⚡ CFB Dashboard

With two games over, the Arkansas State Red Wolves (1-1) are about where most expected going into and coach Butch Jones sees development in his team. A-State is coming off a 52-7 victory over the West Georgia Wolves. "We only had the ball for three possessions in the first half but there was no panic,'' said Jones. "That's what I like about our team. The growth phase of our football team and then we talk about starting fast in the second half of what happened at Memphis." The Red Wolves started the season with a 42-24 defeat at Memphis. Jones was not pleased with the team's play in the second half. "Very appreciative of our efforts in a lot of areas  by our players,'' he said. "I thought about the effort, the energy from the game. The third quarter did not start the way we wanted it to.  We talk about playing to a standard and not playing to the scoreboard plan to a scoreboard and I thought our players really tried to play to that standard for all of 60 minutes. We played complimentary football.  We took the ball away four times.   "So I thought we played as a collective. I thought we played collective football. I thought we played with collective energy and we did that with a challenging start to the game. We allowed them to control the ball and control the clock and we only had a total of three possessions for the entire first half but there was no panic and that's what I was really excited about with our football team.  "There  was a business-like approach, there was a focus, there wasn't any panic and we didn't play to the scoreboard and I thought that was a growth phase of our football team." The Red Wolves were big favorites over West Georgia and led just 21-7 at the half after having just three possessions in the period. "I think as we continue to move forward to this week and really evaluate the first two games I think it's really this is more about what's looming ahead,'' the coach said.  "I think that's the biggest thing.   There's lots of improvements needed starting with fundamentals and the mental details and we can't have catastrophic plays. You know when you play a football team like TCU every mistake you make is magnified and we had four catastrophic mental errors mental mistakes in the (WG) game that really didn't get exposed that when we go play TCU or Kennesaw or the games that are coming you're going to get exposed with that. "You have to execute on a consistent basis (against) a  really, really talented football team.  Your margin of error when you play TCU is exceptionally small so we got to lean into the many challenges that this week presents and work to be a better football team and you know again it always starts with us, the fundamentals, the mental details that I just spoke about. "We have to get better in a hurry but I did like the business approach.  I did like taking care of business at home." The Red Wolves and Horned Frogs meet on Saturday in Fort Worth at 7 p.m.  The game is set for broadcast on ESPNU. They return home the next week to face Kennesaw State in the non-conference finale.