Tulsa travels to face Arkansas State this Saturday in the first road game of the season for the Hurricane. Each team has 3 wins in the series, with TU picking up a 41-34 victory when the teams last met on September 25, 2021. However, Tulsa is yet to win in Jonesboro.

Arkansas State is coming off of a controversial 34-31 win over Central Arkansas. To learn more about the Red Wolves, Luke Matheson of the Red Wolf Report on Rivals.com joined Inside Tulsa Sports for a brief Q&A session.

QUESTION: Arkansas State pulled out a 34-31 win over UCA, which included a controversial replay call. What stood out to you about Arkansas State in this game?

Matheson: The change in mindset at the end of the game is the big thing that stood out to me. This program has been going through a complete rebuild and a lot of games have been lost in the fourth quarter.

We began to see a change last year, and it showed up again Saturday night. The game did end on a controversial call, but this team was dead set to drive the length of the field with less than one minute to play, and they were able to do so. Arkansas State also used four freshmen on the offensive line. While that contributed to some of the offensive woes against Central Arkansas, there were also times they performed well, to include that final drive.

Q: Which Arkansas State players are the biggest threats on offense?

Matheson: There is obviously the true sophomore quarterback in Jaylen Raynor. He’s a true dual threat that can run and throw.

Three solid running backs in Ja’Quez Cross, Zak Wallace, and Cedric Hawkins will constantly rotate with one another. Corey Rucker and Courtney Jackson have proven to be threats at receiver.

Q: Who stands out on defense for Arkansas State?

Matheson: Tim Hardiman and Nate Martey have been solid on the interior defensive line while Charles Willekes and Marvin Ham have been solid at linebacker.

Justin Parks and Dontay Joiner have been solid in the defensive backfield.