Defense remains a sore spot for Red Wolves

Butch Jones
Butch Jones


JONESBORO -- Arkansas State's defense is plenty familiar with explosive plays. No team in the nation allowed more plays of 50-, 60- and 70-plus yards than the Red Wolves in 2021.

At least when they came Saturday, they were somewhat a product of ASU's offense.

The Red Wolves wrapped up their first full week of fall camp with the first of two situational scrimmages inside Centennial Bank Stadium, running more than 100 plays over the course of about 90 minutes, pitting their first-team units against one another.

As much as ASU's first seven practices have hinted at further development from an offense that was relatively productive a year ago, inconsistency on the defensive side of things suggests some of that success might be a product of the opposition.

Coach Butch Jones explained Saturday afternoon that as camp has progressed, his team's deficiencies have become more glaring.

"Defensively, we started very slow, and that's what we talked about -- what's our mental disposition?" Jones said. "We can coach them on the fundamentals, the details, but they're responsible for their own self-determination. ... We didn't get off the field early in critical situations and we gave up explosive plays."

One of those plays featured a miscommunication in the defensive backfield and a couple others came via defensive pass interference.

Although Jones was happy to see his offense string drives together -- including a two-minute scenario in which it broke off a long run, setting up an easy score -- there's still much to be settled on defense.

Eddie Smith has been a constant on defense at the boundary safety spot. The Illinois transfer has primarily been paired with sophomore Trevian Thomas, although Taylon Doss has also gotten snaps -- either with Smith or in a three-safety look.

At cornerback, there's little certainty. Throughout the first 11 days, Samy Johnson, Leon Jones, Kenneth Harris, Drew Rawls and Denzel Blackwell have all cycled through the outside spots.

"Everybody's got to get used to playing with everybody," Smith said. "We're rotating....just to get a feeling with each other, so different [groupings] and seeing what's the best matchup."

Some of the shuffling has settled on the offensive front. Makilan Thomas and Robert Holmes appear set at left and right tackle, respectively, with Ethan Miner at center.

Jones has moved around guards a bit, trying to find a cohesive group with some combination of Mekhi Butler, Ernesto Ramirez and Ole Miss transfer Jordan Rhodes.

That continuity has been beneficial to quarterback James Blackman, who has repeatedly displayed his comfort with all facets of ASU's offense -- be it throwing the deep ball or improvising with his legs.

"We're in a good spot," Blackman said when asked how his unit has fared thus far relative to expectations. "The guys that came back from the spring, they're doing a good job of retaining what we were doing, executing at a high level, and it's making it easy for the guys that were just implemented into the offense like Brian Snead and Champ Flemings."

While Saturday perhaps provoked some less-than-ideal memories from last fall, Blackman cautioned about taking too much from one practice.

"Don't let today fool you because the last two days, the defense has been putting it on us pretty good," Blackman said. "You've just got to watch the [defensive] effort. When the ball breaks out, you see even the backside corner -- who knows he's not going to make a play -- still chasing the ball down, giving great effort.

"It was just the offense's day today, but iron sharpens iron."


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