? So is this the year Arkansas State finally breaks the spell? Or will Middle Tennessee add to the Indians? misery in Murfreesboro?
Haunted by a past that can?t be denied, Arkansas State faces an MTSU program that has thoroughly dominated the Indians year after year.
ASU hopes to stay in the chase for the Sun Belt Conference title while ending a 4-game losing streak against the Blue Raiders when they meet this afternoon. Kickoff is 2:30 p.m. at Floyd Stadium, a site where Arkansas State has never won.
ASU coach Steve Roberts doesn?t buy that what has happened before will have an effect on the outcome today.
?There is nothing about any of the previous games that will have any impact on this game this week whatsoever,? Roberts said. ?As far as having our number, travel, or how bad they?ve done this to us or whatever in the past, (these are) two totally different football teams that will go into this competition.?
Past results indicate doom and gloom for the Indians.
Middle Tennessee owns a 7-1 edge in the series, winning the last four games by a combined score of 152-48. For Arkansas State, the worst of the losses was a 45-7 implosion in 2004. The closest was a 24-14 setback in 2003. Other outcomes include a 38-10 loss last year and a 45-17 drubbing the year before.
MTSU has averaged 38 points and 423 yards in its last four victories over ASU. Arkansas State senior free safety Khayyam Burns has been a part of three of the losses, and says the Indians are set on rectifying the situation.
?That won?t happen this weekend,? Burns said. ?We know how important this game is and what it means, which is something that is going to help us to win the Sun Belt Conference. We are focused and tuned in on what we are supposed to get done this week.?
Arkansas State (3-3 overall, 1-1 SBC) rolls into the contest off one of the best offensive showings in school history.
The Indians rolled up a school-record 681 yards in a 52-21 thrashing of Louisiana-Lafayette last week. Quarterback Corey Leonard amassed 359 yards offense, passed for five touchdowns and ran for another TD. ASU running back Reggie Arnold added a career-high 225 yards and a touchdown.
Like ASU?s win over ULL, Roberts said the Blue Raiders have played almost flawless football when the two teams have met.
?There is no specific reason,? Roberts explained. ?Unfortunately for us, Middle played their best game of the year against us in a couple of those contests. ... Sometimes that just happens.?
Leonard, who passed for 275 yards and rushed for 84 against UL Lafayette, said the Indians have played flat when they?ve faced MTSU during his first two years at Arkansas State.
Leonard was a redshirt in 2005 when the Blue Raiders won by 28 points in Murfreesboro. He started last year?s game that was 10-3 at the half before MTSU blew it open in the second half.
?I think they have come out with a little bit more intensity than we did,? Leonard said. ?It was definitely the case my freshman year when we went over there. They came out ready to play, we came out flat, and you could just tell from the start that they were just dominating the game. Last year, I think both teams came out motivated, some breaks went their way, and we kind of fell flat.?
Burns said such has been the case the whole time he?s been involved in games between Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee.
?We have just not been mentally focused, not prepared, and were not playing hard in all aspects of the game ? offensively, defensively, special teams, mentally and physically,? Burns explained. ?It was a total team breakdown in all of those past games.?
The Blue Raiders (2-5, 1-1) come in having won two of three games but can?t afford another loss in conference play. MTSU lost to Florida Atlantic in the season opener and a second league loss would put Middle Tennessee in a bind. The same can be said for ASU.
MTSU?s recent surge has been at the hands of freshman quarterback Dwight Dasher, who started the last four games. Dasher stands just 5-foot-10 but has thrown for 842 yards and six touchdowns while rushing for a team-leading 399 yards and three TDs.
Middle Tennessee coach Rick Stockstill believes Dasher and Leonard are comparable quarterbacks, but thinks Arnold gives ASU an edge offensively.
?There are some similarities,? Stockstill said of the two QBs. ?Corey has already gone through what Dwight is. Every game and every practice is a learning experience for Dwight and it?s probably true for Corey, except Dwight has played in four games to Corey?s 16 or 17. Then again, the more weapons you have around you, the better it is going to make you, and Arkansas State has several weapons. When you are able to run the ball, it makes it easier for your quarterback.?
Arkansas State leads the Sun Belt in total offense and total defense. Middle Tennessee is near the bottom offensively but the Blue Raiders have a very tough defense.
MTSU is second in the Sun Belt in total defense, allowing 394 yards a game while yielding a league-low 26.4 points a game. Roberts said ASU and MTSU are almost mirror images offensively, but the Blue Raiders? defense will present a challenge unlike any team the Indians have faced.
Middle Tennessee uses a 3-man and 4-man defensive fronts, depending on the situation. The Blue Raiders don?t show many tendencies as to when they might run either and they like to blitz and overload one side of the line of scrimmage at the last second.
?The multiple looks they show concern me,? Roberts added. ?The unconventional looks concern me. There are different linebacker alignments than we typically see and they are very sound. They know where they are going and they have all their bases covered.?
Middle Tennessee isn?t the only place the Indians have struggled.
Arkansas State has proven to be a weak team when it comes to success outside Indian Stadium. The Indians are 29-37 since Roberts became head coach, including 20-6 at Indian Stadium.
But with success at home comes dismay on the road. ASU is 9-21 in games played away from its on-campus facility, including 1-3 in Little Rock, 0-1 in bowl games and 8-17 outside the state.
But Leonard said there is something particularly difficult about playing at MTSU.
?They have had our number the last couple of years,? Leonard added. ?We have just got to come out and do what we did last weekend. We?ve got to stay consistent. They are probably the best defense we have faced all year, but we have got to come out quick from the start and put some points on the board and help our defense out.?
Roberts said he understands curiosity about ASU?s road woes, especially at Middle Tennessee. He just hopes the Indians can provide a cure or at least some temporary relief today.
?It is what it is,? Roberts said of the MTSU series. ?I?m just saying that it doesn?t have any impact on this game ... It bothers me that we?ve lost four in a row to them. That bothers me ? but not that people bring it up. It?s reality. You can?t get upset at reality.?
Haunted by a past that can?t be denied, Arkansas State faces an MTSU program that has thoroughly dominated the Indians year after year.
ASU hopes to stay in the chase for the Sun Belt Conference title while ending a 4-game losing streak against the Blue Raiders when they meet this afternoon. Kickoff is 2:30 p.m. at Floyd Stadium, a site where Arkansas State has never won.
ASU coach Steve Roberts doesn?t buy that what has happened before will have an effect on the outcome today.
?There is nothing about any of the previous games that will have any impact on this game this week whatsoever,? Roberts said. ?As far as having our number, travel, or how bad they?ve done this to us or whatever in the past, (these are) two totally different football teams that will go into this competition.?
Past results indicate doom and gloom for the Indians.
Middle Tennessee owns a 7-1 edge in the series, winning the last four games by a combined score of 152-48. For Arkansas State, the worst of the losses was a 45-7 implosion in 2004. The closest was a 24-14 setback in 2003. Other outcomes include a 38-10 loss last year and a 45-17 drubbing the year before.
MTSU has averaged 38 points and 423 yards in its last four victories over ASU. Arkansas State senior free safety Khayyam Burns has been a part of three of the losses, and says the Indians are set on rectifying the situation.
?That won?t happen this weekend,? Burns said. ?We know how important this game is and what it means, which is something that is going to help us to win the Sun Belt Conference. We are focused and tuned in on what we are supposed to get done this week.?
Arkansas State (3-3 overall, 1-1 SBC) rolls into the contest off one of the best offensive showings in school history.
The Indians rolled up a school-record 681 yards in a 52-21 thrashing of Louisiana-Lafayette last week. Quarterback Corey Leonard amassed 359 yards offense, passed for five touchdowns and ran for another TD. ASU running back Reggie Arnold added a career-high 225 yards and a touchdown.
Like ASU?s win over ULL, Roberts said the Blue Raiders have played almost flawless football when the two teams have met.
?There is no specific reason,? Roberts explained. ?Unfortunately for us, Middle played their best game of the year against us in a couple of those contests. ... Sometimes that just happens.?
Leonard, who passed for 275 yards and rushed for 84 against UL Lafayette, said the Indians have played flat when they?ve faced MTSU during his first two years at Arkansas State.
Leonard was a redshirt in 2005 when the Blue Raiders won by 28 points in Murfreesboro. He started last year?s game that was 10-3 at the half before MTSU blew it open in the second half.
?I think they have come out with a little bit more intensity than we did,? Leonard said. ?It was definitely the case my freshman year when we went over there. They came out ready to play, we came out flat, and you could just tell from the start that they were just dominating the game. Last year, I think both teams came out motivated, some breaks went their way, and we kind of fell flat.?
Burns said such has been the case the whole time he?s been involved in games between Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee.
?We have just not been mentally focused, not prepared, and were not playing hard in all aspects of the game ? offensively, defensively, special teams, mentally and physically,? Burns explained. ?It was a total team breakdown in all of those past games.?
The Blue Raiders (2-5, 1-1) come in having won two of three games but can?t afford another loss in conference play. MTSU lost to Florida Atlantic in the season opener and a second league loss would put Middle Tennessee in a bind. The same can be said for ASU.
MTSU?s recent surge has been at the hands of freshman quarterback Dwight Dasher, who started the last four games. Dasher stands just 5-foot-10 but has thrown for 842 yards and six touchdowns while rushing for a team-leading 399 yards and three TDs.
Middle Tennessee coach Rick Stockstill believes Dasher and Leonard are comparable quarterbacks, but thinks Arnold gives ASU an edge offensively.
?There are some similarities,? Stockstill said of the two QBs. ?Corey has already gone through what Dwight is. Every game and every practice is a learning experience for Dwight and it?s probably true for Corey, except Dwight has played in four games to Corey?s 16 or 17. Then again, the more weapons you have around you, the better it is going to make you, and Arkansas State has several weapons. When you are able to run the ball, it makes it easier for your quarterback.?
Arkansas State leads the Sun Belt in total offense and total defense. Middle Tennessee is near the bottom offensively but the Blue Raiders have a very tough defense.
MTSU is second in the Sun Belt in total defense, allowing 394 yards a game while yielding a league-low 26.4 points a game. Roberts said ASU and MTSU are almost mirror images offensively, but the Blue Raiders? defense will present a challenge unlike any team the Indians have faced.
Middle Tennessee uses a 3-man and 4-man defensive fronts, depending on the situation. The Blue Raiders don?t show many tendencies as to when they might run either and they like to blitz and overload one side of the line of scrimmage at the last second.
?The multiple looks they show concern me,? Roberts added. ?The unconventional looks concern me. There are different linebacker alignments than we typically see and they are very sound. They know where they are going and they have all their bases covered.?
Middle Tennessee isn?t the only place the Indians have struggled.
Arkansas State has proven to be a weak team when it comes to success outside Indian Stadium. The Indians are 29-37 since Roberts became head coach, including 20-6 at Indian Stadium.
But with success at home comes dismay on the road. ASU is 9-21 in games played away from its on-campus facility, including 1-3 in Little Rock, 0-1 in bowl games and 8-17 outside the state.
But Leonard said there is something particularly difficult about playing at MTSU.
?They have had our number the last couple of years,? Leonard added. ?We have just got to come out and do what we did last weekend. We?ve got to stay consistent. They are probably the best defense we have faced all year, but we have got to come out quick from the start and put some points on the board and help our defense out.?
Roberts said he understands curiosity about ASU?s road woes, especially at Middle Tennessee. He just hopes the Indians can provide a cure or at least some temporary relief today.
?It is what it is,? Roberts said of the MTSU series. ?I?m just saying that it doesn?t have any impact on this game ... It bothers me that we?ve lost four in a row to them. That bothers me ? but not that people bring it up. It?s reality. You can?t get upset at reality.?
