Arkansas State Red Wolves at Southern Miss Golden Eagles
Fri Oct 16 · 11:00 PM CT
By Pablo SanchezUpdated 7d ago·2 min read
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Arkansas State and Southern Miss both play in the Sun Belt West, but one program is chasing a title and the other is starting over from scratch.
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Best BetArkansas State
Arkansas State brings far more continuity into this one — 10 returning starters, a proven head coach, and a backfield that doesn't need to be rebuilt. Southern Miss is working with essentially one returning starter after a 75-man roster overhaul, which is a lot to ask any team to overcome on the road against a program picked well ahead of it in the preseason poll. Back the Red Wolves to win outright here.
Arkansas State
+Picked third in Sun Belt West preseason poll
+Returns top two running backs, 10 starters overall
+League-high 7 preseason All-Sun Belt selections
−Replacing three-year starting QB Jaylen Raynor
−Lost Sun Belt's all-time leading receiver, Corey Rucker
+Anchor returning starter at center in Broderick Roman
−Returns just one starter after 75-player overhaul
−Picked only fifth in Sun Belt West preseason poll
Arkansas State heads into Friday, October 16 breaking in a new starting quarterback for the first time in three years, and that competition is the single biggest storyline in Jonesboro. Butch Jones has four transfers fighting for the job, with Texas transfer Trey Owens getting a lot of the early buzz, but Jones has refused to name a starter early and says he wants it decided "organically." Across the field, Southern Miss has a much clearer answer at quarterback in sixth-year veteran Ethan Hampton, even if almost everything else around him is brand new under first-year head coach Blake Anderson.
The gap in continuity between these two rosters is stark. Arkansas State returns 10 starters and its top two running backs in Devin Spencer and Kenyon Clay, giving whoever wins the QB job a run game to lean on early. Southern Miss, by contrast, is bringing back just one starter from a season ago in center Broderick Roman, after a roster overhaul that added 75 new players. That's about as close to a full teardown as college football sees outside of a coaching change plus a transfer portal purge combined.
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ARST Arkansas State
USM Southern Miss
Jones is in his sixth year in Jonesboro and has strung together three straight bowl trips, so there's real program stability behind whatever passer emerges. Anderson doesn't have that luxury yet — this is his first full season rebuilding a Golden Eagles program that's still figuring out its identity. That difference shows up in the preseason polling: Sun Belt coaches picked Arkansas State third in the West, while Southern Miss landed all the way down at fifth.
Arkansas State Red Wolves
Oct 8?vs South Alabama—
Oct 2?@ Louisiana—
Sep 26?vs Kennesaw State—
Sep 19?@ TCU—
Sep 12?vs West Georgia—
Sep 5?@ Memphis—
Southern Miss Golden Eagles
Oct 6?@ Troy—
Sep 25?@ Tulane—
Sep 19?vs UConn—
Sep 12?@ Auburn—
Sep 5?vs Alcorn State—
Recent form.
Arkansas State also picked up a league-high seven preseason All-Sun Belt selections, which says a lot about the level of returning talent Jones has to build around even with the QB spot unsettled. The safety tandem of AG McGhee and Brandon Barnes gives the defense an experienced back end, something Southern Miss simply can't match given how much roster turnover it absorbed this offseason. If Hampton and that new-look Golden Eagles offense are still finding their rhythm this deep into the schedule, Arkansas State's defensive continuity could be the deciding factor.
Arkansas State Red Wolves
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Southern Miss Golden Eagles
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
There's a version of this game where Southern Miss's fresh start pays off faster than expected — new coaches sometimes get an immediate jolt of energy from a near-total roster reset. But betting on that against a program with Arkansas State's stability, returning production, and preseason pedigree is a tough sell until the Golden Eagles prove it on the field.
