Old Sun Belt rivals pitted as bowl foes
The Arkansas State University football team completed its first on-site bowl practice in Montgomery, Ala., on Wednesday, as the December breeze flowed in at an even 50 degrees.
Oddsmakers have set the line of Saturday’s Camellia Bowl a little higher than an even 50-50 match-up, with the Red Wolves (7-4) favored by 4 points over Middle Tennessee State (6-6).
The former Sun Belt rivals have not played each other since ASU beat the Blue Raiders 45-0 in the 2012 regular-season finale that gave the Red Wolves their second consecutive conference championship.
Three days later, then Coach Gus Malzahn was
announced as Auburn’s new head coach, and the Red Wolves entered the GoDaddy.com Bowl against Kent State in Mobile, Ala., without a head coach. It happened again the following season when Bryan Harsin left as head coach for Boise State just before the team played Ball State in the GoDaddy. com Bowl.
ASU won both of those bowls and now has fourthyear Coach Blake Anderson leading the program to a state-record seventh consecutive bowl appearance.
Athletic Director Terry Mohajir referenced those two coachless moments in the Camellia Bowl’s news conference Monday afternoon, just after the team buses arrived from Jonesboro.
“Our coach, Coach Anderson, believe it or not, we’ve got him for another year at least,” said Mohajir, after retaining Anderson even though 20 FBS schools underwent coaching changes this season. “We’ve traveled to Alabama without coaches, so we’re excited to have that. Part of that is the stability of our program has allowed us
to build some facilities and have some success. Coach Anderson has won two conference championships and been to four bowl games in four years and we’re just delighted to have him.”
Anderson, offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, defensive coordinator Joe Cauthen and outside wide receivers coach Luke Paschall each have ties to Middle Tennessee State.
Anderson was the co-offensive coordinator for the Blue Raiders from 2002-2004; Faulkner was the offensive coordinator from 2012-2015; Cauthen was a linebackers and defensive line coach from 2011-2013; and Paschall was a wide receiver from 20032006.
Faulkner and Cauthen both worked for Middle Tennessee Coach Rick Stockstill, who was named the head coach in 2006.
“[They’re] an excellent football coaching staff,” said Stockstill, a former Florida State quarterback under Hall of Fame Coach Bobby Bowden from 1977-1981. “And that’s not coach speak, because I’ve coached with Buster and Joe, and I know how talented they are. … [The team is] really good. Athletic. They can run. Very dynamic.
Buster’s done a great job with that offense, and their defense was very talented.”
ASU had a chance at its sixth Sun Belt title in seven years before its 32-25 loss to Troy in the regular season finale. The Red Wolves practiced in Jonesboro from Friday to Monday, then bused to Montgomery on Tuesday morning. The team will practice at 11 a.m. today and have a walk-through at the Cramton Bowl on Friday.
“Something we always pride ourselves in is we’re going to jump in, roll our sleeves up and do the very best we can to represent our university, the bowl itself and the conference,” Anderson said Monday. “So we appreciate the opportunity, all the people that it takes to get this game off the ground and run at a high level, but we’re going to do our part, too, to make this a great game.”
While ASU’s recent bowl games have been relatively regional, Middle Tennessee State has played in the Hawaii Bowl and the Bahamas Bowl the past two seasons. Now, Blue Raiders supporters only have a 288-mile, 4-hour drive from Murfreesboro, Tenn.
That brought out the generosity in Stockstill.
“So as soon as we got
named to the Camellia Bowl, Coach ‘Stock’ writes a check for $10,000 to help our students, who haven’t been able to go to the bowl game the last two years,” MTSU Athletic Director Chris Massaro said. “Rick wanted to make sure MTSU students had a chance to go to the game so he bought them all their tickets. Anybody who wanted to go could pick up a ticket this week and come to the game. That’s the kind of human being that he is.”
ASU supporters have a bit further way to go, with a 463mile, 7-hour drive.
“Both Terry and I stepped up and tried to make it possible for as many of our students as possible so hopefully they’ll turn out in record numbers as they travel away for Christmas break,” Anderson said. I think just watching our players’ reaction to us telling them where we’re going to go, the opportunity we had to play and who we were going to play, you could tell just immediately they were excited. You always like the opportunity to be part of something new and this is relatively new here and I think they’re really excited about that and also the opportunity to play a good opponent.”