Arkansas State vs. Central Arkansas this Saturday

Seven Razorbacks earn All-Conference honors

From Arkansas State University

AStateRedWolves.com

JONESBORO — Arkansas’ two Football Bowl Subdivision teams open the season this week against the state’s Football Championship Subdivision teams as Arkansas plays Arkansas-Pine Bluff tonight in Little Rock, followed by Arkansas State and Central Arkansas on Saturday at Centennial Bank Stadium.

ASU head coach Butch Jones would like to see such games become a regular feature.

“I do think as we move forward, we have a lot of great institutions in this state that are really well coached and they take pride in being in the state of Arkansas,” Jones said during his weekly press conference Tuesday.

“With the challenges of scheduling and the new direction in the landscape of college football, why wouldn’t all the local universities play every year?

From Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Arkansas, which we play in 2025, why shouldn’t that be a yearly game?

“I think it’s healthy for the state. I think it generates excitement toward higher education. I think it’s great for the student bodies, the campuses, the excitement, the energy.”

ASU has played eight games against UCA and UAPB during its FBS era, which began in 1992. The 1996 UCA game was the school’s first against an in-state opponent since facing Arkansas Tech to end the 1958 season. The University of Arkansas relaxed its policy regarding in-state athletic competition to allow contests with sister institutions in the UA system in 2019, then included ASU and UCA for all sports except football in 2020. Next year’s first-ever football game between the Razorbacks and Red Wolves – set for Sept. 6, 2025 in Little Rock – was announced in February 2021.

Arkansas played UAPB for the first

See ASU, page A9 ASU

From page A7

time in 2021, winning 45-3 in Little Rock.

Jones said in-state college competition is good for the game at the high school level.

“When all your local universities play each other, I think that helps the high school player as well. I think it helps the high school players,” Jones said. “I think it brings more attention from the high school players in our state of the great schools that we have in Arkansas. I’m as big a fan as anyone in our non-conference scheduling of playing all the schools in Arkansas.”

The ASU-UCA series, which dates to 1916, was dormant after their 1947 meeting until the 1990s. With 27 previous meetings, UCA is the in-state opponent ASU has played most, followed by 22 games against Lyon College.

UCA head coach Nathan Brown is excited for the opportunity for his team to play ASU. The Bears won 28-23 in Jonesboro in 2016, but the Red Wolves prevailed 50-27 in 2020 and 40-21 in 2021, Jones’ first season at ASU.

“What a great deal for us to open in Jonesboro, two hours down the road … we’re daytripping it, so it’s perfect for us,” Brown said during UCA’s Bear Backers luncheon earlier this week. “We’re going to wake up, treat it almost like a home game, come up here and do our walk-throughs, do what we normally would do on a home game, get on that bus around midday, eat halfway there and pull up and play football. It’s a really good setup for our program and our guys.”

Brown said his team’s roster includes 71 in-state players, adding that the Bears “turn over rocks and stones” in their search for talent in Arkansas.

“We’ve got kids from all over this state. That’s 71 kids who may or may not have got recruited or talked to by Arkansas State, an FBS program, but probably felt like they probably should have,” Brown added. “So this game means a lot to those young men. That’s what makes a game like this so intriguing for not only our players and fans, but the families of our players as well.”

ASU has 17 players from Arkansas on its roster. The top three running backs on the Red Wolves’ depth chart – Ja’Quez Cross, Zak Wallace and Cedric Hawkins – are all in-state products, as is standout offensive tackle Makilan Thomas.

Senior linebacker Charles Willekes, who began his career at Michigan State, has an appreciation for in-state competition.

“In-state rivalries every time are huge. You’ve got them all across the country – Florida-Florida State, Michigan-Michigan State, Alabama-Auburn, everything.

They’re massive,” Willekes said. “It’s awesome for the state of Arkansas, it’s big for the state of Arkansas. Especially with Arkansas playing on Thursday, we will hopefully be in the spotlight for (the state) on Saturday. It’s great for the state of Arkansas, two colleges playing in state.”