The Pinkie Previews: Arkansas State at Louisville

Date – October 31, 2009
Time – 3:30 pm
Site – Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium
TV – WHAS 11
Radio – 790 AM WKRD

Home of the Cardinals

The Cardinals return home after being stomped by the Nasty ‘Nati last Saturday and hope to put a W on the board as they welcome in the Red Wolves of Arkansas State. The Red Wolves play in the Sun Belt conference and are 2-4 on the season, including 1-2 in conference play. They are coached by Steve Roberts who is 39-51 in his time at Arkansas State, but 88-84-1 overally in 16 seasons as a head coach.

The Red Wolves come into Saturday’s game having just recorded a win over Florida International 27-10. The Wolves are a solid squad and nearly defeated Iowa, in Ames. On offense, look for quarterback Corey Leonard to make plays with both his arm and feet. So far in 2009, Leonard has thrown for over 1,000 yards with 6 touchdowns. Leonard is not going to make anyone forget about Pat White, but he is mobile and will not hesitate to run if the pocket breaks down.

The leading rusher for the Red Wolves is Reggie Arnold. He has rushed for 432 yards this season with 8 touchdowns. Sophomore Derek Lawson will also see some carries as he’s rushed 34 times on the year for 149 yards and 2 touchdowns.

The Red Wolves leading receiver is Brandon Thompkins with 22 catches for 333 yards and 3 touchdowns. However, thirteen different players have caught passes for Arkansas State this season so they are not shy about dumping the ball off in the flats or calling screen passes.

Red Wolves' QB Corey Leonard

I could not find any individual or defensive team stats for Arkansas State due to Arkansas State’s athletic site being terrible. Seriously, it makes us look like ESPN.com. However, from what I could find the Red Wolves are decent enough on the defensive side of the ball. They will show multiple looks and will bring pressure.

Much like last week against the ‘Nati, I just want to see a Louisville squad that looks like it wants to play. This team has appeared lethargic and generally uninterested in recent weeks. At least play with some pride and show some fire. This game will probably go like the Southern Miss contest a few weeks back with hopefully the same result, a W.

Going into this game there are two interesting things I will be anxious to see. The first will be seeing Darius Ashley get some carries. Starter Vic Anderson is dinged up as coach Kragthorpe would say and after Ashley’s strong performance last week, I expect to see him get a lot of touches.

The second thing I will be looking at is who starts at quarterback for the Cards. We have yet to see any formal announcement and it probably has to do with the uncertain health status of Adam Froman. However, the interesting thing is we are hearing rumblings of a potential Zack Stoudt sighting.

Zack Stoudt is a redshirt freshman from Dublin, OH and has yet to see any playing time in his career. Stoudt is generally considered the QB in waiting at Louisville and many people have been clamoring for him to play since this season is over not going so well. I cannot say definitively he will be seeing action, but that chatter has picked up the past two days.

Could we be seeing this man on Saturday?

Simply put, the Cards need a win. If they lose to Arkansas State at home to drop to 2-6, things will get unbelievably ugly. The fans will probably boo louder than ever and that’s when press conferences have to be held. Hopefully, we don’t see any of that and the Cards roll to a win.