NEW ORLEANS — When Fredi Knighten was a sophomore in high school, he almost quit football altogether.
Critics said he could never play quarterback because of his modest height, small hands and a perceived inability to throw a football.
In the books
Arkansas State senior quarterback Fredi Knighten (above) will start his 23rd career game for Arkansas State in Saturday’s New Orleans Bowl. He’ll end his career in the top five of most passing and total offense categories, despite not playing much his first two seasons.
STATISTIC 2012 2013 2014 2015 TOTAL RANK
Total offense 140 550 4,056 2,059 6,814 4th
Rushing yards 96 344 779 361 1,580 —
Passing yards 44 215 3,277 1,698 5,234 5th
Rushing TDs 0 5 11 4 20 —
Passing TDs 1 2 24 19 46 4th
Completions 3 34 269 122 428 4th
Completion pct. 60.0 70.8 62.3 54.7 60.5 2nd
NOTE Knighten can tie Corey Leonard for third all-time with one passing touchdown on Saturday, and can tie Cleo Lemon for second with two passing touchdowns.
Two years later, after putting together one of the most statistically impressive seasons by an Arkansas high school quarterback at Pulaski Academy, he almost quit football again.
This time, it was college recruiters questioning his height and doubting his arm. On the day he led Pulaski Academy to the 2011 Class 4A state title, only one FBS team had offered him a scholarship.
Even at ASU, Knighten’s career was at a crossroads after two years. He didn’t pledge to quit then, but considered transferring from ASU to find an offense that better fit his abilities.
But here Knighten is now, three days from his final game as ASU’s starting quarterback, still in the game and at the position he’s always played.
He started out as an intriguing prospect, became an athlete who couldn’t get on the field, turned into the most dynamic player in the Sun Belt Conference, and now, finally, a consistent distributor for one of ASU’s best seasons.
Knighten, 5-11, still hears doubts about his arm, from his own fans, even. But this much can be said as Knighten prepares for his final game in Saturday’s New Orleans Bowl against Louisiana Tech: He proved his point.
“I came in, I won, and not a lot of people can say that,” Knighten said. “People can have all the stats in the world, and not have a ring, and then I say ‘I wish I had a ring.’ Now, I’ve got the ring.”
That’s not to say Knighten didn’t pile up yards, too, when given the chance.
He’ll leave ASU in the top five of most career passing categories even despite starting only 22 games.
His 6,814 yards of total offense rank fourth, as do his 46 passing touchdowns and his 5,234 passing yards rank fifth.
Those numbers could have been better, too, if not for a pulled hamstring that cost him 3 1/2 games this season. Knighten said now he doesn’t care too much about the missing stats. He also could have had another year to add to them if he redshirted as a freshman under then-Coach Gus Malzahn instead of playing 54 plays in which he gained 140 yards.
“I really wish we could have that kid for another year,” offensive coordinator Walt Bell said. “Because he’s really starting to be a special player.”
Knighten said he doesn’t regret playing as a freshman. He doesn’t wish any of it had gone different, really.
“It challenged me mentally, emotionally, physically,” he said. “You know, it’s been up and down, but I don’t think I’d want it any other way.”
His father, Reginald, a middle school administrator in Little Rock, has witnessed his son’s struggles to disprove doubters firsthand.
Reginald recalled a story from when Fredi was about 4 years old. Reginald and an older son were moving cinder blocks in the back yard of their Little Rock home. Fredi wanted to help, but his father told him he was too small, so he began to cry.
“I said ‘All right, well go get it,’ ” Reginald said. “And then he picked up two cinder blocks and moved them. He’s just always been a competitor.”
Knighten has been disproving doubters ever since.
He played everywhere but quarterback as a sophomore at Pulaski Academy in 2009, then emerged from a three-man race to win the job early in his junior year. By the time he was a senior, he was helping the Bruins to a 14-0 state title season while passing for 4,562 yards, ninth-most in state history.
Still, Knighten didn’t hear much from colleges. He had fielded phone calls from then-ASU Coach Hugh Freeze, but didn’t get an offer. His only standing FBS offer then was from Louisiana Tech, ASU’s bowl opponent Saturday.
Knighten took a visit there for a spring game as a junior — his maternal grandparents live in Ruston, La., where Louisiana Tech is located — but never considered signing there.
Knighten, a Parade All-American in the same class with two current NFL rookies — Dorial Green-Beckham and Jameis Winston — began to wonder.
“All these guys are getting crazy offers and I’m sitting here with Louisiana Tech,” Knighten said. “What is this?”
Knighten said he decided not to play at all at one point. He applied to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and to LSU in Baton Rouge, where he could just be a student and his height and arm strength wouldn’t matter.
Then Freeze left for Ole Miss, and ASU hired Malzahn from Auburn. One of Malzahn’s first moves was to call Knighten, who gladly took a visit, then committed on the spot when Malzahn asked him to play quarterback.
“I wasn’t ready for that one,” Knighten said. “But here we go.”
Knighten didn’t play much behind senior Ryan Aplin, who led ASU to a Sun Belt title and a victory in the GoDaddy Bowl. When Malzahn went back to Auburn as head coach that December, Bryan Harsin came in with a different offense and a sobering bit of reality for the quarterbacks in Jonesboro.
“He said, ‘None of you guys are the guy, so we’re bringing in a guy,’ ” Knighten said.
That was Adam Kennedy, who started every game for Harsin in 2013 and led the Red Wolves to a shared Sun Belt title and a berth in the GoDaddy Bowl. But ASU beat Ball State in that game in part because of Knighten, who played most of the game when Kennedy had a knee injury.
Knighten’s line from that night is far from his best — 15 of 20 passing for 115 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception — but he led a 5-play, 59-yard touchdown drive in the final two minutes to win 23-20.
The best part was he did it in front of new Coach Blake Anderson and Bell, who were watching on the sidelines.
Not long after, the quarterbacks had their first meeting with Bell, who put Knighten’s performance in blunt perspective.
“He was like ‘You sucked in that bowl game, but you won, so that’s all that matters,’ ” Knighten remembers.
But Bell and Anderson have been the perfect match for Knighten’s talent.
Knighten said last week that he likely wouldn’t have finished at ASU if Harsin hadn’t left for Boise State. But Anderson and Bell brought an up-tempo Spread system similar to what Knighten led while thriving in high school.
He took the reins in the spring and never let them go. Yes, Anderson and Bell had doubts behind closed doors, but they never showed it publicly.
“I think that meant everything,” Reginald Knighten said of the confidence displayed.
Putting Knighten back in an up-tempo Spread resulted in gaudy numbers: 4,056 yards of offense last year, eighth most in the FBS, and a first-team all-Sun Belt honor.
His stats are not as eye-catching this season, partly because of the hamstring
injury. He has nearly 2,000 fewer yards of offense (2,059), his yards-per game average is 227.9 instead of the Sun Belt-leading 312.0 it was last year.
Knighten said ASU’s 8-0 conference record makes up for his lower individual totals, but he’s been a different quarterback since returning form injury, too. In seven games he’s completed 58.2 percent of his passes for 1,515 yards with 17 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. His completion percentage is down — it was 62.3 percent in Sun Belt games last year — but his quarterback rating is up from 143.66 to 157.3 quarterback rating, second among Sun Belt quarterbacks.
“I think he put way too much pressure on himself,” Anderson said of Knighten’s performance in the season’s opening games against Southern Cal and Missouri. “He found whatever it was that allowed him to relax and play and we’re seeing his best football, which is fun for a senior.”
Bell reflected fondly on his two years with Knighten.
“I hope the people, the fans that watch him every day and the people that see him on Saturdays really start to appreciate how good of a football player he is,” Bell said. “It may not look great all the time, and it may not look perfect all the time, but he’s really a special player.”
Results, Knighten said, is essentially what he treasures the most as he leaves.
“I don’t care if it’s pretty, I don’t care if it’s grimy, people remember winners,” Knighten said. “They can say everything they want about something else, but as long as you win, they’ll remember you forever. That’s all I want to be remembered as — a winner.”