ASU (3-1) handles downpour, UNLV
ARKANSAS STATE 27, UNLV 20
JONESBORO — Consider this confirmation.
For Arkansas State University to put a bow on its most successful start to a season in the school’s past 10 years, the Red Wolves needed to defeat back-to-back nonconference FBS opponents for the first time since the Red Wolves moved to the FBS 26 years ago.
With No. 1 Alabama as the headliner, followed by a trip to Tulsa and a home game against UNLV serving as the final act, a daunting four-game nonconference schedule sat in front of the Red Wolves before their Sept. 1 season opener against Southeast Missouri State.
Four games later, ASU (3-1) secured a winning regular-season record against nonconference opponents for the first time since 1995, punctuated by a 27-20 rainsoaked victory against UNLV on Saturday at Centennial Bank Stadium.
“With the exception of beating Alabama, this was as good as it could get,” said ASU Coach Blake Anderson. “Everybody’s proven it’s real hard to beat Alabama. So 3-1 was a huge goal that we set out. So, yeah, it’s a big deal to all of us.”
Before Saturday, the Red Wolves had not been 3-1 to open a season since 2008. Before that, it was 1986.
“It means a lot, man,” said sophomore cornerback Jerry Jacobs. “We’re making history.”
Rain relentlessly dumped on Centennial Bank Stadium the entire game. The deluge fell at a slant. Players slipped. Balls were dropped. Returners were cautioned not to field punts.
The rainy mess, as Anderson summarized best, made for an ugly game.
“It changed everything, pretty much,” Anderson said. “We felt like we had a tremendous advantage going into the game, throwing and catching. I just felt like our matchups were going to be really good. It took a lot of that out of it. We tried early when we could when the ball was dry. It never stayed dry … That’s a miserable night, offensively, to try to do what we do.”
Before they were forced to ditch their game plan — which relied on ASU’s receivers besting UNLV’s defensive backs in 1-on-1 matchups — and concoct a safer, more conservative strategy, the Red Wolves still let it fly in the downpour.
Senior quarterback Justice Hansen then offered that ASU should toss the passing game out the window.
“We tried as long as we could until Justice told us, ‘I’m basically shot-putting the ball at this point.’” Anderson said. “When he did that, we had to go beyond that and kind of create a game plan on the sideline.”
ASU scored on a seven-play, 80-yard opening drive, which was topped by a 16-yard touchdown pass from Hansen to receiver Justin McInnis with 12:37 left in the opening quarter. It was a near-flawless drive for the Red Wolves.
The remainder of the first quarter, however, wasn’t as sharp for the Red Wolves whose swift early strike was subdued once the wheels on UNLV’s offense, the thirdbest rushing team in the nation, started to turn.
Rebels tailback Evan Owens stung ASU with a 41yard rushing touchdown on UNLV’s second offensive possession. With it, momentum and field position shifted.
UNLV controlled much of the first half until Hansen and the Red Wolves torched the Rebels for their longest scoring drive of the season late in the first half.
Hansen found sophomore receiver Jonathan Adams, Jr. for a 24-yard touchdown with 6:59 remaining in the second quarter, the final piece to a 92yard, 11-play drive that started to ruin UNLV’s first-ever trip to Jonesboro.
While rain continued to soak Centennial Bank Stadium, the Red Wolves’ offense did not lose its identity as its high-speed tempo remained. Hansen, who was 19-for-27 passing with 199 yards and 3 touchdowns, was not apprehensive to flick quick passes and sling slippery footballs across UNLV’s secondary — as called for in the Red Wolves’ original game plan.
The rain, however, contributed to ASU’s third touchdown when UNLV junior punt returner Brandon Presley muffed a 40-yard punt that the Red Wolves recovered on the Rebels’ 2-yard line. On the ensuing play, Hansen lobbed an easy 2-yard score to sophomore tight end Javonis Isaac, his second receiving TD of the season, to give ASU a 12-point lead before UNLV, which had five turnovers for the game, got a boost from its backfield.
The Rebels, who averaged 345.3 rushing yards per game entering Saturday, rolled up 310 against ASU. UNLV came to Jonesboro as the country’s only team with two of the nation’s top 20 rushers: Sophomore quarterback Armani Rogers and senior tailback Lexington Thomas.
Thomas and Rogers, who threw 3 interceptions and completed 5 passes in 21 attempts, punched the Red Wolves for rushing TDs in the third quarter and flipped UNLV’s 19-7 deficit into a 2019 lead to begin the fourth quarter.
Rogers, a bruising 225-pounder, finished with 181 yards on the ground. Thomas had 82, well below his season average of 129 prior to Saturday.
The most significant rush of the evening, however, belonged to ASU freshman Marcel Murray.
Murray breezed through UNLV’s defense for a career-long 39-yard touchdown with 13:19 left in the fourth quarter, his second rushing score this season. Murray cashed in the two-point conversion to set the final margin.
“He’s pretty good, ain’t he?” Anderson said of Murray.