Before Saturday’s pigskin contest against the Bobcats, my brother Rex Steele and I exchanged a couple texts predicting the game’s outcome. Rex Steele forecasted a final score 31-28, Red Wolves. I countered 48-16, Texas State. I had zero confidence that Arkansas State could compete with Texas State, the preseason Sun Belt West favorite and home to the Sun Belt’s most prolific offense (and the defense was pretty good, too). Four consecutive Arkansas State losses – most miserably played – underscored my belief.
My dim prognostication seemed like true divination when Texas State jogged into the end zone within two minutes of the game. The Red Wolves defense, down two starting linebackers in Javante Mackey and Terry Kirksey, provided very little resistance, the only hiccup an incomplete pass between Bobctats quarterback Brad Jackson and receiver Chris Dawn Jr. To add insult to insult, Jackson took the ball to the house himself, dodging a Red Wolves linebacker in the back field and scampering up the middle from 24 yards out. The Red Wolves offense would respond with an inglorious three and out.
Yes, I was feeling toxically sarcastic, and I was fully prepared to snark my way through the entire game. Every play, on either side of the ball, was a symphony of disaster. Watching C-SPAN during a government shutdown held more appeal. Where was the competitive character? Where was the eye discipline? Nobody was playing 11 for 11 football! It was more like 7-11 football, because every play was producing Big Gulp’s of dread. Did I really stretch that metaphor? Absolutely, but I don’t care. This team wasn’t worth Shakespearian-level world play.
Then something unexpected happened:
I was legit astonished. Did the Red Wolves defense really force a punt? Opposing teams had successfully rolled the dice on fourth down against A-State in the first quarter all year. Texas State was on their own 47 and 12 yards behind the line of scrimmage, but if Bobcats coach GJ Kinne really wanted to break Arkansas State’s spirit, collecting the first down would have been an atomic response. Kinne opted for boring old reason, and the Red Wolves re-payed this gift by punting after running six plays for 12 yards.
But then Texas State was forced to punt again, too. How unusual! This game was starting to look less like Arkansas and Kennesaw State games and more like the frustrating struggle against ULM, where a solid defensive effort for the Red Wolves was wasted by a low-testosterone offense. Except, from out of nowhere, the Red Wolves supplied a sudden burst of genuine ability.
From that moment until the fourth quarter, offense for both the Red Wolves and Bobcats took a breather while the defenses took turns pounding each other. At one point, a violent exchange of football took out Red Wolves center Walker Davis, who had taken over duties from the injured starting center Mason Meyers. That left Butch Jones with the team’s third string center, Gabe Fortson. The 6’3″ 324-lb sophomore would play the remainder of the snaps. “We don’t have a fourth string center,” revealed Coach Jones after the game.
The third quarter treated fans to four punts and one turnover on downs. This was becoming the strangest game in the rivalry’s history. The last time the Red Wolves hosted Texas State, the two teams combined for 108 points. By the start of the fourth quarter, the game was knotted at 10 points apiece. While the Bobcats played solid defense, they still allowed more than 26 points per game. Arkansas State was allowing nearly 31. Nobody was expecting graveyard end zones on Saturday. However, nobody was really paying attention to the script anyway.
If there was a moment that would shape the outcome of the game, it occurred near the end of the third quarter, when Jaylen Raynor heaved a bomb to a very wide open Corey Rucker down the sideline. The toss was perfect, landing directly in the palms of the wide receiver’s hands – and the ball bounced off the fingers and rolled harmlessly to the ground. It was an astonishing development. Throughout his career, Rucker had been the guy who simply did not drop bombs. The maddening miscue sapped the energy from Centennial Bank Stadium. Raynor took a pair of consecutive sacks, and the ball was back in Bobcats’ hands.
“I’m going back to you,” said Raynor to Rucker on the sideline. Remember that.
Texas State opened the fourth quarter they way it opened the first: marching into the end zone with only one play resulting in zero net yards. Undeterred, Arkansas State responded with a 75-yard scoring drive of their own.
“We ain’t scoring again,” gloomed Rex Steele. It seemed like a reasonable glooming. The Red Wolves had scored just 16 points in two of its last three games. The offense hadn’t exactly demonstrated anything beyond fleeting moments of competency. When Texas State responded with a seven play touchdown drive to retake the lead with just 3:45 left on the clock, the outcome seemed cemented in history. With a sigh, I opened by laptop and wrote the headline “Texas State Survives Defensive Struggle Against Arkansas State” and awaited final stats.
Obviously, the Red Wolves don’t read my stuff because Jaylen Raynor led the team on an 8-play scoring drive that tied the score 24-24 with just 1:20 on the clock. Perhaps Butch Jones should go for two? Considering how gassed the A-State defense looked, it seemed a good gamble to try to secure the win rather than risking OT. However, Clune Van Andel booted the extra point through the uprights, and the Bobcats were given an opportunity to respond.
Two plays later, the Bobcats were back in the end zone.
A 63-yard, up-the-middle run from Brad Jackson put Texas State on the three. Butch Jones ordered his team to give up the subsequent touchdown to former Red Wolf Lincoln Pare, leaving exactly one minute on clock to tie the game.
But then something bizarre happened in an already overly-bizarre game. Bobcats kicker Tyler Robles doinked the XP. The Red Wolves no longer had sixty seconds to tie the game. The Red Wolves had sixty seconds (and a pair of time outs) to win the game.
First play after the kick off, Raynor completed a pass to Hunter Summers for nine yards. The next play was a 27-yard dart to Corey Rucker, a ball grabbed at the middle of the field in traffic, ending with Rucker lowering his shoulder for a few more valuable inches.
Kenyon Clay added a reception for nine yards, bringing Arkansas State to the Bobcats’ 30 yard line. Raynor, forever poised and glued into the zone, moved fast. He located the big tight end Jarbari Bush for 14 yards, then found Clay again for 12 more, leaving Raynor to run the ball in himself with seven seconds to spare. The cool Clune Van Andel nailed the XP to take the 31-30 lead.
On the final kick off, the Bobcats attempted an amusing hook-and-ladder scheme that, quite honestly, nearly worked, but there was simply not enough clock for the Bobcats to muster a comeback. In total, 41 points was scored in the fourth quarter, the missed XP being the difference in the game. Raynor was brilliant, completing a perfect twenty of his last twenty pass attempts and finishing the day with two rushing, two throwing touchdowns. Rucker was the game’s leading receiver with 102 yards.
Coach Butch Jones entered the game on Saturday beleaguered by two losses besieged by unsatisfied fans. Two minutes into the first quarter against the Bobcats, the situation seemed unlikely to improve. On Monday, CBS Sports would name Jones the SBC head coach of the week, and the Sun Belt would bestow Offensive Player of the Week on Raynor.
I had expected a dispiriting blowout from a once routinely defeated foe on Saturday. Instead, I was treated to one of the most entertaining Red Wolves victories in recent memory. More inspirationally, for one quarter we saw the brand of football that made us believers in the Arkansas State Red Wolves so many years ago. Where this quarter of exceptional football takes Arkansas State moving forward is up to the team. Until then, my snark and sarcasm is shelved for another day.
FEATURED IMAGE: Carla Wehmeyer, A-State Athletics
Howlraiser 