JONESBORO — Arkansas State gets a rare challenge Saturday.
The Red Wolves (1-3) host Louisville (1-2) of the Big East Conference. It will be the first Bowl Championship Series program to play in Jonesboro since Ole Miss defeated ASU on its home field in 2001.
ASU lost at Louisville 21-13 last year.
“We have a big challenge ahead of us,” Arkansas State Coach Steve Roberts said during his Wednesday morning news conference. “This couldbe the best nonconference opponent we’ve had in Jonesboro. They are a very talented team, and we got a chance to see that last year.”
Most teams usually stay away from hosting bigger opponents on homecoming, but ASU is using the opportunity to have a larger-than-average crowd at home against a team that played in a BCS bowl just four seasons ago. The Cardinals defeated Wake Forest 24-13 in the 2007 Orange Bowl.
“Normally you don’t pick these type of opponents for homecoming,” Roberts said. “But it will be a tremendous atmosphere here in Jonesboroon Saturday night. There is going to be some big time college football played here. They will be surprised by our environment. They will see we do have tremendous fan support. Hopefully we show up and play for them.”
Roberts said one of the main focuses this week will be keeping the players in the right state of mind and focused with all of the extra activities going on around campus during homecoming week.
“Our concern is our homecoming event Saturday night,” Roberts said. “We certainly want them to be student-athletes and take part in the eventsgoing on but our main concern is Saturday night.”
From a coaching perspective, Roberts said hosting a BCS school is no different to him than preparing for any game. But he did add that his players may have a different energy hosting the Cardinals this week.
“They understand the challenge ahead of them, but we want them to understand the challenge each week,” Roberts said. “They have been preparing like any other game.”
Preparation and focus have been key for the Red Wolves following Saturday’s gut-wrenching 35-28 Sun BeltConference loss at Troy.
ASU took a 28-27 lead over the Trojans with 50 seconds remaining on Allen Muse’s 30-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Aplin. But Troy quickly answered on a touchdown pass with 22 seconds left to claim the victory.
“I’m excited about our football team and the way we have prepared up to this point,” Roberts said. “We suffered a heartbreaking loss and didn’t get back into Jonesboro until around 4 a.m. Sunday morning. But our kids were ready to roll and turn our focus to the game this weekend by 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.”
Roberts said his team needs to play a complete game against Louisville - as it did in its home conference victory against Louisiana-Monroe - and avoid falling behind early as it did in conference losses at Louisiana-Lafayette and Troy.
“We’ve shown them how successful we can be on both sides of the football by being consistent,” Roberts said. “But we’ve also shown them what can happen when you don’t play good football, and that is something we want to try and avoid come Saturday.”
Saturday’s kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. at ASU Stadium.
Sports, Pages 23 on 09/30/2010