ARKANSAS STATE FOOTBALL

Cauthen sees positives with DL

JONESBORO - When Joe Cauthen took the job as Arkansas State’s defensive coordinator in December, his eyes lit up when he discovered the credentials of the Red Wolves’ returning linebackers and defensive backs.

The group includes 10 players with starting experience for seven spots at linebacker and defensive back. Safety Sterling Young has 33 career starts, cornerback Rocky Hayes broke up 10 passes last year and linebacker Qushaun Lee was named first-team all-Sun Belt Conference a year ago.

“I’m really excited about all those guys, because there are several of them that can play,” Cauthen said Friday night after ASU’s spring game at Centennial Bank Stadium. “I think that’s the strength of our defense.”

If it didn’t take Cauthen long to gauge his defense’s strengths, he learned the weakness just as quickly: A defensive line full of glaring holes left by departures and a recruiting strategies by previous staffs that neglected the position.

ASU returns one starter from the defensive line, junior end Chris Stone. The others who played with the first team Friday night are tackles Darrius Rosser (eight tackles in 2013) and Clifford Thomas, who has yet to play in a game, and end Jabari Mathieu (one tackle). Senior tackle Dexter Blackmon returns, but he missed all spring with an injury. Freshman Ja’Von Jones, who missed last season with an injury, has also turned heads.

The depth issue took shape after the departures of Ryan Carrethers, Amos Draper and Eddie Porter, all of whom exhausted their eligibility last year, and the off season shooting death of tackle Markel Owens.

Previous recruiting strategies that focused on largely on junior-college linemen have left ASU without much in reserve. Of the 12 defensive linemen who signed with ASU in 2011-2013, six were junior college transfers. Three have already completed their carriers and five never made it to campus. Of the five who are still on the team, three signed in 2013.

When asked Friday night if the lack of depth was his biggest challenge this spring, Cauthen laughed, saying he tried to keep his mind more focused on what was coming rather than what’s there currently. Because of the thin group, ASU signed seven defensive linemen in Coach Blake Anderson’s first class in February, all of whom are going to get a chance to play when they arrive on campus in June.

But Cauthen had to plug some holes this spring and rely on Stone, the elder statesman of the group, to pass along a bit of wisdom.

Stone, who had 47 tackles and three sacks in 2013, said he remembers a few practices early in the spring when the defensive line struggled to substitute correctly. Cauthen said there were only two such instances Friday.

“We’ve come a long way,”Stone said. “I just try to work with the guys, being that I consider myself the leader on the defensive line. I feel like we made improvements, and I will continue to help them throughout the summer.

ASU was forced to move two players from the offense to the defense - tight end Jonah Hill and guard Robert Maxwell. Both redshirt freshmen will likely stay there, and Hill might have played his way into a role next fall no matter how well the incoming freshmen emerge.

Hill, a 6-3, 241, from Springfield, Mo., moved to defensive end at the beginning of spring at the suggestion of Anderson. Both Cauthen and Stone, who also was recruited as a tight end before moving to defense as a freshman, independently mentioned Hill as a player who impressed this spring.

“To be honest with you, I didn’t even know who he was,” Cauthen said. “Then he moved over, and I’m really excited about him. I really am. I think he’s got a chance to be very close to Chris Stone.”

Sports, Pages 33 on 04/20/2014

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