Red Wolves: Test not make-or-break

These are the Sun Belt Conference’s heavyweights.

Arkansas State University and Appalachian State, selected to finish No. 1 and No. 2 by the league’s coaches more than a month ago, will meet for the first time since 2015 at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Centennial Bank Stadium in Jonesboro.

Tuesday could represent the first of two matchups between the dueling ASUs. Should both teams proceed as Sun Belt coaches predicted, the Sun Belt Championship Game on Dec. 1 would be the second round.

Arkansas State’s conference-opening loss at Georgia Southern did not put a serious dent in the Red Wolves’ aspirations because every team in their division also has at least one conference loss. Head-tohead matchups among fellow West Division opponents are Arkansas State’s priority, and Red Wolves Coach Blake Anderson is not tying Tuesday’s matchup to make-or-break status.

“I just figure you’ve got to win them all anyway,” Anderson said. “There’s pressure on you every week. If we want to play in the championship game, we sure don’t want to leave it up to somebody to do it for us. The only way to take care of that is win one at a time.”

Arkansas State will welcome the nation’s third-best scoring offense to Jonesboro on Tuesday.

Appalachian State, the team that nearly took down then-No. 10 Penn State in a 4538 overtime thriller Sept. 1, has scored more than 38 points in all four games and hasn’t allowed more than nine points in three games since that loss in State College, Pa.

Allowing fewer than 10 points in three consecutive beatdown victories is a boost for a team equipped to score 35-plus as an offense.

“You can tell the confidence level is really high,” Anderson said.

Of the 10 primary offensive and defensive team categories, Appalachian State (3-1, 1-0 SBC) leads the Sun Belt in six of them (scoring offense, scoring defense, total offense, total defense, rushing defense and passing efficiency defense) and was second in the other four prior to Saturday’s slate of conference games.

According to ASU’s coaching staff, speed defines Appalachian State.

“The fastest defense we’ve seen, maybe, in this league,” ASU offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner said. “They’ve done a tremendous job of recruiting. You can see that they have a plan with what they’re trying to do and the body types that they want on their roster.”

Expecting to see plenty of Cover 2 and Cover 3 zone sets from the Mountaineers’ defense, Arkansas State’s offense isn’t planning to diverge much from its usual Spread offense.

The Red Wolves whiffed on multiple scoring drives at Georgia Southern because untimely offensive line busts halted progress.

“We’ve got our hands full,” Faulkner said. “It’s a good defense. But at the end of the day, like every other week, it’s about us executing and finishing drives and doing the things that we can control.”

The Mountaineers, whose trip to Jonesboro marks their first Tuesday game since 1942, have four special-teams touchdowns in 2018, the most among FBS teams. It is the only FBS program with a touchdown via a kickoff return, punt return and a blocked punt returned for a TD.

“They know what they want to do,” Anderson said. “They’re efficient at it. They’re really good at it.”