Wolves' offense ready to 'explode'

JONESBORO -- Arkansas State's passing game still needs work six games into its first season in another new offensive system.

Coach Blake Anderson expected as much when he and offensive coordinator Walt Bell brought in their offensive system this season. It's the Red Wolves' third new offense in three seasons and their fourth in five seasons.

the third consecutive season and the fourth time in five seasons.

"It's not something that comes naturally to everybody," Anderson said. "There's no substitution for repetition and to see it in one setting. It's one thing to throw it on air and with the scout team, but to see it with live bodies flying around, there's really no way to get around that."

What will help ASU (4-2, 2-0 Sun Belt Conference) heading into Tuesday night's showdown at Sun Belt favorite Louisiana-Lafayette (3-3, 2-0) is that an element required for a quality passing game finally raised its head during last week's 52-10 victory at Georgia State.

Receiver Dijon Paschal caught two first-quarter passes against the Panthers, but one went for 41 yards and another covered 48. The 48-yarder on a first-quarter post route is ASU's longest pass play of the season, and the 41-yarder on a go route on the first drive is one of six that have covered at least 40 yards this season.

Three of those 40-yard passes have been caught by Paschal, whose catches last week provided ASU with something that Anderson identifies as essential to victory. The coach calls them "explosive plays" and defines that as any pass play longer than 15 yards or any run play longer than 12. He also counts them as important as turnover margin.

ASU had 12 such plays -- nine rushes and three passes -- against Georgia State, which had five. Anderson said he's counted those margins for each game he's coached over the past 16 years. Games in which his team has had more explosive plays and fewer turnovers were "99 percent wins."

"That's games where we've had 10 penalties and we were 30 percent on third down, but we've won the turnover battle and the explosive play battle," Anderson said.

Paschal said a desire for big plays is brought up daily.

"Every meeting we talk about that," Paschal said. "We've been pushing the issue of going deep, being more of a deep threat."

The return of running back Michael Gordon has provided ASU with plenty of big running plays. Gordon had two rushes of more than 50 yards against Georgia State and is averaging more than 9 yards per carry. Paschal, Anderson said, might be the best candidate to stretch the field in the passing game.

The redshirt freshman won a starting job coming out of fall camp but was limited to six catches through the first four games. He caught the game-winner in overtime against Utah State, then caught 5 passes for 82 yards in a victory over Louisiana-Monroe before taking a hit to the head that forced him to miss part of that game.

His play Saturday showed a corner might have been turned in his still-young career.

"Explosive plays," said quarterback Fredi Knighten when asked what Paschal provides for the offense. "As long as we win the explosive play battle and the turnover battle, we have a chance to win."

Knighten's continued development as a passer also helps. The junior had his best game against Georgia State, completing 20 of 26 passes for 215 yards and 3 touchdowns without an interception. For the season he's completed 61.6 percent of his passes for 7 touchdowns with 3 interceptions, and he's sixth in the Sun Belt with an average of 215.2 passing yards per game.

ASU ranks sixth in the Sun Belt in pass offense (233.0 yards per game), and its eight passing touchdowns are tied for eighth.

Bell said he'd like to see Knighten complete around 70 percent of his passes and find opportunities for more big pass plays. ASU's 14 pass plays of more than 20 yards rank 95th nationally, according to cfbstats.com.

"I think that will really make us dynamic, because we have not mastered the forward pass right now," Bell said. "We got to continue to get better at that."

Sports on 10/16/2014