The road woes continued for Arkansas State last Saturday when it traveled to Texas State and suffered a one-sided, 41-9 defeat. Having lost its last five road games, Arkansas State will look to end that streak Saturday against Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, Miss.
The Red Wolves are also looking for their first win on the road against the Golden Eagles since 1977. It is the 14th meeting between the two teams and Southern Miss holds a 10-3 advantage in the all-time series. The last two meetings have been decided by a combined 8 points; the Red Wolves won 44-37 last season in Jonesboro and the Golden Eagles took a 20-19 victory at home in 2022.
"This is going to be a great challenge," Arkansas State Coach Butch Jones said of the matchup. "We have to prove we can win on the road. We have to continue to improve as a football team in all three aspects. In the three games that we have won, we've been able to do that. We've been able to play really good team football."
Arkansas State (3-3, 1-1 Sun Belt Conference) struggled on both sides of the ball in the loss to Texas State. The Red Wolves' defense surrendered nearly 600 yards of total offense to the Bobcats, while the offense was unable to reach the end zone, settling for three field goals.
Southern Miss (1-5, 0-2) has dealt with its own struggles this season, with its only win so far coming on Sept. 7 when it defeated Southeastern Louisiana 35-10. Florida State transfer quarterback Tate Rodemaker started the first five games of the season for the Golden Eagles, but Ethan Crawford got the start in a 38-21 loss to Louisiana-Monroe last week.
Coach Will Hall announced earlier this week that Crawford will be Southern Miss' starting quarterback moving forward. Crawford is a dual-threat, passing for 165 yards and rushing for another 70 in the loss to the Warhawks.
"I think they've settled in on a quarterback and that is a challenge in and of itself," Jones said. "(Crawford) reminds me a little bit of the quarterback from South Alabama (Gio Lopez). He can run around, he can make plays, he can throw the football. I'm very familiar with him. He's from Tuscaloosa (Ala.) and he's a good football player."
Defensively, Arkansas State is giving up an average of 460 yards per game, which ranks 123rd nationally. The unit has struggled to get off the field on third-down and is surrendering 221 rushing yards per game. With the Golden Eagles only averaging 16.7 points per game, the Red Wolves should have an opportunity to improve those dismal defensive statistics.
One area the Arkansas State defense has found success is generating turnovers. The Red Wolves have forced eight turnovers and will look to continue that trend Saturday. The Golden Eagles have turned the ball over 16 times this season, second most of any team in the country behind East Carolina (18).
"This past weekend against Texas State, we had 18 missed tackles," Arkansas State linebacker Marvin Ham said. "We missed a lot of tackles and we definitely need to fix that. It's a business trip, so we got to go out there with the correct mindset and dominate the details. We have to create our own momentum."
A positive for the Arkansas State offense that came out of the loss to Texas State was the emergence of running back Ja'Quez Cross, who produced 165 total yards in the game. The 117 rushing yards Cross gained were more than he had rushed for in the previous five games combined (90). With the team averaging just 93.8 yards rushing per game, Jones was encouraged by Cross' increased production.
"We were able to get Ja'Quez to the second level and I thought he ran the ball hard," Jones said. "I thought we involved him very well in the game plan and he did some good things catching the ball. He did a good job in terms of all-purpose yardage as well. We're going to need that consistent performance and we're definitely going to need it Saturday night in Hattiesburg."