If you attend a college Spring Football Game on a mission for answers, you are running a fool’s errand. It’s all smoke, mirrors and false flags. The clearest value to a Spring Game is to enjoy a pale facsimile of game day in what we all hope will be fine Springtime weather.

Sure, there will be some portals cracked open. We’ll see a star contributor unexpectedly wearing a bulky knee brace, faces that are greatly unfamiliar, and reminders that some of the players we had grown to admire are now gone. But the one question that won’t be answered – Will Arkansas State football field a competitive team in 2026? – will go unanswered.

All that being said, it goes without saying that I am a fool, and I will be seeking answers on April 25. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me for a couple decades, and serve me an ancient soft pretzel. I’m game.

Will the Offense Be Different Under New Offensive Coordinator Garrett Altman?

Since 2019, Red Wolves fans have known nothing but Keith Heckendorf offensive strategies. Now Heckendorf is calling shots at Iowa State, and he took longtime starting QB Jaylen Raynor with him. Enter Garrett Atman, former quarterback’s coach for the suddenly pretty-good Vanderbilt Commodores.

Fair or not, the knock on Heckendorf was that the offensive scheme was too vanilla and predictable, with opposing defenses rumored to predict the play even before the Red Wolves broke huddle. Garrett, a former college offensive lineman who has never OC-ed before, is known for his quarterback whispering, having guided the good fortunes of under-sized quarterback Diego Pavia.

The Garrett-assisted Vandy offense was a top ten unit for total offense and points last season. It is no accident that pencil-projected QB starter Ethan Crawford and former Vandy QB Pavia are similarly sized and styled signal callers. Will be seeing Commodores II in Jonesboro?

Who Will Rise as the Red Wolves Quarterback?

The last time Butch Jones entered the season with a question mark at quarterback, the Red Wolves went three games deep into the season before finally installing third-stringer Jaylen Raynor. This is my way of saying that the Day 1 starter isn’t necessarily The Man.

If you’re like me, you might have suspected that Raynor’s departure to Iowa State would have opened the door to Josh Flowers, a high-star recruit for Butch Jones who seemed brimming with promise. However, Flowers entered the portal soon after Raynor, and as far as I can tell, has not emerged anywhere else. The position is wide open.

Ethan Crawford (6’0″, 200), who transferred last season from Southern Miss and is the lone A-State holdover at quarterback, seems to have the inside track. We know he can run. We honestly don’t know if he can throw – he didn’t attempt a pass in 2025.

In the mix is longtime Commodores hand Drew Dickey (6’1″ 210), a senior who has thrown two passes his entire career. The Texan was rated a 4-star recruit by ESPN but never bubbled to the surface in Nashville. I’ve seen social media rumblings of Dickey getting his shot in Jonesboro, but the journeyman’s role may be more of a valued and well-practiced assistant to Altman.

That leaves us with two mystery men: Sophomore Trey Owens (6’5″, 219), a transfer from Texas, and Jérémy St-Hilaire (6’4″, 220), a sophomore out of Vanderbilt. Hilaire is a three-star recruit and transfer who had his choice between the Commodores and Wake Forest. Owens was a four-star prospect with offers from just about every school in Texas before deciding on the Longhorns. Owens has an elite arm, but he wasn’t making much headway behind Arch Manning and the depth of QB talent that winds up in Austin.

Of the four quarterbacks on the roster, Owens intrigues me most. He seems like the big-armed, hard to bring down guy Butch Jones has always dreamed about. But Crawford appears to fit more Altman’s mold. We shall see (though we likely wont see it next Saturday).

Can Defensive Coordinator Griff McCarley Maintain the Upward Trajectory?

Last year’s defensive start was abysmal. However, the Red Wolves defense became the team’s most game-changing unit in 2025, relying on aggression to force turnovers and create havoc. Now in his second year on the job, McCarley won’t be afforded grace for a slow start. The gig wasn’t made easier by portal defections from defensive linemen like Drew Collins, Cody Sigler and Bryan Whitehead. But veterans like safety AG McGhee and linebacker Nigel Nelson should offer stability on a roster that features at least five transfers on the defensive line.

At times, the 2025 Red Wolves featured a competent bend-never-break defense that kept the team in games. With a new quarterback at the helm, the unit may be called upon again to make plays. Can McCarley pull another rabbit out of his hat?

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