If Georgia Southern has any thoughts about going to a bowl this season—forget about winning the Sun Belt Conference’s East Division—it can’t afford a misstep Saturday night when it plays at Arkansas State.
The Red Wolves (3-4, 2-1) have suddenly become a dangerous team after getting last second wins against South Alabama and Texas State to become a contender in the conference’s West Division race. The 7 p.m. game will mark the first meeting between the two teams since 2021. The series is tied, 3-3, with Georgia Southern (3-4, 1-2) going 0-2 in Jonesboro, Ark.
Arkansas State, a 2.5-point favorite, last played on Tuesday a week ago when it rallied from a 14-3 fourth quarter deficit to beat homestanding South Alabama, 15-14, on Clune Van Andel’s 38-yard field goal as time expired.
The week before against Texas State it was quarterback Jaylen Raynor who provided the heroics as he scored on a 4-yard run with seven seconds left to cap a 75-yard drive. When Van Andel kicked the extra point ASU had a 31-30 win.
“I think we’re starting to have an identity of a team that has resiliency, that has resolve,” said Coach Butch Jones Monday on the SBC coaches teleconference. “We’re finding ways to win.
“It’s not pretty by any stretch of the imagination but I think we’re becoming a very connected football team,” Jones said. “That doesn’t happen by chance but we have to earn everything we get.
“I still think we’re a work in progress in terms of our team coming together. I think any time you win close games it’s amazing.”
Winning close games has become the norm at Arkansas State. The Red Wolves were 7-0 in one-score games last year and are 2-2 this year. One of those losses was against Iowa State (24-16) and the other was 28-21 at the hands of surprising Kennesaw State (4-2).
Jones said the nine one-score wins dating back to last season ties his team with Arizona State for the most such wins in FBS the last two years. The back-to-back one-point wins were the first time in school history that had been accomplished.
That does not bode well for the Eagles who had to rally in he fourth quarter to beat a less than average Georgia State (1-6) team, 41-24, last Saturday. Georgia Southern, which is 0-3 on the road, trailed 24-20 after three quarters.
The two wins and the long break have revitalized his team and given it a shot in the arm confidence-wise, said Jones.
“It’s great to get back in regular game week,” said Jones who is in his fifth-season at Arkansas State. “I thought the extra time really helped us trying to get back, obviously, health-wise in the training room.
“I think the extra time was needed for our football team,” Jones said. “This is a great, great challenge for our football team. I think we’re playing one of the best teams in our conference in Georgia Southern.”
“We’re talking about a mature football team, a mature group, a veteran group. I think it is one of the best offensive lines in the conference.
That may be so although statistics will not bear it out—Georgia Southern is dead last in the SBC in total offense averaging 335.67 yards per game—but then the Wolves aren’t much better at 354.
Where Arkansas State may have the edge is it is playing with a great deal of confidence now behind Raynor, a junior from Winston-Salem, N.C., who has taken his team on his back and is carrying it to the finish line.
Raynor, a dual threat quarterback who was the conference Freshman of the Year two years ago, has thrown for 1660 yards and nine touchdowns and leads the team in rushing with 272 yards. For his career he has thrown for 6,986 yards and rushed for 1,039 in 31 games.
Other than Raynor the Red Wolves do not have any players who jump off the page statistically but rather, Jones said, they are playing complimentary football, especially in the last two wins.
“We’ve been able to make a stop defensively, then Jaylen has done a really good job of managing the one-minute offense just like we practice it,” Jones said. “Our players have a lot of confidence in it and we have a lot of confidence in our field goal kicker.”
