ARKANSAS STATE SPRING FOOTBALL GAME

ASU SPRING FOOTBALL GAME PREVIEW: Oft-injured senior RB hungry

Arkansas State senior running back Armond Weh-Weh’s playing time has been severely limited by injuries, carrying the ball twice in the 2017 season and playing in just two games in 2016.
Arkansas State senior running back Armond Weh-Weh’s playing time has been severely limited by injuries, carrying the ball twice in the 2017 season and playing in just two games in 2016.

At the start of the new year, Armond Weh-Weh didn’t know whether he’d play football again.

Arkansas State University’s senior running back hadn’t yet heard back about the NCAA waiver he submitted in November, when Red Wolves Coach Blake Anderson said Weh-Weh would not return after attempting to play through a left ankle injury he suffered during preseason practice when his foot got rolled up during a tackle.

Weh-Weh, 6-0, 225 pounds, carried the ball twice in two games during the 2017 season, and he played two games in 2016 before he suffered an ACL injury in his right knee in a 51-14 loss at Auburn.

Those games made up Weh-Weh’s Red Wolves career, which began after he transferred from Scottsdale (Ariz.) Community College after spending his redshirt season at Texas Tech.

The NCAA granted Weh-Weh an injury waiver in January, and he will continue his extra season in ASU’s spring game at 3 p.m. today at Centennial Bank Stadium in Jonesboro.

“It was pretty tough,” Weh-Weh said. “I was thinking, ‘This is really what I’ve been playing for since high school: A [Division I] opportunity.’ You get hurt not only physically, but mentally. It’s made me stronger.”

Without Weh-Weh, the Red Wolves lacked a powerful option in its backfield last season. No running back weighed over 200 pounds — 5-5, 191-pound senior Warren Wand led the team with 715 rushing yards — which contributed to ASU’s red-zone struggles.

The Red Wolves f inished the season with the eighth-lowest red-zone scoring percentage (71.9) in the Football Bowl Subdivision, and their 17 rushing touchdowns ranked seventh in the Sun Belt Conference.

“We haven’t had that 225-pound guy,” Anderson said. “We were fairly small, light at the position. It’s dynamic to bring a 225-pound body that plays at a high level. It changes the face of who we are.”

Weh-Weh could be the feature back in today’s scrimmage, Anderson said, since Wand and junior Jamal Jones have both been day to day with ankle injuries and are questionable for the spring game.

“Right now, I’ve been getting a lot of reps, and it’s helped me out a lot getting back into it,” said Weh-Weh, who earned a bachelor’s degree in sports management in December and is working on a masters in the same field. “Really, I just want to help the team as much as I can. My goal was to stay healthy and get on the field.”

Weh-Weh and freshman walk-on Alex Roberts are the only true running backs healthy, and East Mississippi Community College transfer Kirk Merritt has split time between his main position, wide receiver, and running back to make up the gap.

Merritt — who was dismissed from the Texas A&M football team last April — pleaded no contest to two charges of indecent exposure Aug. 21 and received two years of community supervision, a $500 fine and 40 hours of community service, according to court documents from Brazos County (Texas) judicial records.

He began his playing career at Oregon, transferred to Texas A&M, then East Mississippi, where he caught 52 passes for 628 yards and 4 touchdowns as the Lions won the junior-college national title with a 31-28 victory over Arizona Western.

Anderson said using the 6-0, 210-pound Merritt as a running back was “always something we wanted to do.”

“The goal was to make him a dual-purpose guy,” Anderson said. “As soon as he could really grasp the wideout role, we wanted to blend him into the running back role. Hoping to do it just as a luxury — two or three snaps here or there. With the injuries to Jamal and Warren, it’s been something we had to do.”

“He’s been effective. Really has had quality runs, some of the most explosive runs for us.”

Anderson said that senior defensive end Griffin Riggs (lower back), junior offensive guards Troy Elliott and Dalton Ford (“offseason injuries”), senior defensive end Jarrod Chandler (hip), and sophomore defensive tackle Hunter Moreton (foot) will likely miss today’s spring game.

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