Arkansas State head coach Butch Jones wasn't too happy with fans after his team's 37-17 win against Louisiana on Saturday.
Jones called out fans for not showing up to the game on Saturday.
The official attendance for Arkansas State's win against Louisiana was 15,881. Centennial Bank Stadium has a capacity of 30,382.
"Thank the fans that did show up today with beautiful weather, I'd like to thank them for coming," said Jones. "We need to do something. I'm going to challenge our student body. You know, we got a team that's won five out of seven. We represent Arkansas State. We need to start making Centennial Bank Stadium a home field advantage."
"I'm very grateful for the people that came out today," added Jones. "Grateful for everything that they do for our program, but we need to get more people in the stands. This is a community team. It starts with our student body. So I don't know if I have to walk across campus and continue to meet, but that's why you go to college. It's part of the collegiate experience to be a part of it and it was unacceptable today."
It's hard to blame Jones for his comments on Saturday. After getting off to a rough start this season (Arkansas State lost their first two games of the season 73-0 and 37-3), the Red Wolves have rallied to win five of their last seven games, improving their record to 5-4.
Arkansas State's 20 point win against Louisiana, specifically, shows the progress that the program is making in recent weeks. Louisiana is now 5-4 after playing Minnesota (a team that knocked off a ranked Iowa team recently) tough on the road in late September. Beating the Cajuns by 20 point is an impressive win for the Red Wolves.
Whatever you think of Butch Jones, he's starting to turn it around at Arkansas State. And it's understandable that he's trying to drum up more fan support to help create a home field advantage for his players.
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