JONESBORO -- This much was made clear Friday night -- Arkansas State's long-running quarterback questions are far from answered, and the Toledo Rockets seem right at home no matter who they play in the state of Arkansas.
Chad Voytik emerged from a month-long competition to start in ASU's season opener against Toledo, but he was largely ineffective in a 31-10 season-opening loss. Justice Hansen got the snaps that coaches promised, but only three in the second quarter before Voytik played the rest of the game.
Neither quarterback established any rhythm, and the Red Wolves were held to 266 yards and were forced to punt on seven of their 12 drives. Two other times, they turned the ball over on downs.
"Nothing was by design," Coach Blake Anderson said. "It was searching for answers, and we didn't find very many."
The victory by Toledo was its second inside the state of Arkansas in less than a year. The Rockets defeated the University of Arkansas 16-12 last Sept. 12 at Little Rock's War Memorial Stadium.
ASU's 10 points and 266 offensive yards were their lowest in both categories since last year's 37-7 loss at Toledo.
The Red Wolves (0-1) have this week to figure out a quarterback plan heading into Auburn on Saturday night. Anderson said he'll watch film and discuss things with offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner before deciding where ASU goes next, but clarity at quarterback appears far off.
"Right now nobody is consistent enough to hang your hat on," he said. "I'd like to think that the more reps they get the more comfortable they're going to get. I don't know what the learning curve is going to be. I hope it's shorter [rather] than longer, but tonight was a pretty stark indication that we've got a lot of work to do."
The newness of both quarterbacks to the program is part of why coaches preached a rotation all week.
Voytik, a graduate transfer from Pittsburgh who got to ASU this summer, completed 11 of 24 passes for 124 yards and rushed 18 times for 38 yards. Hansen, from Butler County (Kan.) Community College, entered on ASU's fourth series with 11:51 left in the second quarter and a 3-0 lead.
From ASU's own 20, Hansen handed off to Warren Wand for no gain, threw an incomplete pass to Cameron Echols-Luper and then dropped a snap on third down and fell on it for a 6-yard loss. Voytik took every remaining snap.
Anderson said Faulkner may have decided against a rotation based on Hansen's reaction to that drive.
"To me, those are judgments you make at the time based off how things are going," Anderson said. "Whether he felt like he was a little rattled -- I don't know. You'd have to ask Buster. But the plan originally was to continue to kind of rotate in and out, and nothing was going well. So, you're looking for any kind of spark at that point."
Voytik was starting a game for the first time since the 2014 season at Pittsburgh, but he said the layoff didn't affect his play. He was "more calm" than in any other game, he said, and indicated that the first game under a first-year coordinator with a handful of new pieces on offense added a degree of difficulty.
"I think we're just going to have a better idea from now on, and we're going to be comfortable with the game plan and comfortable with what they're doing, and there's going to be less unknown," Voytik said.
Voytik could start against Auburn, but Anderson left open the possibility of Hansen seeing more time.
"We're going to keep searching until we find the right mixture," Anderson said. "And I don't think that's just at quarterback. We really have got to find the right mixture across the board.".
Sports on 09/04/2016