Arkansas State vs Memphis is one of the Week 1 matchups that caught our attention early. For those of you who are in the #FeedMe telegram channel, you should have gotten a chance to get down on ARKANSAS STATE at plus 10 (good down to +9.5) on Sept 5th in Week 1, with Tunes giving the go-ahead to pull the trigger at 6:52 p.m. Eastern time on Monday.
Now it's our job to tell you why.
The Schedule Spot
Memphis opens its season with a trip to UNLV for a week 0 spot against the Rebels at Allegiant Stadium. The Tigers then host Arkansas State before a trip to Boise in Week 2. This sets up a fairly rare early-season classic non-conference sandwich spot for Memphis against their rivals from Jonesboro, which will board the bus for an hourlong trip down Interstate 55 to the Liberty Bowl.
Quarterback Questions
Memphis and UNLV have both been playing coy with their starting situations heading into the opener but the Red Wolves (nee Indians) will have some tape from Charles Huff's first game in Las Vegas to work with whereas A-State is off this week. Huff will be coaching for his third team in three seasons, elevating his job status from head coach at Marshall to Southern Miss to Memphis in the process. The talent jump from the Sun Belt to the American is fairly significant and Huff has several of his better players from the lesser stops on his way up. We'll have a better idea of what the Tigers look like when they play a game.
A New Look for Arkansas State
Arkansas State ranked among the best teams in the nation in target frequency and total pass attempts last season, ranking fifth in total targets (507) and seventh in receptions (335). There will be a new quarterback behind center, though no one has separated himself in the race between Trey Owens and Drew Dickey, each who went to an SEC school and played sparingly or not at all in 2025. Dickey was at Vandy, where he follows QB coach Garrett Altman in being promoted to offensive coordinator at Arkansas State. Altman played a large part in the development of Diego Pavia into an elite college quarterback in a hyper-efficient option/zone read offense. Expect more dynamic dual-threat QB usage in Jonesboro this fall for whoever wins the job.
The script on offense will likely revolve early around spreading out Memphis's front seven and not allow them to focus on experienced A-State running backs and keying on the run. With the line still at more than one score, there is value on the Red Wolves to keep it close in their season opener against a less-focused opponent given that they have FCS West Georgia coming in after the Memphis trip. Taking them here to cover the spread was a natural release to start the season for our FeedMe channel.