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Weekly UpdatesEven a typically cautious veteran coach like Arkansas State's Steve Roberts can't hide a hint of optimism about the upcoming season with what his Red Wolves return.
Let's start with a quarterback entering his fourth year as starter, and a tailback who seeks to join rare company with his fourth-straight 1,000-yard rushing year. There's a defense that is unusually strong, as college defenses go these days, in the front line and experienced along the edges, with one of the best defensive ends in college football. Roberts also has the confidence knowing he has one of the most consistent kickers in college football from 40 yards in.
Admittedly, that might not be enough for A-State to march into the home stadium of a Bowl Championship Series team and come away with an upset like it did last year at Texas A&M--and the Red Wolves face difficult tests at Nebraska, Iowa and Louisville. But to compete week-in and week-out in the Sun Belt Conference, where balance exists from top to bottom, Roberts seems to like how the Red Wolves are outfitted this season.
It particularly makes him smile knowing he has a well-versed quarterback in charge.
"No doubt that when you have a returning player at quarterback it certainly makes for a better projection of how your team is going to perform," Roberts said "Corey has had two-and-a-half good years for us starting and he's coming off maybe his best spring since he's been here. Hopefully that will carry over in the fall. But you start with him."
Roberts said that Leonard, who has always been a diligent worker, played fast and showed more confidence in his reads and recognition of defenses during the spring, threw well and, most importantly, took care of the football.
Leonard concurred with his coach's assessment of the spring.
"I'm a fifth-year guy, and it should be my best spring," said Leonard, who graduated before last season started and is working on an M.B.A. "I don't have questions with the offense I'm running, with the scheme. It's just getting out there and playing my position."
ASU has been on the verge of a conference title and more than six wins in each of Leonard's four seasons after arriving and redshirting in 2005, when the Red Wolves last won the Sun Belt.
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"This is the best team I've been a part of, so there is no mistaking that your quarterback is only going to be as good as your team is," said the 6-foot-1, 210-pound native of Covington, La. "We've got veterans who have been around a long time. We went into spring without a lot of questions. We don't have many holes we need to fill. We know who are in our starting positions and who are our backups."
Leonard spent last season focused on cutting down his interceptions and trying not to force throws into coverage, and he cut his errors in half--ASU, in fact, led the Sun Belt in turnover margin partly because of Leonard's improvement.
This year, Leonard is looking at increasing his completion percentage, and the ASU offensive coaches have stressed that he take what's given, even if it's a short-yardage toss instead of trying for the lower-percentage play.
"I can make the big plays, that's never been a problem in my game, whether I'm running or throwing," Leonard said. "It's the small plays that I have to make, keeping our offense moving and being more consistent play-in and play-out and not trying to force things."
On paper, ASU seems back where it was last summer, trying to find linemen to fill some glaring holes. But Roberts, Leonard and Reggie Arnold all say that across the line the Red Wolves should be fine. Kiano Prater gets a thumbs-up from his teammates for the way he's stepped into the spot vacated by four-time all-conference left tackle Matt Mandich. "He's not one of those fat guys who plays tackle. He's one of those slimmer guys and moves really well for a left tackle," Leonard said. "There are some big, tough guys up there. This will be one of the bigger offensive lines we've had since I've been here."
Starting guards Drew Hilton and Dominic Padrta return.
The talents of Arnold and backup tailback Derek Lawson (more than 700 yards as a freshman in 2008, including 200-plus against Texas Southern) will take much of the attention off ASU's quarterback.
On defense, ASU needs only to find starters at one line spot, the middle linebacker position and at one defensive back. Carrington gives the Red Wolves a stout bookend on the line, and Roberts feels he has the other side filled with Stanley Wakwe. In between are returnees Brian Hall, whom Roberts says has all-conference potential, and Khari Mays. Rare among mid-major programs is the amount of depth found in ASU's defensive line, but it starts with Carrington (6-5, 280), who "can be a dominant player in college football," Roberts said, with his combination of size, strength and speed. Carrington ran a 4.71 in the 40-yard dash for pro scouts in the spring.
Roberts seemed excited about the level of competition for playing time at linebacker too, and Mike Adams' spring work in the middle has allowed Greg Hardy to move to weakside linebacker.
For the Red Wolves, it's a matter of surviving the two guarantee road games against big-time programs--this year, it's Nebraska and Iowa--that help fund the athletic program, plus a road test at Louisville, so ASU can handle its eight-game Sun Belt slate.
RELATED ARTICLE: Arauco's leg gives ASU confidence.
By Jim Harris
It takes untold pressure off an offense when those players know a field goal is a sure thing in the red zone.
For Arkansas State, 3 points was almost a sure thing last year from 40 yards on in. Josh Arauco had a streak of 15 straight field goals last season before finally missing. For his three-year college career, the Grand Prairie, Texas, native has hit 44 of 59 attempts.
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Last year, Arauco was invited to Orlando, Fla., for the Lou Groza Award presentation as one of the three finalists.
Arauco's trick, according to ASU head coach Steve Roberts, is putting the practice time in all year. "He's the hardest working kicker that I've been around in my life," the coach said. "From 40 yards in, I have a great deal of confidence in his ability."
Arauco spent the offseason and summer in Jonesboro leading into this season, trying to add more leg strength. His goal in 2009 is to be more effective from the 50-yard range.
"A major part of my success last season was building confidence in myself and getting my leg strength up so I could kick field goals of decent-enough length ... but I pride accuracy over leg strength any day. I will do accuracy drills over strengthening exercises."
Off-season running, he said, is his most important work for increasing his leg speed, and he naturally expects being a year older to play in to additional leg strength.
"I'm just doing what John Arcey, our strength and conditioning coach, wants. The major part of my focus last summer was to continue to make myself a weapon for this team. I didn't' reach my goal last summer distance wise, but I'm getting there."
Arauco confidently told a reporter last year that he would go 100 percent from 40 yards in, and came close to hitting that mark. After the season came the call from the Lou Groza Award folks for an all-expense paid trip to Florida.
"Actually, I had no idea about that award. I didn't know there was a place-kicking award, so it definitely was a surprise," he said of the trip that had him sharing stage time with quarterbacks Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford during ESPN's coverage.
Arauco said he didn't start regularly kicking a football until seventh grade, following in the footsteps of a cousin, though he had first experienced kicking during a Punt, Pass and Kick competition four years earlier.
"I really liked it. I thought it was challenging to see how far I could kick it," he said.
So, by the time he was a high school sophomore, soccer no longer had his attention. Only football did. His high school teara stuck him at kicker, and he stuck.
"Like I tell people now, that's all I'm trained to do."
Arauco walked on at ASU and, after the 2006 season was awarded a scholarship. He's already completed his degree work in criminology and is working on a second major. With his love for the outdoors, Arauco says working as game warden might be in his post-football future.
At the awards night in Orlando, Arauco kept having to tell people where Arkansas State was.
"I got a lot of Razorback questions," he said. "I told them, 'No, we're not them. We're the Red Wolves.'"
RELATED ARTICLE: Schedule flips
Arkansas State's 2009 schedule can be divided into three separate seasons.
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There are the annual two guarantee road games against college football powerhouses, this year at Nebraska and Iowa, that fill ASU's athletic coffers with much needed income. Like most mid-major teams, ASU is expected to play the role of hapless visitor taking a check and a beating, though Texas A&M found out last year in an 18-14 opening game shocker that ASU plays for keeps on the scoreboard as well as for the money.
Those two tough road games against BCS powers grew to three during this offseason, though, with the addition of Louisville to the slate. The Big East Cardinals will return the game in Jonesboro next season.
Then, there are the handful of small fries that A-State lines up for its hoped-for guaranteed wins, starting with the Sept. 5 opener against weak Mississippi Valley State of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
That leaves what will be the most important games on the schedule--those in the Sun Belt Conference. And, after finishing last season on the road at Troy with the conference title and guaranteed bowl bid on the line, only to get whipped, ASU this season will square off with its Sun Belt rival on Sept. 26 in Jonesboro, sandwiching an open date with a Sept. 12 trip to Big 12 Nebraska. The trip to Big Ten Iowa follows on Oct. 3.
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