– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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FRISCO, TEXAS — It was more than fitting that the Arkansas State football team ended its season playing in a contest named after a video game console. For the first two months of the season, the Red Wolves’ games seemed to be set to the highest difficulty level, and a rage quit during the middle of the season would not have been out of the question. Instead of hitting the reset button, they continued to challenge — and beat — some of the final bosses lying in wait at the end of the season, and now they finished their 2025 season with more achievements unlocked.
Quarterback Jaylen Raynor threw for 288 yards and three touchdowns as Arkansas State opened up a 24-point lead early in the third quarter before defeating Missouri State 34-28 in the inaugural Xbox Bowl inside the Ford Center at The Star, just outside of Dallas, on Thursday evening.
Corey Rucker had 166 of those receiving yards, including 71 on a touchdown catch late in the second quarter. With the long score, Rucker passed Omar Bayless (2015-19) as the program’s leader in career receiving touchdowns with 27.
The Red Wolves opened this season with a 1-4 record, with defeats to Power Four opponents Arkansas and Iowa State during that stretch, with their only win during that stretch coming against Southeast Missouri State of the FCS at home in the season opener on Aug. 30. Arkansas State didn’t record a win over an FBS opponent until the first week of October, a 31-30 triumph versus Texas State in Jonesboro that started a four-game winning streak.
Arkansas State won five of its final seven games in Sun Belt Conference play, and ended the regular season with a win at Appalachian State where it scored the game-winning touchdown with 42 seconds remaining to improve to 6-6 and clinch bowl eligibility.
“We had 70 newcomers in our football program and we started the season 1-4,” Arkansas State head coach Butch Jones said following the postgame celebration on Thursday night. “A lot of that was, honestly, a byproduct of the most difficult non-conference schedule in America.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Thursday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST photo editor Ross James. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 53 pictures in total.
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