JONESBORO -- Arkansas State University defensive coordinator David Duggan was dealt plenty of obstacles in his first season in Jonesboro.
Losing multiple starters and key reserves hindered a defense that, on paper heading into the season, had plenty of returning talent.
Injuries began in Week 3 against Georgia, when junior cornerback Jerry Jacobs tore his ACL. In October, the corner position further depleted with junior Demari Medley's dismissal and sophomore Nathan Page's suspension due to an arrest.
ASU also watched its defensive tackle position take blow after blow, losing junior Forrest Merrill, senior Tony Adams, sophomore Hunter Moreton and sophomore Thomas Toki to season-ending injuries during the year. Senior Kevin Thurmon even missed two games with a broken hand. Merrill, however, has a chance to be ready for the Camellia Bowl, ASU Coach Blake Anderson said Friday.
It was the repeated injuries to the interior defensive line that ultimately forced Duggan's hand midseason, switching from a four-man to a three-man front.
ASU simply no longer had the personnel to play with four down linemen and still be effective. Multiple defensive position coaches also changed responsibilities, something unheard of midseason.
"It's been challenging," Duggan said Friday. "You tell the guys it's next guy up. It's the challenge of it. I enjoy the challenge of needing to do something to obviously change the dynamics of our football team. But it's no fun to not be doing as well as you would like to do."
There were signs of an improved defense during the second half of the season in winning performances against Texas State and Coastal Carolina, and even in a loss to Louisiana-Lafayette. But against Louisiana-Monroe, Georgia Southern and South Alabama, the unit continuously got exposed.
South Alabama, in particular, had statistically the Sun Belt's worst offense before tallying 495 yards and 34 points on ASU.
ASU (7-5) is alarmingly ranked 127th nationally -- out of 130 teams -- in total defense (481.2 yards per game) and 117th in scoring defense (34.8 points per game).
During its previous five seasons under former defensive coordinator Joe Cauthen -- who left in January to join Dana Holgorsen's staff at the University of Houston -- ASU finished 45th, 54th, 29th, 89th and 85th in total defense, while finishing 54th, 59th, 19th, 86th and 93rd in scoring defense.
When asked recently about his defensive concerns heading into the offseason, Anderson said, "I think we got to improve in every area. I wouldn't put it all on defense."
While that may be true, it's hard to knock an offense that finished tied for 31st nationally -- coincidentally with Hugh Freeze's Liberty team -- in scoring (33.7 points per game) and 44th in total offense (432.2 yards per game), despite playing the final eight games with a redshirt freshman backup quarterback.
That offense also produced the Sun Belt's player of the year in senior receiver Omar Bayless and freshman of the year in quarterback Layne Hatcher.
Duggan said Friday there will be plenty of time spent in the offseason for evaluation, including weighing the four-man and three-man front schemes for next season. Duggan called it "an important offseason for the players and the coaches."
"I wish we could have played better at times [this season]," Duggan said. "This has been a really good group and yet they fought through a lot of adversity and they deserved better. But the situation didn't present itself that way ... and I wish we could have produced better for this group because they were a mature group. They did everything we asked of them. We just didn't get the results we were looking for."
For now, though, ASU's defense can still salvage a final positive result with a good showing Saturday against Florida International (6-6) in the Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Ala.
After the way they closed the regular season at South Alabama, Duggan believes his group is "looking to prove something."
"Any time you don't play well your last chance, you want another opportunity to get the bad taste out of your mouth," Duggan said. "I think this team has the right attitude. They got the right mindset. They understand that we didn't play well [in the] last game."
Sports on 12/16/2019