Green was second on the team in receiving yards despite missing half the season and 6-2 sophomore Corey Rucker is a rising star who averaged over 28 yards per grab. The tight ends get plenty of work – Reed Tyler should be good for close to 30 grabs.
– Leading rusher Jamal Jones is done, but there are a whole lot of running backs to choose from. Lincoln Pare and 2019 leading rusher Marcel Murray combined for over 600 yards – Pare did most of the work with 450 of the yards – and Iowa State’s Johnnie Lang and former Yale all-star Alan Lamar should be an instant factor.
Left tackle Jarrett Horst left for Michigan State, but the other four starters are back up front to a line that struggled against the run but was okay at keeping defenses out of the backfield.
– What You Need To Know: Defense
– Top Players | Keys To The Season
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Arkansas State Football Schedule