A-State football roster continues to evolve

Red Wolves moving pieces into place for 2021 campaign

Paxton News Bureau JONESBORO — While always subject to change, Arkansas State’s football roster is particularly a work in progress this offseason.

The Pack Day spring game roster ASU distributed on April 17 is out of date with newcomers joining returnees on campus this month. Some signed with ASU during the standard recruiting periods, while others have decided to join the Red Wolves since spring practice.

And the roster figures to remain in flux as head coach Butch Jones prepares for his first fall camp at ASU.

“By the time of true training camp, we could have as many as 52 newcomers or so. Now that includes walk-ons and all that,” Jones said in an interview Thursday. “When people talk about the difference in camps and all that, just the dynamics of June and July are so different than any other year ever in college football.

“I think it’s having the ability to adapt and adjust, understand the rules and how you can use them to best fit your program and what you need. Even with the camps in the month of June, a prospect can show up and you’re allowed to work him out for an hour on a non-camp date as long as it’s by himself.”

The NCAA announced the on-campus evaluations and other changes in April, moves allowed to help prospects impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of fall evaluation days also went up for 2021. The regular recruiting calendar for Division I resumed June 1, allowing Jones and his coaching staff to conduct camps for high school-age players such as last night’s Friday Night Lights Camp.

ASU’s football team assembled for unofficial workouts on the first of the month. Roster hopefuls are also working out for ASU coaches.

Jones said recruiting has a lot of moving parts and pieces. Player movement has accelerated with the combination of the onetime transfer rule and the transfer portal.

“The month of June is completely different,” Jones said. “What we’ve done with a lot of these individuals is they’re basically trying out for a month and a half. They’re coming here and do they fit our principles and values? How well do they buy into our culture and all that? It’s allowed us an opportunity to have a month and a half to do an evaluation and determine whether we’re going to invite them into our football family or not.”

Jones announced a group of signees at his introductory press conference in December and added a few more on the traditional February signing date.

While 13 signees were high school players, there were four FBS transfers in wide receivers Te’Vailance Hunt (TCU), and Khyheem Waleed (Boise State) and defensive ends Joe Ozougwu (North Texas) and Thurman Geathers (Louisville). The Red Wolves also added an FCS transfer in running back Alan Lamar (Yale) and a junior college transfer in cornerback Leon Jones.

Jones said he was pleased with all of ASU’s returnees after spring practice, but added that he knew the Red Wolves had to add a competitive component to every position on the roster. Several more FBS transfers, including more than a half-dozen from SEC programs, have announced plans to play for ASU on social media since spring practice.

Jones praised ASU’s returnees for buying into the staff’s principles and values. The Red Wolves are coming off a 4-7 season, their first without a bowl trip since 2010.

“They’ve come back, they’ve been in shape.

We’ve asked them a lot of them, not only on the field but off the field in the classroom,” Jones said.

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Photo courtesy of A-State RED WOLVES (cont.)

“Our goal was a 3.0 (GPA) and we had a 2.8, so we came up just a little short of our goal and that will continue to be our goal. We had 60 individuals who had a 3.0 and we have 20 college graduates on our roster right now.

“They’ve done a great job, but when you evaluate the program, we have to have competitive depth across the board at every single position. It’s not what we expected, it’s not what we’re used to, but I think it’s also finding the right fit for your program. We’re still going to win with high school players, we’re a developmental program, but we needed to bring competition in across the board.”

Jones said he can’t comment on recent newcomers because they haven’t signed scholarships.

Former Florida State quarterback James Blackman announced his commitment in January. Transfers who made more recent commitments to ASU on social media also include defensive end/linebacker Kivon Bennett, defensive lineman John Mincey, defensive back Scooby Carter, receiver Akeem Hayes and offensive lineman Nick Lewis, among others. Former Jonesboro High School quarterback A.J. Aycock has joined the Red Wolves as a transfer from LSU.

Carter initially signed with Alabama. Both Bennett and Mincey played at Tennessee, while Hayes and Lewis are transferring from Kentucky.

Previous relationships are among the considerations when looking at players in the transfer portal, Jones said.

“When we were looking at players across the country, we wanted to have a relationship with them that we’ve had for a number of years,” Jones said. “I think it’s important that we know a little bit about the young man, about his family background. You try to do as much research and vetting as much as possible.

“We’ve done our due diligence. We’ve tried to be very thorough in the evaluation process. A lot of these individuals, whether it was at Tennessee or Alabama or the recruitment process of those two places, or other coaches on the staff as well, we tried to make sure we had some connections there along the way.”