⚡ CFB Dashboard

At the halfway point of spring practice, Arkansas State coach Butch Jones sees some things he likes and others that are a work in progress. It was the first of three weekend scrimmages. "Which means all plays contested, on both sides of the ball," said Jones, "and   having some sort of success. It was all about our effort and really graduating from the practice into a game situation is  much needed for our players and our coaches with all the new coaches on our staff. With the new faces on our staff. So I have the opportunity and so they have the opportunity and having Sun Belt officials here I thought it was a really productive day." The Red Wolves have practiced for two weeks since returning from spring break. They will scrimmage again on Saturday then have the spring game on April 25. "I will know a little bit more about the effort after watching it, but it was a contested scrimmage. Our Redzone lockout came down to a 55-yard field goal by Clune Van Andel. A lot of things to do again and  a lot of things to clean up. "Everyone is responsible for their own determination, and everyone gets an opportunity to put their football identity on video. We evaluate it and we kind of see where we are at as a football team moving forward with two weeks after spring." Both the offense and defense had moments in the practice. "It gets back to that word contested,'' said Jones, who has led the Red Wolves to consecutive bowl victories. "Obviously you do not like to see your offense turn the football  over, but on the other side, you're excited because your defense has become opportunistic." At quarterback Ethan Crawford and Trey Owens  did the most work with the first team. "But I thought our quarterbacks, all day long, put the ball in harm's way,'' said Jones. "We didn't take care of the football, they didn't take care of the football, and there is an art to playing quarterback back and it is managing game /decisions     On the offensive  side I thought our quarterbacks kept plays alive.  But defensively, we did not contain the quarterback very well, and didn't tackle the quarterback very well.I think the big thing with Ethan is managing the game. He's going to make spectacular plays but again it's not about the spectacular plays iit's about the routine plays in and out and he will get there just like with all the quarterbacks. "They are sipping through a fire hose right now and there's a lot coming at them. But I really like the way that they've handled everything." Jones said the Red Wolves return just a handful of defensive players from last season. "Defensively we took the football away, but I didn't like the way we started,'' said Jones. "We always talk to start fast and finish strong. I didn't like the way we started defensively and then in the middle and at the end the offense came through again.  "We are looking at consistency and we had 116 plays today so everyone got pretty much equal reps. So again a great great evaluation tool for us as coaches and as play callers.  So if we get in this situation again, and have to do it all over again, what would we do differently?" The Red Wolves will begin their final two weeks with practices Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. "Their mentality and attitude,'' said Jones. "They want to continue to be coached. ."I think this football team wants to be good. We just have to show them. We talked about it. There are only 8 players on the defensive side of the ball who have been through a spring practice with us. And only 15 on offense, that's not very many, so they have  got to understand the standard. The standard doesn't change and the expectation doesn't change but they have allowed us to push.  "We have 116 plays and then we come out here and condition because we are not in football condition and that'll come with time but I like the leadership that I am getting right now, but now it's the small meticulous attention to detail."