Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Bowl loss festered for Red Wolves
Robert Mondie sat in front of a television with his father eight months ago in Memphis, watching the final lopsided loss of Arkansas State’s rough end to last season.
Mondie wasn’t sure where he would play next after Alabama-Birmingham dropped its program, but he was considering ASU, where his younger brother Devin is an offensive guard.
As Mondie and his father watched Toledo’s 63-44 victory in the GoDaddy Bowl,
he noticed that ASU’s biggest weakness was up front on defense and knew that it had to be addressed during the offseason.
Now, less than a year later, the defensive tackle has helped transform what was once a glaring weakness into what the Red Wolves believe is a strength.
“I feel like the whole defensive line is a strength of the team,” Mondie said this week. “Especially the inside guys, the big, aggressive guys who don’t take no mess.”
Mondie and the rest of the defensive line get a chance to put that theory to the test tonight when ASU (1-2) gets another crack at Toledo, which has beaten Arkansas and Iowa State in consecutive weeks. Toledo gashed ASU’s undersized defensive front for 365 rushing yards in last year’s bowl game.
“We’re out to prove that’s not who we are anymore,” ASU defensive line coach Brian Early said. “Obviously it takes more than four people to stop the run, but as a defensive line unit we take pride in being able to stop the run.”
The results have been better. With Mondie, 321 pounds, and Waylon Roberson, 338, in the middle and Chris Stone, a returning starter, and Ja’von Rolland-Jones, who missed the bowl game with an elbow injury, at end, ASU’s starting defensive line has bumped its average weight from 260 pounds to more than 283 pounds.
That group, along with a plethora of reserves, has helped ASU hold teams to an average of 168.0 rushing yards per game, second-best among Sun Belt Conference teams.
“I don’t anticipate us getting pushed around like we did in the bowl game,” defensive coordinator Joe Cauthen said.
Of course, ASU was good against the run to start last season, too. Then ASU went to Louisiana-Lafayette on Oct. 21 and let the Ragin’ Cajuns
run for 419 yards in a loss that started a string of four losses over the final seven games.
“Bottom line, [it was] embarrassing some of the things we allowed teams to do to us,” Stone said.
Early is using an aggressive rotation in an effort to keep players fresh. The Red Wolves have played 14 defensive linemen this season. Six played in the first series last week against Missouri State, and nine played in the first series against Missouri on Sept. 12.
“The ability to rotate has played, I think, a big role in
our ability to play against the run,” Red Wolves Coach Blake Anderson said. “Even pass rush, you’re a lot better on Play 2 of the series than you are on Play 9 or 10. We didn’t have that luxury a year ago.”
Early said fast-paced offenses have made it impossible to set a number of snaps before they rotate, so they take their chances when they can. If a play goes out of bounds or the offense takes a timeout, ASU usually will make a change or two. The same goes for first downs, too. If Early doesn’t find an opportunity to get fresh guys on the field after the first three plays and if ASU hasn’t forced a punt, a new group will be out there for the next first down.