ASU Redwolves PxP Matt Stolz 8-13-26

Start your day with the morning jolt of Drake Toll. Anywhere in the country. Your home for talking sports. The United States hockey team has four teeth left. What is LeBron James Legacy? Leonel Mess. 906 career goals is stupid. All of it. The Knicks. The Los Angeles Lakers. Aaron Rogers. Georgia football players. The Dolphins. The Mets. As it happened, when it happened. We'll talk all of it. Westwood One Sports Talk. Your home for Drake Toll. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. platform. Good Thursday morning to you. Welcome back to first news, 13th day of August, 11 minutes after 8 o'clock. It means it's time for the Mike Face and Pharmacy Insurance Sports Report. You can call Mike at 501-22849-44. Get a quote on some good insurance. And today we've got the voice of the Arkansas State Red Wolves. Matt Stolls joining us, talking about how the football team's looking heading into the new season. And Matt, welcome to the show. Appreciate you joining us this morning. Good morning, Toby. Great to be with you. Yeah, we appreciate it. So, Matt, the Red Bulls coming off a winning season, 7 and 6 last year included the big Xbox Bowl win over Missouri State. I know you lose the quarterback, Jalen Rayner, to Iowa State. But are the expectations pretty high again for this team going into the season? Absolutely. I think they've raised the bar the last three years, going to three stray bowl games, and they've won the last two. You mentioned the Xbox Bowl victory last season. Really, I think it showed a lot about how far the program has come and just kind of the culture that Butch Jay Jones has built over his first handful of years at Arkansas State. The way they responded last year after a rough start, they started the season 1 and 4 and really had some things to figure out, especially on the defensive side of the ball. And, man, did they ever? They completely turned it around in the second half of the season, ended up. as you said, with a winning record and winning a bowl game. So I think that this program's come a long way, and hopefully they can build on it this year. Yeah, you mentioned the head coach, Butch Jay Jones. He's going into, I believe, it's sixth season in Jonesboro. Did the winning last year and having that continuity with the coach staying in town, does that keep some of the good players out of the portal in the offices? Obviously, you lose Jalen Raynor, but do you have some pretty good guys coming back to this team this year? You do. But when you're on the group of sixth level especially, and you look around the Sunbelt Conference, if you look at the Sunbelt Conference, all conference team from last year, you can pretty much guarantee most, if not all of those guys, will be gone to Power 4 program the following year. It's just kind of the way it works right now. And it's tough to compete with the kind of budgets that the Power 4 has. Now, that said, Arkansas State has made a significant investment from the university side. They've put a lot more into the revenue share, and I think it's definitely going to help. It has helped build the roster that it has this year, and I really think that it's one of the better rosters in the Sun Belt. But I think... To kind of answer your question from a couple of different angles here, yes, there are some very key pieces that the Red Wolves were able to retain, a young man that certainly could have gone to the Power 4 level and been able to contribute at those places.

But at the same time, you have to go out and bring in a lot of new players. We were very senior heavy last year on defense. And 33 of the 50 players on defense are first year players in the program. this year. So is there a lot of talent on that side of the ball? Without a doubt. I think if you watch them practice at all, you see that the defense has a chance to be really, really good. Now, offensively, it's a little bit different story. We have as much returning on offense, with the exception of people like Jalen Raynor. And, of course, you leave you. are now without the Sunbelt's all-time leading receiver and Corey Rucker, who's with the Raiders now. But you do still have a lot of the offensive lineback, which is really great to see. You've got a running back like Kenyon Clay, who was fantastic for us last year. And then you've got some really good receivers, Chauncey Cobb, Jalen Benelli. They're both coming back as well. So I think offensively, you do have more pieces coming back. And I think those are some of the leaders on this football team. So they've been there. They've done that now. And hopefully they can build on what's happened in the last three years. I do see Chauncey Cobb's name around a lot, especially when people are writing about the Sunbelt and players that are expected to stand out this year in the Sunbelt. You see Chauncey Cobb's name quite a bit. I wanted to ask you about the quarterback. Is it a concern that the potential starting quarterback Ethan Crawford didn't really get into much action last year, though he did play somewhat Southern Miss before he transferred to Arkansas State? Does the experience level concern you going into the season at all, or is he going to be ready to roll? I think that if Ethan is the guy, then he's somebody that can definitely do the job. And there's no doubt he's turned into one of the leaders on the football team. If you're around him at all, you see how some of the players kind of gravitate towards him. But at the same time, he's not the only one. There's some other people in that quarterback competition right now that... have the same traits. And you look at somebody like a Trey Owen, who's a Texas transfer. He's certainly in that quarterback competition. He and Ethan. And then we've got a couple of transfers from Vanderbilt. And Drew Dickey and Jeremy St. Hallera, they came over with our new offensive coordinator, Garrett Sam Altman, who was the quarterback's coach at Vandy for Diego Pavia last year. And He's now our offensive coordinator. So, yeah, you've got some guys from Power 4 programs that are coming in to compete with somebody like an Ethan Crawford who does have FBS starting experience at Southern Miss that also is extremely capable of winning the job. I think Butch Jay Jones is very happy with his options. Whoever they go with, I think you've got a quarterback that's more than capable.

of leading this offense to some big things this year. So we're talking with the voice of the Arkansas State Red Wolves. Matt Stolls joining us this morning. So Matt, I want to rotate kind of to the Sunbelt Conference on the whole. You know, it seems like James Madison has been the main team lately. Of course, Kurt Signetti goes to Indiana from there. They just lost their coach again. The last year's coached to UCLA, took some of the players with them. I know that they're in the East Division, but are they still expected to be the top team in the conference? Who else can challenge them? Arkansas State, which Arkansas State doesn't have James Madison on the schedule this year. But is James Madison the team to beat in the Sun Belt this year? Yeah, I think any time you have a team in a group of six league that ends up going to the college football playoffs, they certainly have a target on their backs. I mean, obviously being a CFP team last year, and I know they got off to a slow start. at Oregon, but man, they turned it on and really played well the final three quarters of that ball game. They're a heck of a program. They've done a really, really good job, and they brought in a really good coach to kind of be the next guy in Billy Napier. And he had spent the last several seasons at Florida. I know it never really kind of clicked there, but before he was at Florida, He had a tremendous amount of success down in Lafayette with the Cajun. So he knows the Sun Belt well. They have as big of a budget on the football side as anybody in our league. So obviously they've been able to go out and get some more players. And even though they've lost quite a few, I think they just continue to kind of reload at James Madison. So they're definitely one of the favorites in the Eastern Division. I don't think there's any doubt about that. But if you look at the western side, I think it's wide open. And I think Arkansas State can make as good of a case as anybody at winning the West this year. Obviously, you've got to deal with the Louisiana Lafayette's and Troy. I think they're going to be tough. And then, you know, you really don't know what to expect from. from South Alabama. But I think Arkansas State has as good of a chance as anybody at winning the West. And if they make it to the Sunbelt championship game, I don't think anybody would be surprised if they see. James Madison on the other side. Yeah, no, I don't think they would be either. We're talking with Matt Stoles. He's the voice of the Arkansas State Red Wolves. Zah gets set for the football team. As far as the Arkansas State schedule, you start on the road at Memphis, then you come home for West Georgia, and then you head to TCU for the non-conference part of the schedule, and then obviously you get into Sunbelt play. Do you like how the schedule sets up for Arkansas State this year? Yeah, it's better. I think that we're getting to a point in our program where you don't see that top five, top ten, the Blue Blood program on the schedule. And really, that was kind of a necessity as far as the athletic budget in the past. And look.

Memphis and TCU are really, really good programs. They've done a lot of good things on the football side. I mean, TCU is just a few years removed from playing in the national championship game, and Memphis has been right at or near the top of the American for several years now. So those are two big challenges, but I think that, you know, we're past a point now in the non-conference schedule where you're going to see Alabama or Auburn. You know, one of those type schools, I mean, the USC's, the Texas, we played them all over the years. And while it's fun to go there, and certainly I don't mind broadcasting at a place like that, that's fun for me. I don't think that, you know, that's not what Butch Jay Jones wants to have to do. I mean, you want to be able to. to have success in the non-conference. And the Red Wolves over the years have been able to have some really good non-conference wins. And hopefully this is a year where they can go in and do that. They feel like they have the team that can certainly go in in week one and compete and have a good chance to win at Memphis. And then you're hoping to have a chance. at TCU in week three. I think that's a game where certainly you'd like to be able to go in and be competitive. And I think the Red Wolves can with the talent that they brought in, but you certainly can't overlook the other teams on the schedule as well. And I think West Georgia, they're a new FBS program, but they're coming in week two for the home opener, and then in week four. We've got the conference USA champs from last year, Kennesaw State, coming to Jonesboro. So I think this non-conference schedule is going to be challenging, but it's certainly one where I think the Red Wolves. can if they play well and they can click on all cylinders right out of the gate. I think that they can have a little bit of success. Yeah, you mentioned that first home game, September 12th against West Georgia. I think I saw that Lauren Elena is going to play a concert right before a kickoff, so that's going to be really cool. People want to buy tickets, Matt, what's the best spot to go? Do we go to the Red Wolf's website or what's the best way to buy tickets if we want to be out there in Jonesboro for a game? Yeah, East Day Redwolves.com is the athletics website. You can click and find all the information. I think Lauren Elena is right there on the homepage right now. You can click on that. That's really neat. That's a free concert in our tailgate area before the game, and to have that two hours before kickoff. I mean, Butch Jay Jones just wants to make it a big party at these games. And certainly this is a program right now that's... We're celebrating. And I think that with the success they've had going to bowl games the last three years and having success the last couple, I think that there is.

a lot to be excited about going into this year. Now, things are on the move, and you can tell it out in Jonesboro. So that's very exciting. And Matt, I appreciate you joining us this morning. Tell us all about the other Red Bulls as we get the college football season going here momentarily. But we'll check in again as the season progresses. But good luck to you and the team this year. And as I said, we'll talk again soon, Matt. Hey, thanks so much, Toby. Appreciate you having me on. Start your day with the morning jolt of Drake C. Toll. See, now it's on demand. My podcast is kind of a radio thing, I think, but also it's a bit of a TV show, and it's about whatever I want it to be. It's listening live as it happened, when it happened, with the instant reaction. You're home for talking sports. We go back, the Drake Toll Show, Westwood One Sports Network, and there will be on demand on your radio. Anywhere in the country, I'll see you there. Westwood One Sports Talk. You're home for Drake Seatoll. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.