JONESBORO — Perhaps nobody took what happened a week-and-a-half ago in Lafayette, La., harder than Joe Cauthen.
ASU’s first-year defensive coordinator had taken a defense stocked with returning starters but short on depth and turned it into one of the best in the Sun Belt Conference through the first eight weeks of the season. Then ASU played at Louisiana-Lafayette on Oct. 21.
The Red Wolves gave up 419 yards rushing — and 521 total yards — in a 55-40 loss to the Ragin’ Cajuns, which put ASU in catch-up mode in the race for the Sun Belt Conference title.
“Embarrassing,” Cauthen said Monday, when he admitted that he’d watched the game video at least four times since.
After a few more days of reflection, Cauthen’s feelings hadn’t changed.
“I take a lot of ownership in what I do and what I’m a part of and what my name is a part of,” Cauthen said Wednesday. “I’m responsible for that. I’ve just got to make sure I do a better job in the future.”
The next chance for ASU (4-3, 2-1) comes today when it travels to Idaho (1-6, 1-4) for the first time since 2002 for a game that will provide a different challenge but is just as important.
The Red Wolves’ quest for a share of a fourth consecutive conference title took a hit with the loss to the Ragin’ Cajuns. Even if ASU wins its final five games, it needs Louisiana-Lafayette and Georgia Southern to each lose once to force a tie.
A more realistic scenario is that ASU needs two victories to become bowl eligible.
More importantly now for Coach Blake Anderson is seeing a better performance from a defense that was pushed around more by Louisiana-Lafayette than it had been all season, including September losses to Tennessee and Miami. Anderson insists he isn’t panicking and expressed confidence in a defense that has played six solid games and one poor one.
“I think you’ve got to look at the collective body of work,” Anderson said. “I think [Oct. 21] was a perfect storm. They had a night doing what they do well, and we didn’t particularly play at our best and the two schemes kind of made it look worse than it was.”
Middle linebacker Qushaun Lee has added a tender ankle to his ongoing rib injury but insisted that he’ll be fine to help get the ASU defense back on track. Lee will lead ASU against an Idaho offense that is one of the best passing teams in the Sun Belt behind freshman quarterback Matt Linehan, a 61.8 percent passer who has thrown for 1,889 yards with 9 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
Linehan left an Oct. 18 victory over New Mexico State, which ended a 13-game losing streak, after taking a shot to the head. Coach Paul Petrino said Linehan and backup Chad Chalilch could play.
“I think he’s a really good young football player who is just going to get better and better,” Petrino said of Linehan. “Definitely, he’ll be one of the stars of the league for years to come.”
ASU coaches complimented Linehan — the son of Dallas Cowboys passing game coordinator Scott Linehan — this week, but Lee said ASU’s mentality matters more than anything else.
“We had a let-up, but it’s not going to stop what we had going,” Lee said. “I think it was for the good, because a lot of guys came back to reality. We have to get back to playing faster and how we were at the beginning of the season.”
Cauthen said Monday he was considering personnel changes in the secondary, which he said missed too many tackles against Louisiana-Lafayette. The only change Cauthen acknowledged after Wednesday’s practice was moving safety Sterling Wright to nickelback, where Frankie Jackson has started the past three games.
“You got to do what you got to do to win,” Cauthen said. “If you feel like you’re in a better situation with somebody else or somebody is not getting the job done, then you look at somebody else.
“Shoot, man, in this business. You’ve got to win every freaking week.”
Arkansas State
(4-3, 2-1 SBC)
DATE OPPONENT (TV) TIME
Aug. 30 Montana State W, 37-10 Sept. 6 at Tennessee L, 34-19 Sept. 13 at Miami L, 41-20 Sept. 20 Utah State W, 21-14 (OT) Oct. 4 La.-Monroe W, 28-14 Oct. 11 at Georgia State W, 52-10 Oct. 21 at La.-Lafayette L, 55-40 Nov. 1 at Idaho 4 p.m. Nov. 8 South Alabama 2 p.m. Nov. 15 Appalachian State 2 p.m. Nov. 20 at Texas State 8:30 p.m. Nov. 29 New Mexico State 2 p.m.
*Sun Belt game