JONESBORO -- Consider this confirmation.
For Arkansas State (3-1) to put a bow on its most successful start to a season in the school's past 10 years, the Red Wolves needed to defeat back-to-back non-conference Football Bowl Subdivision opponents outside of the Sun Belt Conference for the first time since the Red Wolves moved to the FBS status 26 years ago.
With No. 1 Alabama as the headliner, followed by a trip to Tulsa (1-3, 0-1 American Athletic Conference) and a home game against UNLV (2-2, 0-0 Mountain West Conference) serving as the final act, a daunting four-game nonconference schedule sat in front of the Red Wolves before their Sept. 1 season opener against Southeast Missouri State.
Four games later, Arkansas State has secured a winning regular-season record against non-conference opponents for the first time since 1995, punctuated by a 27-20 rain-soaked victory against UNLV on Saturday at Centennial Bank Stadium.
"With the exception of beating Alabama, this was as good as it could get," said Arkansas State coach Blake Anderson. "Everybody's proven it's real hard to beat Alabama. So, 3-1 was a huge goal that we set out. So, yeah, it's a big deal to all of us."
The Red Wolves had not been 3-1 to open a season since 2008. Before that, it was 1986.
"It means a lot, man," said sophomore cornerback Jerry Jacobs. "We're making history."
The setting for Arkansas State's historic third victory was far from desirable.
Rain relentlessly poured on Centennial Bank Stadium the entire game. The rainy mess, as Anderson summarized best, made for an ugly game.
"It changed everything, pretty much," Anderson said. "We felt like we had a tremendous advantage going into the game, throwing and catching. I just felt like our matchups were going to be really good. It took a lot of that out of it. We tried early when we could when the ball was dry. It never stayed dry ... That's a miserable night, offensively, to try to do what we do."
The Red Wolves still let it fly in the downpour before they were forced to ditch their game plan, which relied on Arkansas State's receivers besting UNLV's defensive backs in 1-on-1 matchups. Senior quarterback Justice Hansen then offered that Arkansas State should toss the passing game out the window.
"We tried as long as we could until Justice told us, 'I'm basically shot-putting the ball at this point.'" Anderson said. "When he did that, we had to go beyond that and kind of create a game plan on the sideline."
Arkansas State scored on a seven-play, 80-yard opening drive, which was topped off with by a 16-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Hansen to receiver receiver Justin McInnis with 12:37 left in the opening quarter.
The remainder of the first quarter wasn't as sharp for the Red Wolves, whose swift early strike was subdued once the wheels on UNLV's offense, the third-best rushing team in the nation, started to turn.
Rebels tailback Evan Owens stung Arkansas State with a 41-yard rushing touchdown on UNLV's second offensive possession. With it, momentum and field position shifted.
UNLV controlled much of the first half until Hansen and the Red Wolves torched the Rebels for their longest scoring drive of the season late in the first half.
Hansen found sophomore receiver Jonathan Adams, Jr. for a 24-yard touchdown with 6:59 remaining in the second quarter, the final piece to a 92-yard, 11-play drive. The quarterback was 19-for-27 passing with 199 yards and three touchdowns. He was not apprehensive to flick quick passes and sling slippery footballs across UNLV's secondary, as the Red Wolves planned.
The rain, however, contributed to Arkansas State's third touchdown when UNLV junior punt returner Brandon Presley muffed a 40-yard punt that the Red Wolves recovered on the Rebels' 2-yard line, one of UNLV's five total turnovers. Hansen lobbed an easy two-yard score to sophomore tight end Javonis Isaac, his second receiving TD of the season, on the ensuing play to give Arkansas State a 12-point lead before UNLV got a boost from its backfield.
The Rebels entered Saturday averaged 345.3 rushing yards per game. They rolled up 310 against ASU. UNLV traveled to Jonesboro as the country's only team with two of the nation's top 20 rushers in sophomore quarterback Armani Rogers and senior tailback Lexington Thomas.
Thomas and Rogers, who threw three interceptions and completed five passes in 21 attempts, punched the Red Wolves for two rushing TDs in the third quarter and flipped UNLV's 19-7 deficit into a 20-19 lead to begin the fourth quarter.
Rogers, a bruising 225-pounder, finished with 181 yards on the ground. Thomas had 82, well below his season average of 129 prior to Saturday.
The most significant rush of the evening, however, belonged to Arkansas State freshman Marcel Murray.
Murray breezed through UNLV's defense for a career-long 39-yard touchdown with 13:19 left in the fourth quarter, his second rushing score this season. Murray cashed in the two-point conversion to set the final margin.and handed Arkansas State's defense a 27-20 lead.
Sports on 09/24/2018