As Ryan Aplin reflects upon his career, he suddenly pauses and glances
through the window of the Bill Templeton Recruiting Room on the third floor of
the Arkansas State football complex, his head cocking slightly as he notices
something shifting at the end of Liberty Bank Stadium.
“There's an armadillo over there,” he says.
Sure enough, on the grass by the southern bleachers, an armored,
leathery mammal creeps along stealthily, but not stealthily enough to escape
Aplin's gaze, perhaps an example of the vision and attention to detail that has
helped the fifth-year quarterback become one of the best players in school
history.
“He's a fierce competitor, he has a very lively arm and he has
experience. Those three factors really make him one of the better quarterbacks
in the country,” said ASU head coach Gus Malzahn.“Ryan sees the field extremely
well. He can read a defense, he knows exactly what's going on, he makes good
decisions. He's extremely confident throwing the football,” says ASU offensive
coordinator and quarterback coach Rhett Lashlee.
Beyond Aplin's football acumen and physical prowess is his leadership,
a quality that is his best, according to Lashlee.
Florida Atlantic:
Florida Atlantic University fielded one of the most successful start-up
programs in recent NCAA football history. The school, located in Boca Raton,
began football in 2001 and within three years was one of the top programs at
the Division I-AA level, compiling an 11-3 record and earning a No. 4 national
ranking.
Florida Atlantic moved up to the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly
Division I-A) in 2005 and needed just three seasons to capture the Sun Belt
Conference championship and garner a berth in the New Orleans Bowl. The Owls
followed up with another winning record in 2006 and earned their second
straight postseason victory, this time in the Motor City Bowl.
Howard Schnellenberger, a legendary figure in college football, was the
architect of the Florida Atlantic program. Schnellenberger, who is best known
for rebuilding Miami and Louisville, led Florida Atlantic to many significant
milestones before retiring after the 2011 season.
Florida International:
This football season has been nothing short of a nightmare for Florida
International.
Picked in the preseason by the league’s coaches to win the 2012 Sun
Belt Conference, the Golden Panthers (1-7, 0-4 SBC) have gone the opposite
direction under sixth-year coach Mario Cristobal.
Six straight losses – three by a touchdown or less – have taken FIU out
of bowl consideration and eliminated it from the SBC title hunt.
Two weeks in a row, the Panthers have lost on the game’s final scoring
play, including last week’s 42-yard field goal by Troy’s Will Scott with 11
seconds to play that defeated FIU 38-37.
“Yeah, played a real tough game up at Troy and for the second week in a
row, the game comes down to the last play,” Cristobal said. “Tough, but the
players are playing hard and they’ve done a pretty decent job of overcoming
some things. Just got to find a couple more plays to finish games.”
One week before, Middle Tennessee’s Reggie Whatley scored on a 7-yard
TD run with 36 seconds left to doom the Panthers 34-30.
Louisiana:
With Sun Belt Conference-leader UL Monroe on tap Saturday, Mark
Hudspeth knows a big test awaits.
The UL Ragin' Cajuns head coach calls 6-2 Monroe, which after beating
South Alabama last Saturday has won five in a row, "a very talented team
"» one of the best teams in this conference right now, a team that's
playing with a lot of confidence."
Hudspeth also knows his 4-3 Cajuns, losers of two straight, are
hurting.
They lost Montrel Carter, their season-opening starter at running back,
to ACL and MCL knee tears the first Saturday of the season.
They've been without starting quarterback Blaine Gautier, who remains out
while recovering from surgery to repair two broken bones in his throwing hand,
for almost four full games now.
They were without starting slot receiver Harry Peoples (shoulder) for
last Tuesday night's game against Arkansas State, and they will be without
starting wideout Javone Lawson for at least their next two games after he broke
his left forearm in the loss to ASU.
Louisiana-Monroe:
MONROE, La. – Dating back to the start of the 2007 campaign, the ULM
Warhawk football team has played 12 games against teams from the state of
Louisiana.
The total will jump to 17 over the next few years as ULM has future
contests against LSU, Southern, Tulane and UL-Lafayette.
During the same time frame (2007-12), UL-Lafayette has played 11
contests against in-state foes, followed by Tulane (10), LSU (eight) and
Louisiana Tech (five).
Below is a recent summary of ULM’s contests vs. teams from the state of
Louisiana:
2007 – Grambling State, UL-Lafayette
2008 – Tulane, UL-Lafayette
2009 – UL-Lafayette
2010 – Southeastern Louisiana, LSU, UL-Lafayette
2011 – Grambling State, UL-Lafayette
2012 – Tulane, UL-Lafayette
Middle Tennessee:
Reggie Whatley's 96-yard kick return touchdown in the fourth quarter
lifted Middle Tennessee to a 34-29 win over Western Kentucky on Thursday night.
With the win, the Blue Raiders (6-3, 4-1 Sun Belt) are now in sole
possession of second place in the Sun Belt, trailing first-place Louisiana-Monroe
(6-2, 4-0).
Whatley's kick return came with 6:03 left in the game just after
Western Kentucky had tied the game at 27 with a field goal.
The Hilltoppers (6-3, 3-2) drove toward the end zone in the closing
stages, but the Blue Raiders' Kenneth Gilstrap picked off a Kawaun Jakes pass
deep in MTSU territory with two minutes left to seal the win.
Western Kentucky got a safety as time expired.
North Texas:
North Texas' football team returns to the field today, coming off its
biggest triumph in close to a decade. But the Mean Green's coach said the
victory is merely a building block, not a crowning achievement.
The Mean Green travels to Middle Tennessee State a more confident team
after defeating Louisiana-Lafayette 12 days ago.
Kickoff is at 2:30 p.m.
"It was a great victory, something we needed to do and it was
important to us," coach Dan McCarney said. "But there are so many
things we can do better."
Clearly, the coach continues to say, there is a long ways to go.
Yet, the Mean Green's 3-4 record is the best through seven games since
2004. Its 2-1 record in the Sun Belt Conference is the best league mark through
three games since 2005.
The burning desire, the coach said, with this team is to prove wrong
the prognosticators who picked North Texas to finish eighth in the Sun Belt and
among the bottom of all of the FBS.
"We're trying to get to places no one thinks we can get to,"
McCarney said.
One of those places has been achieved: A big game that matters at the
end of October.
South Alabama:
MOBILE, Alabama -- South Alabama had a strong, two-hour practice
Thursday morning, finalizing its full-pad workouts prior to Saturday's Sun Belt
Conference home game against Florida International.
The Jags completed a week that featured good workouts and, as head
coach Joey Jones pointed out, good improvement in several areas. While the Jags
spent much of the week working on FIU and its tendencies, there was also time
spent polishing up areas of concern in the Jags' recent play.
"It was a good practice,'' Jones said. "The theme for the
rest of the year of us is to finish -- finish this week, finish the games,
finish the season -- and I think they have a great attitude toward that right
now, I really do.
"The leadership is really starting to come out. Because when
you've got to pull it out of them all the time, you're probably not going to
get it. But when they start doing it, when the peers start doing it, then
you've really got something.''
The Jags will have a short walk-through practice on Friday. Kickoff for
Saturday's game is 2:30 p.m. CDT.
Troy:
MOBILE, Alabama - Losing for the first time on the road this season,
losing to a team that had no previous Sun Belt Conference wins, losing by
surrendering a touchdown in the final 17 seconds - last weekend's loss to
Florida Atlantic has had a lingering effect on Troy's football team.
Troy head coach Larry Blakeney said his football team has to put its
loss to FAU behind it and concentrate on this week's game against Tennessee.
(The Associated Press)
But head coach Larry Blakeney suggests the Trojans' attention should
now be focused completely on the next opponent: the Tennessee Volunteers.
"I talked to the team last night and I told them they just
experienced the proverbial trap game and that we're not good enough to think
about being trapped,'' Blakeney said at his weekly press conference.
"Coming into the game, a 1-6 FAU team had beaten us one time in their
history out of (eight) and they had won one game and just lost in double overtime
to South Alabama, so immediately our guys mark up 21 for us.
Western Kentucky:
The Toppers who spoke to the media following Thursday’s 34-29 home loss
to Middle Tennessee were understandably downtrodden, but they weren’t fooling
themselves about the reason they lost.
Junior running back Antonio Andrews said WKU could've won if the
Toppers hadn’t made so many mental errors.
“I know my team, we went out as hard as we could,” he said. “We’ve just
got to fix that within ourselves. We’ve got practice tomorrow, we’re going to
get it fixed.”
Andrews had a strong game but fumbled a punt return at the 15-yard
line, which led to an MTSU field goal early in the fourth quarter.
Coach Willie Taggart said that play, along with a fourth-quarter
failure on special teams which led to a 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown
by MTSU running back Reggie Whatley, buried WKU.
“We hate losing, but we did it to ourselves,” he said. “You can’t put
the ball on the ground and you can’t give up kickoff returns and you can’t give
up big plays.
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