Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Wolves delaying game plan
Fall camp is finished for Arkansas State, but the Red Wolves are not quite ready to put in a game plan for their Sept. 1 opener.
Coach Blake Anderson said his team must “clean up” a few things before the Red Wolves can begin preparing for opening day opponent Southeast Missouri State.
“We want what we did at fall camp to carry over into this week,” Anderson said. “There’s still a lot of situational things we’ve got to work on. We’re not going to put a game plan in until Saturday simply because it’s hard to keep their attention spans for two weeks.”
Arkansas State University wrapped up its fall camp Saturday with a 90-minute Fan Day showcase at Centennial Bank Stadium in Jonesboro. The Red Wolves ran 41 plays from scrimmage and devoted most of the practice to special-teams play.
“I really believe the biggest concerns are in the special teams,” Anderson said. “The live reps we got [Saturday] will go a long way to identify who’s ready and who’s not. You know as well as I that in the first few games of the year, if you’re not ready in the special teams, you’re asking to get beat. We can’t make mistakes there.”
Anderson held several players out of Saturday’s scrimmage because of some “minor bumps and bruises,” including junior safety B.J. Edmonds and junior wide receiver Omar Bayless, who
had shined in ASU’s first scrimmage with seven receptions.
Anderson said Bayless had “tweaked a knee” earlier in the week.
While Bayless was held out, Oklahoma transfer Dahu Green was impressive in his first practice in front of the Red Wolves’ fans. Green caught three passes for 92 yards.
“You just throw it anywhere, really,” said ASU quarterback Justice Hansen, who hit Green twice for 53 yards. “I think he’s skinny. I tell him that. But at the same time, it lets him move very fast.
“When you see a big guy like that with that much speed, you think when he stops he has to chop it down. He can be at full speed and pretty much stop in one step. That definitely makes him dangerous.”
Freshman Marcel Murray scored on a 45-yard run the first time he touched the ball.
“It’s going to be up to him,” Anderson said when asked what role Murray would play in the Red Wolves’ game plan. “But it’s getting bigger all the time. He’s definitely earned the respect of our football team early as a freshman.”
Junior safety Darreon Jackson was the leading tackler for the scrimmage.
“Since Day One at camp, [Jackson] has been a leader,” Anderson said. “I feel extremely comfortable with how he’s going to perform. He very rarely has a bad day. His bad day is a lot of people’s good day.”
Anderson said this year’s fall camp was the most successful the Red Wolves have had in his five years as head coach.
“We played good, old-fashioned football in fall camp,” Anderson said. “We hit each other a lot. So now we’ve got to get them fresh. We’ve got some fine-tuning to do.”