The game started with a quick, 75 yard touchdown drive from Arkansas State (JaQuez Cross punch in from seven yards), and the Redhawks responded with a quick 75 yard touchdown drive of their own (Brandon Epton eight yard run). It seemed the start of a shootout, with defense optional.

The Red Wolves defense certainly looked befuddled and over matched the entire first quarter as the Redhawks seemed to move the ball at will. However, all momentum for the team from Cape Girardeau evaporated when SEMO miraculously drops a third-down pass in the red zone and settles for the field goal. It would be their last score of the half.

Red Wolves responded by munching down the field and feeding Cross another TD, this time a four yard reception from Raynor. The junior QB would finish the half with 190 yards and a touchdown pass. Chauncy Cobb collected all 85 of his yards in the first half.

The Red Wolves defense, despite their first quarter problems, forced a fumble midway through the second, leading to a 44 yard touchdown run from Devin Spencer. This began a series of solid defense for the Red Wolves, who would force consecutive four consecutive three and outs.

With about half a minute on the first half clock, Kenyon Clay punched it into the end zone from the two yard line to generate a halftime score of 28-10. It appeared that both the Red Wolves defense and offense was tooting tubas from the same sheet music.

Redhawks received the kickoff for the second half and executed a crisp, efficient three and out, courtesy of a Red Wolves defense that clearly figure their stuff out. Raynor rewarded the three and out by instantly connecting with Corey Rucker for a 50 yard bomb, followed by a short TD strike again to Rucker to make it 35-10.

With the Red Wolves knocking on the gates for another score, Devin Spencer fumbled on the Redhawks’ seven, giving SEMO renewed life. The SEMO offense broke a string of four straight four and outs to make a minor march down the field, but failure to convert on fourth down ended the insurrection. Raynor would punish the Redhawks by closing out a scoring drive with a touchdown to Jaylen Bonelli.

About 8 minutes left in the fourth, the Redhawks got a dignity touchdown Redhawks on a 60 yard strike from Jax Leatherwood to Donnie Cheers. They’d collect another on a 30 yard pass to Cam Pedro with the 2s and 3s playing defense. But the game was largely over by the middle of the third quarter, with the defense making an adjustment and the offense wearing out the SEMO front line.

Raynor was spectacular , completing 26 of 32 passes 345 yards and three touchdowns, including one to Rucker, who finished with two catches for 59 yards. Cross, Clay and Spencer paced the Red Wolves 147 yard ground game, with each RB collecting a touchdown run.

Defensively, Ethan Hassler, Cody Sigler and Drew Collins collected sacks, while Nigel Nelson led the team with 10 total tackles.

POST GAME QUOTES:

“As a quarterback you go from September to August not getting a hit, so being able to use my feet and make defenders move around and adjust was a lot of fun. I’ll probably be a little sore.” – Jaylen Raynor on escaping multiple sacks against SEMO.

“At the beginning of the season, I asked who are we, where are we, and what do we need to do to get better. I thought we played winning football at times.” – Butch Jones.

“There are couple things that happened today that we won’t get away with the next couple games.” – Butch Jones

“The turnover really changed the momentum of the game.” – Butch Jones

“He’s extremely cerebral with football IQ,” Butch Jones on freshman LB Nigel Nelson

“They’re payroll is probably about $17 million more than ours.” – Butch Jones on Arkansas

Next Up: Northwest Arkansas