Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Defensive fire lights in 2nd half for ASU
Kivon Bennett and Jarius Reimonenq pulled their defensive teammates together in the halftime locker room Saturday evening in Mobile, Ala.
They knew their unit was better than this.
It was just nine days earlier that the Arkansas
State defense had held LouisianaLafayette scoreless for the opening quarter and a respectable 5.1 yards per play — excluding another crushing 99-yard touchdown.
Yet, the Red Wolves were staring down the barrel of a 28-7 deficit, the result of South Alabama’s 352 yards, 20 first downs and 57% thirddown conversion rate in the opening 30 minutes.
“[We] had some self-talk and realized what we were doing wasn’t acceptable to the standards of our defense,” Bennett said. “We talked to each other, said what had to be said and then came out with a spark.”
That spark turned into what was possibly ASU’s best single-half defensive showing this season. It allowed a season-low three points over the final half, limiting the Jaguars to 72 yards of total offense including minus-5 yards in the third quarter.
Ultimately, it mattered little in a 31-13 loss to South Alabama at Hancock Whitney Stadium on Saturday. But there’s a reason why they know they’re capable of more halves like the last one.
“We need to put a full game together and I think it’s a mentality,” Coach Butch Jones said. “In the first half, it was like we were waiting for things to happen and we got hit in the mouth, and in football, you have to be the aggressor. You have to be the one that attacks.
“In the second half, we came out and we were aggressive. We were confident, we attacked what we saw [and] we did a great job of running our feet on contact.”
One good half didn’t drastically alter the season-long stats. The Red Wolves remain last in the nation in total defense and are 128th among 130 FBS teams in scoring defense.
South Alabama converted on just one of its seven thirddown attempts and completed 5 passes for 19 yards after throwing for 232 and 4 touchdowns in the first half.
ASU posted four tackles for loss and sophomore cornerback Kenneth Harris had an interception for a second straight game.
“That’s one of my young guys,” Bennett said of Harris. “I was on his butt a lot the first couple of weeks of the season, just wanting him to take it further because I see the talent. … It’s great to see when you have young guys evolving like that.”
The Red Wolves (1-7, 0-4 Sun Belt Conference) are out of both conference and bowl contention. They’re guaranteed to finish with a losing record, marking the first time since 2009-10 that they’ll post back-to-back seasons below .500.
The last few games could present an opportunity for fresher faces like Kenneth Harris to see more action. Linebacker Jaden Harris, who has two more seasons of eligibility, started again and received the third- highest defensive grade of any ASU player according to Pro Football Focus.
Defensive back Detravion Green, who also has two years left, played his first defensive snaps of the season, making three tackles and earning the best PFF grade of the week.
Bennett believes that it’s not about who’s on the field. Rather, it’s about desire.
“People try and make football so complicated. It’s really not,” he said. “Motivational speeches and all that type of stuff, it’s been said. … This is one man versus another man and everyone has to feel that way. If that’s the mindset all 11 of us have, we’re going to put it together.”