Arkansas State faced Coastal Carolina in their Homecoming game Saturday night. Despite outsourcing in the second half 14-10, it wasn’t enough to win the game and ended in a 27-17 loss. 

“I thought our players competed, I’m proud of the way they competed right down until the end,” said head coach Butch Jones. “When you play a quality opponent like Coastal Carolina, quarterback three-time conference player of the year, you have to play quality football in all three phases.” 

Due to an A-State personal foul in the fourth quarter, Coastal Carolina quarterback Grayson McCall had to exit the game in an ambulance after taking a hit to the head on a slide.

“We had a catastrophic personal foul,” Jones said. “We pride ourselves on discipline. You can’t make emotional decisions. You can’t get caught up in the moment. I have a lot of respect for McCall. It’s very unfortunate. It grabs you by the heart.” 

Jones added: “There wasn’t any malicious intent by Thomas by any means. He’s the highest character on our team. He would never do anything to be malicious.” 

A-State previously led in overall matchups between the two teams 3-2. After Saturday’s game the two teams are tied up 3-3. Coastal Carolina has won the last three games against A-State. This is Coastal Carolina’s head coach’s first season. 

“If there’s one thing this football team has done, they’ve competed,” Jones said. “They hurt, they were disappointed but were going to continue to build this thing the right way. I’m proud of our kids and the way they competed.” 

Jones and A-State players mentioned Coastal Carolina being a quality opponent. Both teams were at 3-3 overall for this season. 

“We have to learn that when we play quality opponents every mistake you make is magnified,” Jones said. 

Three A-State defenders recorded double-digit tackles with linebacker Charles Willekes registering 10 tackles, matching his career high. 

“Something that we’ve been working on as a program for the last couple years is trying to build an identity that we go out and we play four quarters,” Willekes said. 

Arkansas State hits the road to ULM on Saturday, Oct. 28, with kickoff set for 4 p.m. at Malone Stadium. 

“It’s not going to be easy, that’s a good football team,” Willekes said. “Going forward its the same thing. Control what we can control.”

Categories: Sports