JONESBORO — Arkansas State got two key players back from injury over the recent bye week and expect to get a third before playing Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday.
The return of senior left tackle Jemar Clark from an ankle injury, receiver Chris Murray from a collarbone injury and the expected return of senior left guard Colton Jackson from a concussion has ASU as healthy as it has been in a few weeks entering Saturday’s game, which kicks off a stretch of four games in 20 days.
Offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner said Monday he could tell the difference in Sunday night’s practice, when Clark returned after taking the bye week off and Murray played for the first time since suffering a collarbone injury early in the Oct. 5 victory over Georgia Southern.
“We looked fresh, fast and ready to go down the stretch,” Faulkner said.
Clark is returning from an ankle injury that he played through in a victory over South Alabama. Coach Blake Anderson said Clark likely should have come out of the game, but he never did in the 17-7 victory.
Murray has caught 7 passes this year for 157 yards. Quarterback Justice Hansen, who left late in the South Alabama game with a thigh bruise, is also not limited, Anderson said.
Jackson, Anderson said, is still going through a five-day concussion protocol. He could return to practice Wednesday or Thursday. If he does not return, true freshman Troy Elliot will earn his second start.
“We’ll have an approach with him and, obviously, without him,” Anderson said of Jackson, whose string of 44 consecutive starts was snapped two weeks ago.
ASU’s game Saturday will be its third in a 35-day span, and will start a string of four in 20 days. After this week, ASU plays at Georgia State on Nov. 3, hosts New Mexico State on Nov. 12 and plays at Troy on Nov. 17, a stretch that will likely decide whether ASU stays in the Sun Belt Conference race.
“It’s a lot of football in a short period of time,” Anderson said. “For us, it’s like a playoff, every game is really important.”
Other notes from Monday’s news conference:
— Senior quarterback Chad Voytik lost his starting spot in the third game of the season at Utah State, but he’s not out of the game plan. Voytik hasn’t thrown a pass since that game, but in last week’s victory over South Alabama, he rushed 3 times for 6 yards, including a 9-yarder on a third down play. Offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner said he'll continue to be a part of the plan, and might even line up at running back.
"He can definitely do it," Faulkner said. "It's a thought we've bounced around, and you may see it down the road."
— Louisiana-Monroe is 2-5 overall and 1-2 in the Sun Belt Conference in Coach Matt Viator’s first season, but it has played close games against Sun Belt foes. The Warhawks beat Texas State 40-34, lost to Georgia Southern 23-21, and Idaho 34-31.
“They’re waiting to get that first one, we don’t want to be that first one,” Anderson said. “We don’t want to be that game they get working in the right direction, we want that to be somebody else.”
— Cameron Echols-Luper has not returned a punt since his fumble in the third quarter of an Oct. 5 victory over Georgia Southern. Anderson said coaches have not ruled Echols-Luper out of returning punts again, but that Blaise Taylor’s consistency has led coaches to use him instead.
“He’s more dynamic, probably, than Blaise, but Blaise has been the most sure-handed,” Anderson said. “And so it comes down to the same thing — do we feel comfortable putting him back there? He’s obviously fast and dynamic, but ball security is the most important thing.”
Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.