The Herald Online

Issue date: 11/12/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Abdullah Raslan Ryan Aplin, freshman quarterback for the Red Wolves, practicing his throw during Wednesday's practice.

After losing to Louisiana-Lafayette last Saturday in front of their home crowd, head coach Steve Roberts and the Red Wolves have set their sights for Florida-Atlantic in the second of five Sun Belt Conference games.

Despite the back-to-back losses against Louisville and Louisiana-Lafayette, Roberts maintained that the atmosphere in practice this week has been positive, and the team is playing well.

"They've looked really good," Roberts said. "I'm really pleased with their efforts, and their attention to detail. It's a really good thing."

Even with the advent of the team functioning well in practice, the Red Wolves will still be tested this Saturday when they face Florida-Atlantic.

If Florida-Atlantic plays at the level they did earlier in the season, Roberts feels they are more than capable of doing just that.

"They've played great defense several times this year, and obviously with a couple of games here lately, they haven't played as well as they expected to play," Roberts said. "In the Middle Tennessee game, Middle Tennessee blocked two punts, but basically couldn't move the ball against them, and ULL couldn't move the ball against them."

"If you look at the UAB (against Florida-Atlantic) game from last week, they didn't play well at all, so it just depends on the games you watch. They're very capable and [they have] good players who are very capable of playing the type of defense they're accustomed, which for the past several years has been very good."

Quite possibly the biggest issue the Red Wolves will face this week is who will be the starting quarterback against Florida-Atlantic.

Although senior quarterback Corey Leonard has carried the banner for ASU for almost four years now, it was freshman quarterback Ryan Aplin that rallied ASU to close the gap on an 18-21 loss, nearly winning the game.

Roberts asserts that he isn't looking at any one aspect of the team and that they will probably not announce who will be starting until the game.

"We're going to treat that like every other position on the field," Roberts said. "We're evaluating everything, changes will be made. We just want to make sure everybody gets a fair evaluation. We're not going to announce any changes. We're not going to talk about it. We'll just show those changes, if and when they occur on Saturday."

Kick off is scheduled for 3 p.m. this Saturday in Boca Raton, Fl.

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