Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

JONESBORO — Ryan Aplin shouldn’t lack for options to catch passes this season.

Arkansas State boasts what might be one of the deepest receiving corps in the Sun Belt Conference entering 2012. Yes, leading receiver Dwayne Frampton is now pursuing a professional career. Otherwise Aplin, the Red Wolves’ senior, record-setting quarterback, has plenty of known commodities at the position, something that figures to help the transition to Gus Malzahn’s offense.

Stepping up to take over for Frampton will be a squad of seniors Taylor Stockemer, Josh Jarboe and Allen Muse. Malzahn believes all three are capable of playing at the next level. Redshirt freshman J.D. McKissic could also make an immediate contribution.

“There’s definitely more depth than there has been in the past,” said Stockemer, the team’s returning all-purpose yardage leader with 756 last season. “I think the big key is the young guys, like J.D. McKissic, Earl Lucas and R.J. Fleming, Carlos [McCants] and Julian [Jones]. We have a lot of great young people behind us.”

Delivering the ball to the receivers as usual will be Aplin, the Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year. Aplin passed for 3,588 yards in 2011, with many of those going to Frampton.

Even without Frampton, who caught 94 passes for 1,156 yards and six touchdowns in his final season, Aplin sees plenty of options.

“I think I told somebody that we have a top 15, top 10 receiving corps in the country. There’s so much depth, so many guys that can play,” Aplin said. Aplin also noted the depth would keep players fresh and injury free, something that came to a head during the team’s bowl game against Northern Illinois, a 38-20 loss in the GoDaddy.com Bowl.

“We had two of our key guys get hurt, three actually with Jarboe’s shoulder. It was tough to recover,” Aplin said.

Leading this year’s group will be first-year positions coach Casey Woods, who followed Malzahn to Jonesboro from Auburn after working for the Tigers during the last three years as the Director of Offensive Quality Control.

“He’s not much older than me; he’s kind of young, but old at the same time,” said Jarboe, who caught 54 passes for 730 yards and two touchdowns in 2011. “He’s showing me things he learned through his coaching experience and when he played at Tennessee [from 2003-07]. He’s pouring it out to us. [With] the seniors, he’s making sure we take control of this thing.”

Jarboe is a believer that this year’s squad can put on a repeat performance and once again break the school’s record for total offense, which was set last season with 5,822 yards, while also leading the Sun Belt in three offensive categories.

“I don’t think we’ve lost a step," Jarboe said. "Everyone’s not trying to be the main person, everybody’s just doing what they got to do: make sure all of us look good and keep Aplin’s completion rate going up."