Red Wolves vs. Bears: In-state rivals vie tonight
One team is winless and the other leads its conference, but Arkansas State enjoyed a class edge the last time it played Central Arkansas in football.
Arkansas State (0-3) looks to crack the win column in late September while Central Arkansas (21) totes the Southland Conference banner against the defending Sun Belt Conference champion tonight in Jonesboro.
Airing on ESPN3, the 6 p.m. kickoff at Centennial Bank Stadium renews a rivalry dormant since 2011, when Arkansas State, by 53-24, won the only meeting with both teams as NCAA Division I programs.
The teams have played 24 times since 1916 but meet this year for only the fourth time since 1947. UCA leads the series 12-10-2, though A-State has won all three games played in the modern era. The Red W0lves downed UCA 17-7 in 1996 and squeaked by the Bears 36-35 in 1997.
Before looking inside the Sun Belt, which it has won four of the last five years, Arkansas State returns home for the first time since a Sept. 2 loss to Toledo and following losses to Auburn and Utah State. Nineteen Red Wolves (11 on offense, six on defense, two on special teams) have seen their first action at A-State over the last three weeks. Included are quarterbacks Chad Voytik, a senior transfer from Pittsburgh, and sophomore Justice Hansen, the latter sparking a second-half rally against Utah State.
UCA looks for a breakthrough victory against a Football Bowl Subdivision team, having lost 4235 to Texas Tech in Lubbock two years and 38-24 at Colorado in 2013 after leading 24-17 early in the fourth quarter. UCA also has come close at Hawaii and Louisiana Tech, leading Ole Miss at halftime before falling 49-27 in 2012 in Oxford, Miss.
The Bears have Southland wins over Houston Baptist and Northwestern State around a loss to Samford, playing all three games on “the Stripes” at Conway’s Estes Stadium.
In a matchup of third-year coaches, UCA’s Steve Campbell expects a solid performance from Blake Anderson’s Red Wolves.
“Arkansas State (is) sitting there 0-3 but … a very, very good football team,” Campbell said. “Last year they were sitting at 1-3 after four games and then went on and won something like eight of their last nine and won the Sun Belt. So, they are a very good football team. They played a tough schedule early. Toledo will be a bowl team, Utah State will be a bowl team, and Auburn has been a bowl team about every year.
“So they’ve played a very, very touch schedule early but we know they are an outstanding team that will compete for the Sun Belt championship again (the Red Wolves were picked second to Appalachian State in the conference preseason poll). They are extremely well coached by Blake Anderson. He does an outstanding job with his team.”
Campbell and Anderson coached together at Middle Tennessee in 2012, one of many ties between the ASU and UCA coaching staffs. UCA defensive-line coach Larry Hart was a graduate assistant at ASU the past two season. ASU offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner was UCA’s quarterback coach in 2009, and ASU’s Brian Early coached defensive linemen and linebackers at UCA from 2004-08.
Also, ASU wide receivers coach Luke Paschall served on Campbell’s staff at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in 2007 along with UCA assistant coach Pete Bennett. Campbell coached ASU offensive-line coach Allen Rudolph at Nicholls State in the early 1990s.
“There is a lot of familiarity with the staffs,” Campbell said. “Our kids are really looking forward to this game because they played high school against a lot of these guys, followed those guys in the paper, went to camps with them when you’re growing up.
“It’s an in-state rival and it’s a game we’re very much looking forward to. (The Red Wolves) are a great football team but we’re very excited about playing them.”