Story by DDNS Reporter Jared Burton

On November 8^th, 2025, the Sun Belt West Division will be on the line as the Southern Miss Golden Eagles will travel to Jonesboro to take on a red-hot Arkansas State Red Wolves. The Golden Eagles of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, enters the matchup coming off its bye week, while the Red Wolves of Jonesboro, Arkansas, are coming off a dominant defense performance with a 23-10 victory over Troy last week. This game has West Division title implications as the teams are currently 1^st and 2^nd in the West Division. If Southern Miss wins this game, it will win the West. If Arkansas State wins this game, they will win the West Division as they would have the head-to-head tie breakers with both Troy and Southern Miss.

Arkansas State head coach butch jones and Southern Miss head coach Charles Huff were asked about the Sun Belt West Division showdown on Monday during the Sun Belt weekly Zoom press conference.

“Well, just, you know, not giving up explosive plays, and they force you to execute. They force you to play in space. They force you to tackle a quarterback who is a dynamic player, deserving of all his honors, deserving of all the expectations in terms of preseason conference Player of the Year. They do a great job in terms of getting their skill players, their hands on the ball, and creating space, and really putting the ball in play. I think that the whole key is the ability of the quarterback to put the ball in play, and they’re big up front. So again, they’re extremely talented, and then defensively, you know, as good a defense that we’ve faced all year. Therefore, it will be a challenge,” said Arkansas state head coach Butch Jones.

“We have to go play a really good Arkansas State football team, you know, arguably the hottest team in the country over the last month. And that’s a fact. I mean, they’ve been able to go on the road and win games. They’ve been able to win close games, and that’s what good teams do: good teams find a way to win games, bad teams find a way to lose them. Obviously, they’re playing at a really high level with a lot of confidence. I have known Coach Jones for a long time. His process is set up for them to be playing well at the back end of the season, you know, at this level, sometimes our schedule doesn’t allow, you know, for the miraculous runs in the beginning of the season with the P4s that you have to play and those types of things. But people remember what you do in November, and they are setting themselves up for a really good run. Planned a really high level. I think their quarterback is arguably the best in the conference. I can’t judge my guy cause I see him every day, but as an opponent, he creates a lot of issues. Defensively, they give you a lot of looks. We’re going to an environment that’ll be different than the environment we went to, we plant at a different time as far as kickoff. We play a completely different team. I think we have learned throughout the course of the season, the key to all of it is preparation and mental disposition, whether you’re playing at home or away. I think when you play on the road, you’ve got to have a little more intentional focus. When the game time adjusts and you are adjusting, you have to have a little bit of awareness of that. We anticipate a really good game day environment. You know, you got a team that’s playing really well with a community and fan base that truly supports. So, we’re expecting a very hostile environment, obviously, with the kick time and location and all those things, we’ve got to make some adjustments in our schedule,” said Southern Miss head coach Charles Huff.

Both Coach Jones and Coach  Huff were asked about the Sun Belt West Division showdown on Tuesday during their weekly press conferences.

“And now we’ve got to get prepared for a really good Arkansas State football team that’s playing extremely well, arguably, the hottest team in the conference right now on the four-game win streak. Doing a really good job of finding ways to have gritty wins. I truly believe good teams find ways to win games; bad teams find ways to lose them. Over the last month, Arkansas State has done a really good job of finding ways to win games. Coach Butch Jones does a phenomenal job. You can see the culture, you can see the process that they have, how they go about it. I think they play extremely hard on both sides of the ball. I think their quarterback is arguably the best in the conference. I can’t rate hours because obviously I’m a little bit biased, but the kid’s dangerous. He can make all the throws. Obviously, he can activate his legs. I think he’s taking a step in growth from last year to this year, or from when he was a freshman and we played him at the other place. He’s not just pulling the ball down to run now. He’s pulling it down and still keeping his eyes downfield, which creates another whole set of issues. I think their O-line does a really good job of finishing blocks. Probably the best group of receivers as a cord that we faced all year. Offensively, they stress you with different formations, and they play with tempo. You always have to have a quarterback player with eyes on the quarterback, probably two quarterback players because of his ability, which takes guys out of coverage or out of your run fits, or they have dual responsibilities. They got to run fit and a quarterback responsibility, which is extremely tough defensively; they’re defensive line probably plays as hard as any group we’ve seen. They play with a high motor, a lot of effort. The back end stresses you with a lot of different coverages. I think you’re doing a really good job of mixing up different looks to formations. So, it’s going to be a challenge. I expect a really hostile environment. Their fans do a really good job of supporting. So, I expect you know the 11 o’clock kickoff to be rocking down there in their stadium. I’ve never been there, but I’ve heard it’s one of the nicer stadiums and setups in the conference. They’ve done a really good job over the history of their time in this league of improving facilities and improving their profile. So, it’s going to be a challenge for us by no means, are we overlooking them? Truly, the word appropriate fear comes into play, probably for the head coach here. It’s a little bit more of true fear. 
When you watch these guys play, even when you watch games in the beginning of the season, when they were, battling the schedule of P4 teams and those type of teams, they were in the games, and one or two plays here didn’t go their way the last four games, those plays have gone their way, but they’ve never been out of a game. They’ve never been blown out, if that makes sense. Arkansas is probably the biggest score differential that they’ve had, even against Iowa State. 
They’re in the game. They’re competing. A couple plays here or there, even games where they get behind Texas State, Georgia Southern. Kennesaw State, even though they lost that game, battled back. At the very end. So, they’re definitely a scary team. We’ve got a lot of work to do to focus on what we can control and how we play. 
It starts with how we prepare. I thought we had a really good day yesterday, even over the break, you know, our leaders had guys watching film, Braylon, Chris Jones, those guys were in the group text, making sure guys were watching the game, even though we were off that week. When they came on Sunday, they came in with a really good knowledge base, a little bit further ahead than some of our opponents. So, we’ve got a chance to rest this week, and then we’ve got to go play really well. Does it matter how much attention you put on the team if you don’t go out and execute? So, our players are fully understanding what we’re walking into,” said Coach Huff

“This is as good a team that’s been in the Sun Belt since we’ve been here. And I know Coach Huff, you know, tries to play the game and God love him, but they’re a really talented football team, you know, and it’s the age of college football. We’re playing the defending champion. You look at their starting defense, seven of those 11 came from Marshall. And then the quarterback, who is as good a quarterback as I’ve seen. And I think the thing about him is he can throw the deep ball exceptionally well. He’s big, he’s physical, he can make all the throws. He’s impressive. The receiving core is probably as good a receiving core as anybody in the group of six. You know, they have tall guys, they have mid-range guys, they all can run, they all have good ranges that catch the football. I think their tight ends are really, really talented. Running backs are hard to bring down offensive line is big and imposing. I mean, there’s a reason other record is the way they are, and they know how to win, and then defensively, their defensive front is violent. They’re physical, probably the best back end of any team we’ve faced all year. 
Their break and drive, their ability to drive routes is really, really impressive. Special teams. So when you really look at this football team, they’re the defending champion. Their players know how to win. I think it’s. Kind of the circumstances that surround college football. Who would ever have thought that four or five years ago, you would take a championship team on their coach, and be displaced, and go to another school in your conference, and everybody follows, and they kind of pick up where they left off at their previous school? I think, you know, that’s if there’s ever an indication or a definition of where we’re at in the profession, and, you know, Coach Huff has done a great job there. But they’re as talented a team as we’ll face. I definitely have my respect. The more videos I watch, the more impressive they are, and then, you know, every game is about the style, you know, the Style of fights dictates how you’re going to play, and you know, they play differently. They do a really good job offensively. They go really fast. 
They do a great job with their cadence. They get a lot of gimmes and a lot of free plays because they’re such good at what they do in their cadence, they control the tempo, they can run the ball, they can push the ball down the field. So that style of play is going to be different, very similar to summer, regards to Kennesaw, but there are a lot of differences as well, and then defensively, really, really good at all three levels of their defense. 
Like I said, there’s the secondaries elite. Their defense is elite. So it’s going to take a great effort of complimentary football, and it’s going to take winning the process and you know, how do we prepare day in and day out and just working to win the day and then just stack days and, you know, these games are always great to see and kind of roll the ball out and play at 11 a.m. and kind of see how you how you face off and try to give your players, you know, every competitive advantage you can. And you have to search for them because they have no weaknesses. They’re a really good football team. And, you know, I’ve been up here and told you like it is, I’ve been very complimentary of our opponents, but I don’t think you’ve ever heard me this complimentary of a football team before, because they’re really a complete team in all three phases,” said Coach Jones.

New for the 2025 season, the Sun Belt Conference announced that they are doing weekly football availability reports for all 14 teams that are playing conference games. It is similar to the NFL’s injury report, but the availability reports don’t say what kind of injury the player has, unlike the NFL’s injury report. The report will have players listed as available, questionable, doubtful, probable, or out, and will have the same say game time decision on the reports that are listed on gamedays. The first initial report will be announced three days before each conference game, which will be on Wednesday. Another update to the availability reports will happen on gamedays at 10:30 EST/9:30 CST. Both Arkansas State and Southern Miss submitted their availability reports on Wednesday night. The players on the list for Southern Miss are OL Jahmir Davis (out) and DB Ishmael Ibraheem (out). The players on the list for Arkansas state are WR  Nazeviah Burris (out), TE Jabari Bush (out), RB JaQuez Cross (out), DB Malik McConnico (out), OL Tristan Smith (out), DL Quincey Wright(out), TE Tyler Little (questionable), and DB Brandon Greil (questionable).