The More You Know...About Arkansas State

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Dan E. Dangerously

This board...it's my note
Maude
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Miami looks to continue it's winning ways this weekend with Arkansas State coming to town. Let's see if we can find out a little more about them.


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Before getting started, give this thread a read if you haven't already. For some reason chiefsfan likes Arkansas State football, and he gave a pretty fair and honest post detailing his team's strengths and weaknesses. It's a good read, and a helluva a lot more serious (and better) than anything you are about to read here so check it out.

1. Where they are in the standings/rankings:

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Yes, the Sun-Belt Conference is still a thing, even after all of the realignment junk that happened over the past 2 years. Arkansas State is one of the better teams in that league, and has had a run of being a cradle for hot new coaches. In 2011 Hugh Freeze turned a Sun-Belt title and 10 win season into the Ole Miss job. In 2012 Gus Malzahn did the same thing and got the Auburn job. Bryan Harsin didn't win 10 games in 2013, but did win the Sun-Belt and was able to get the job at his alma mater, Boise State. Now they're coached by Arkansas native Blake Anderson, who was UNC's offensive coordinator last year. If you remember anything about that UNC game, it was that they ran a high-tempo offense. It was also the 1st of many times our defense looked really bad.

2. What happened the last time Arkansas State played in a game?

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Amy Smotherman Burgess/News Sentinel

From the AP:

...Arkansas State threatened to get back into the game with trickery. Facing fourth-and-11 from their own 27, the Red Wolves faked a punt that resulted in a 24-yard completion from Ferguson to Chris Stone. Arkansas State converted a fourth-and-1 later in that drive and scored on Knighten's pass to Houston, though its two-point conversion attempt failed...

Sure getting 2, 4th down conversions on 1 drive might sound good, but when you factor in their 3rd down conversion rate (4-17) with their 4th down conversion rate (2-5), they were just 6-22 that day. Not a very good "Money Down" performance by them. Here's what some Tennessee person said about them.

From: VolNation

freak said:
Red Wolves’ quarterback Fredi Knighten was a handful for the Vols, proving to be more dangerous that what the Vols saw from Utah State’s Chucky Keeton last weekend. Knighten completed 21-34 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown, while rushing for 65 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries...

Great. Here's some highlights of their game with Tennessee.

[video=youtube;SMhuYUV464Y]www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMhuYUV464Y[/video]

They gave Tennessee all they could handle in front of a crowd of over 99k. They certainly won't be intimidated by the dozens or so of the "Canesfam, bro" crowd.

3. Who to be scared of:

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Adam Lau/Associated Press


Fredi Knighten

He's not the biggest of QB's (listed at 5'11 and 189lbs), but he's still dangerous as all ****. USA Today named him 1st team all conference in the pre-season. This unranked 2 star from Little Rock was recruited by Malzahn to run his version of the spread offense and that's what he's still playing in. Here he is throwing the game winning TD against Ball State in the GoDaddy Bowl last season

[video=youtube;QUtI1wTBCOM]www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUtI1wTBCOM[/video]

He gave Tennessee fits last week and he'll no doubt do the same to us.

4. Player that will score against us:

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Nelson Chenault/USA Today


Michael Gordon

"Flash" Gordon is an undersized, shifty back. What the Junior RB lacks in size he makes up for in being a tough guy to tackle. He's not a bowling ball, more like a ball bearing. He doesn't go down at first contact that often, either because he broke the tackle or he just outran them to the edge. Lindy's named him the toughest guy to bring down in the Sun-Belt, which I guess is a category. He's on the Doak Walker watch list too. Here's some highlights from his Sophomore season:

[video=youtube;SF_yhOBMigs]www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF_yhOBMigs[/video]

Pretty good.

5. Person that will **** you off:

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Arkansas State


J.D. McKissic

This guy won't **** you off because he has a stupid name (although he does), he's going to **** you off because he's going to light us up. Definitely a Dexter McCluster-ish type of player. He set their school record last year for career receptions with 185...as a Sophomore. Now a Junior, he's already in the top 5 in Sun-Belt history in that same category. In July he was named to the Paul Hornung award watch list which goes out to the best all-purpose player. Here are his highlights from when he was just a Freshman and Sophomore:

[video=youtube;gjJOKmwkdto]www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjJOKmwkdto[/video]

Holy ****. Those weren't all against scrub teams from the Sun-Belt that he was abusing either. Auburn, Missouri, and Nebraska all made an appearance in his highlight tape. Every time they need a big play this guy will provide it. Have your wife lock your dog in bathroom or something so you can't kick him when makes some big catch on 3rd and long.

6. Some Guy:

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G.M. Andrews/Associated Press


Qushaun Lee

Qushaun is a 5th year Senior and leader of the defense. Through 2 games he's tied for the team lead in interceptions and solo tackles. He's 2nd on the team in tackles for loss. Lee is basically Arkansas State's Perryman, and Golden compared him physically to Denzel yesterday. He's probably an inch or 2 shorter than him though. This guy is built like a fire hydrant. Here he is getting flagged for murdering some poor guy from Alcorn St.

[video=youtube;tnTzLEPhDGs]www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnTzLEPhDGs[/video]

He dead.

6. If Arkansas State was a character from a video game, they would be:

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That dog in Duck Hunt

For as many good players they may have on their roster and how well coached they might be, they are still a Sun-Belt team. There's no legitimate, defensible reason for this to be a close game. So naturally, you will be annoyed to all **** whenever they do something good against us. If and when they score on us, this might as well be their school fight song.

[video=youtube;g1QCbXCezNc]www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1QCbXCezNc[/video]

There's even a gif for whenever we settle for field goals inside the 10, or fail to convert on 3rd dow- excuse me...on Money Downs.

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Be prepared to be rustled.

7. Official Internet meme for this game:

Courage Wolf


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These ****ers were on ESPN All Access today on ESPNU. Was watching some of it. As much as I want to believe we should kill these guys, it'll probably be close. I have a feeling this might be UNC or Wake Forest of last year. Jesus God help us.
 
I think this offense will be prepared for this s*** game. It's obvious every team in the country's new game plan against Miami is "PUT 9 IN THE BOX!!" If this coaching staff knows anything about coaching they find the way to fix it
 
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Great article dan


And is it just me or were those J.D. McKissic highlights very sped up?
 
I think this offense will be prepared for this s*** game. It's obvious every team in the country's new game plan against Miami is "PUT 9 IN THE BOX!!" If this coaching staff knows anything about coaching they find the way to fix it

 
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Year 4 and I am hoping to see progress in a game versus Arkansas State.

I typed it, reread it 50 times, and still can't ******* believe it.
 
Its a bad feeling when you think your team is going to lose to a lower FBS team. I see it now. Arkansas St playing with more passion with us and our OLine getting man handled. "Flash" Gordon trucking Kirby and JD breaking tackles. *Sigh* one of these days we will be dominate again...
 
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It can't even be described as a trap game.

Their guaranteed 110% effort versus anything less than 100% will end up as a crippling, embarrassing loss.

A loss might be Golden's USF. They'll have to wait until the end of the year though. There is no one on the staff worthy of the interim position.
 
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This is the type of game that has defined Miami football for the last 8 years or so, an obviously less talented opponent that will give us a game for 4 qtrs. and possibly even pull off an upset. I long for the days when we would just overwhelm an opponent like this and be up 28-0 before your first visit to the **** trough.
 
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