Arkansas State Red Wolves Football: 2015 Season Preview

Sep 20, 2014; Jonesboro, AR, USA; Arkansas State Red Wolves head coach Blake Anderson congratulates running back Johnston White (30) after a touchdown by White against the Utah State Aggies at ASU Stadium. Arkansas State defeated Utah State 21-14 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports

Can the Arkansas State Red Wolves make it five straight bowl game appearances with a returning head coach in Blake Anderson for the first time since 2010?

After the resignation of Steve Roberts in 2010, the Arkansas State Red Wolves became like John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats, consistently fielding good teams with one and done coaches who used the program as a stepping stone job to another program.

The Red Wolves went from Hugh Freeze to Gus Malzahn to Bryan Harsin.

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But in what was perhaps a blessing in disguise, Blake Anderson took the team to a 7-6 record and a fifth place finish in the Sun Belt, which was just not enough for him to get hired elsewhere.

So he is back for another year, this time with a team that returns pretty much every single weapon for a Top 20 offense but loses lots of defenders. More on the that later.

The highlight of the year was a huge 21-14 upset over the Utah State Aggies, one of the best Group of Five teams out there. That quality win showed that these Red Wolves are legit as a decent team at this level.

Overall, the Red Wolves were not terrible in their losses either. They did not get humiliated too badly on the road against Tennessee and Miami, and they easily could have beaten Appalachian State.

But they still could not get past Louisiana-Lafayette, a 45-27 loss to Texas State was not a good look, and the 63-44 loss to Toledo in the GoDaddy Bowl at the end of the year left a very sour taste in the team’s mouth.

Going into this year, there are lots of returning players on offense to help carry the team, but will it be enough with so many starters gone on a defense that was already bad last year?

We will get to that in this preview.

Next: Offensive Breakdown