Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order.
Arkansas State was expected to be among the top two or three teams in the Sun Belt last season, but just never delivered on the potential. They very nearly took down Iowa (on their own way to the Orange Bowl) on national television, but only managed three wins in conference play to finish well down the order.
11 starters return for Steve Roberts in 2010, which is about average for this year’s Sun Belt. Ryan Aplin shared time at QB last year but should be ready to step in full time, and the Red Wolves have depth and experience in their RB pool as well.
Schedule
9/4/2010 at Auburn
9/11/2010 at Louisiana Lafayette
9/18/2010 Louisiana Monroe
9/25/2010 at Troy
10/2/2010 Louisville
10/9/2010 at North Texas
10/16/2010 at Indiana
10/23/2010 Florida Atlantic
11/2/2010 Middle Tennessee State
11/13/2010 Western Kentucky
11/20/2010 at Navy
11/27/2010 at Florida International
This is, frankly, a terrible schedule. Only five home games, and of those, you have only 2 in the first seven games before a three game homestand- then away again for the last two games. The Wolves have to jump right into league play in week two against a Lafayette team that may be pretty good. We’ll know what the outlook is for A-State really early though- if they can survive the Louisiana teams and Troy all in the first four weeks, they could have something going.
Coaching
Head coach Steve Roberts starts his 9season as head coach of the Red Wolves, having now matched the 8 years he spent as head coach in the 1-AA ranks. He has a 37-47 overall record, but is 25-22 in the Sun Belt with one conference championship. Phil Steele has Roberts on his list of coaches on the hot seat.
Rankings
The Sun Belt media have the Red Wolves in 7th, but the Coaches have them up in 3rd- of the two leagues (WAC & Sun Belt) who put out both versions of the preseason poll, ASU has the biggest discrepancy between the two. I have no idea what this means.
Outlook
2009 was uncharacteristically poor for Arkansas State and I think there will be improvement this year, although not enough to contend for the title. I think they’ll have to go 5-3 in the Belt to be bowl eligible, but I think that’s a possibility. 5 wins may be more likely but 6 won’t surprise me.
Arkansas State Connections
The Den- independent news & message board, which is nice because there doesn’t seem to be any online A-State local coverage.