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August 29, 2007

PreGame Summary: Arkansas State University

Presenting this week's PreGame Summary for the Novices. Texas plays Arkansas State in Austin.

I could not find much information on ASU, but I did find a "Content Producer" on AssociatedContent.com that posted several articles related to the school. I emailed him and he replied with answers to all my questions. Matt is working on his Journalism degree and I would not do justice to his writing skills by putting it in my words, so I am going to quote him directly. His writing will be in italics. Thanks, Matt, for your help and I hope you can come to our tailgate.

Here is the summary:

Indians

Scarlet and black

Jonesboro, AR.

"Our main rival is the University of Memphis which is just across the mighty Mississippi River about an hour from Jonesboro. When the series first started it became known as the "Paint Bucket Bowl" because students from the winning team would show up on the losing school's campus and paint a section of it. That hasn't been done for some time though.

Last year, after losing to Memphis several times in a row, the rivalry was brought back in a big way. We went to Memphis and led most of the game - Memphis jumped ahead on a flea flicker, and we get the ball back on our own 48 yard line with 6 seconds left trailing by three. Our quarterback Corey Leonard drops back, throws the ball up for grabs and after about 70 yards and what seemed like a lifetime later the ball came down in the hands of one of our receivers. The meeting previous to that, Memphis came to Jonesboro ranked in the top 25. We led most of the game and had them on the wire before a sold out Indian Stadium crowd, the largest ever. In the last two minutes, Memphis scored three touchdowns and won. They did fall out of the top 25 following that game, though, which I personally consider a moral victory :)

You could also say that the University of Arkansas is our rival. Arkansas has a policy of not scheduling in-state opponents in any sport - Arkansas and ASU are the only two Division 1-A football teams in Arkansas and are two of only four division 1 schools in the state. The only time ASU and Arkansas have ever met is in post-season tournaments, most recently in the 2005 WNIT where our 1,000 seat Convocation Center arena in Jonesboro sold out to watch women's basketball. The two schools have never met in football - ASU fans want this game really bad and Arkansas fans seem afraid that if we play, they'll lose and it will hurt their fan base (which is pretty well state-wide - Arkansans support the Razorbacks in just about every corner of the state)." - Matt

"As for traditions, those are kind of going out the window. If you haven't heard, ASU was targeted by the NCAA for having a "hostile and abusive" Native American mascot and has all but decided (it will become official next month when the board of trustees rubber stamps it) to change the mascot. The mascot will be determined over the course of the coming months.

We still have the Indian Family, which is comprised of three students in Native American dress who watch the game from the sidelines and lead some student activities. We also have a spirit character named Red who has won about a bazillion mascot awards over the past two years." - Matt

"One of our graduate school alumni who didn't play here but will be of note to you Texas folks is Blinn JC coach Brad Franchione, the son of Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione.

As for famous players, we have had quite a few NFL'ers for a team our size over the years. The most notable is Bill Bergey, who played for the Bengals and the Eagles in the 1970s and was instrumental in getting the Eagles to Super Bowl XV. In his time he was the highest paid defensive player in the NFL. Also, Ray Brown who retired in 2006 was the oldest player to start a playoff game when he was 43 - he played in the league for 20 years." - Matt

-37 on Texas

Matt's take on their offense is here.

Per the hubby, "If we don't beat them, this will be a worse season than I thought."

Posted by on August 29, 2007 05:55 PM | Permalink

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