#35 Arkansas State

Jonesboro, AR

Centennial Bank Stadium August 31, 2019 SMU 37 – Arkansas St 30 (ESPN Recap)

After Memphis took down Ole Miss, I left the Liberty Bowl and got lucky catching a Lyft to Arkansas only 7-minutes after walking out of the stadium. Carl drove me for 85 minutes ($137 with tip) and it was great getting to hear his story while drinking a few tailgate beers in the backseat at his encouragement. Divorced four times and has learned his lesson not to go down that road a 5th time. Said he is looking forward to telling his buddies about my everyFBSstadium endeavor.

Upon arriving to the campus 2.5 hours before kickoff, there was not much excitement brewing in the town or on campus. The tailgate scene was picturesque on a sloping green with a lake in the background (similar to a smaller version of Baylor). Cornhole abound and a high amount of large black BBQ pits per capita. The people at the tailgate were incredibly kind. I met Melanie Davis who adopted me to their tailgate and introduced me to everyone there. The “ASU” fans were very serious about being nice/kind and I was asked about a dozen times about the kindness of other fan bases I have come across. We enjoyed watching the Week 1 Saturday upsets continue, culminating with the Georgia State win over Tennessee in Knoxville. And then they offered me a free club ticket to the game at the 50-yard line which they would not let me refuse.

The stadium was modern, a great size for their program, and even has a LA Angels-type fountain in one corner (pictured). The night was perfect for a weird game where the faithful knew they were likely to lose and talked me into hedging out of my Arkansas St -3 tickets before opening kick (Thanks!). Crowd was quiet. Game was close, and ended on a last second 4th and 20-something for the Red Wolves trailing by 7 that was your typical sack-fumble-game-over play (video below). Special teams cost Ark St the game with a muffed punt and allowing a KO Ret TD. Great to see former UT Longhorn Shane Buechele under center throwing for 0 TD and 1 INT for SMU in the win. Most notable performance was Omar Bayless’ 10 for 132 and 4 TDs for Ark St in the loss.

Tommy gave me my return Lyft to Memphis which delved into more degenerate sports betting war stories which I enjoyed in a different way than the trip there with Carl.

Closed out my 1st state on this journey.