Mississippi Valley State's first game will be its toughest.
Trying to rebound from back-to-back 3-9 seasons, the Delta Devils kick off the 2009 season Saturday at Arkansas State - a Football Bowl Subdivision team (formerly known as Division I-A) that returns 17 starters from last year's team that went 6-6 and defeated Texas A&M.
"No doubt this will be a challenge for us," Valley coach Willie Totten said. "They play a lot of tough competition in Division I-A in the Sun Belt conference.
"The good news is that we will know exactly where we are with this team, and with an open date coming up, we will have two weeks to get it right before we open conference play."
The Red Wolves are 4-0 against Southwestern Athletic Conference teams, with the last two wins coming in major blowouts (55-3 over MVSU in 1995 and 83-10 over Texas Southern in 2008).
This is obviously not the way Totten would have preferred to open the season, but this game gives Valley's strapped athletic budget a boost because Arkansas State will pay MVSU $200,000 to play Saturday.
Totten says the program should net at least $185,000 once all the travel expenses are paid.
Saturday will be a major test for what Totten believes is a much-improved Delta Devil defense - which has ranked last in the SWAC the past two seasons.
The Red Wolves return a wealth of talent from an offensive unit that broke the school's 57-year-old record for total offense. That group is led by quarterback Corey Leonard, the Sun Belt's preseason co-offensive player of the year.
The 6-foot-1, 207-pound senior signal-caller completed 166-of-306 passes for 2,347 yards and 16 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
ASU also has its top three rushers back from 2008, including Reggie Arnold, who ran for 1,117 yards and seven TDs on 197 carries last season.
"We know we've got to stop their running game. They have a big offensive line, so we will have be a physical bunch out there," Totten said.
Arkansas State coach Steve Roberts says his team is gearing up to stop Valley's passing attack - one of the most prolific in the SWAC last season with 226 yards a game.
"They throw the football extremely effectively," Roberts said. "They have their quarterback back, and they throw the football about 40 times a game. He has four of his top six receivers back. We've got to do a great job of stopping their passing attack through great coverage in the secondary."
MVSU senior quarterback Paul Roberts started nine games last season, completing 53 percent of his attempts and throwing for more than 2,000 yards with 14 touchdowns.
Roberts' ability to pull the ball down and run with it is also a major concern for the Red Wolves defense. Roberts ranked second on the team in rushing yards last season, with a team-high 89 carries for 192 yards - a number that would have been nearly double if not for 35 sacks.
"Their quarterback is very athletic," the ASU coach said. "He can pull the football down and run the football as well. We really don't know what to expect or how they have game-planned for this particular game. … We've tried to prepare for just about anything that they can do."
