Red Wolves wait to find out location of their ‘celebration’
All Arkansas State University can do now is wait.
The Red Wolves will learn Sunday where they will end their eighth consecutive bowl-eligible season, once championship weekend concludes and bowl matchups are finalized.
“My whole deal about bowl games is they’re a celebration of a season,” Coach Blake Anderson told reporters after ASU’s 33-7 victory Saturday at Texas State. “They’ve earned it. These seniors have earned it. This group has been bowl eligible every year. That’s hard to do.
“A lot of people can’t get that done. So we’re going to spoil them. We’re going to get ready. We definitely want to find a way to win.”
Appalachian State (9-2, 7-1 Sun Belt), Louisiana-Lafayette (7-5, 5-3), Troy (9-3, 7-1) and Georgia Southern (93, 6-2) are likely to be picked as the Sun Belt Conference’s first four bowl representatives ahead of ASU (84, 5-3).
All three teams from the East Division finished with a better conference record than the Red Wolves, who missed the cut on the conference title game because of losses to Appalachian State, Georgia Southern and a critical division loss at Louisiana-Lafayette.
With a 31-28 victory Saturday at Louisiana-Monroe, the Ragin’ Cajuns clinched the West Division’s bid to the title game. Louisiana Lafayette’s head-to-head victory against ASU in October pushed the Red Wolves to second and ended their 8-4 regular season on a somber note.
“Our standards are really high,” Anderson said. “We want to play for and win championships. We feel like we let that go this year.”
The New Orleans Bowl has announced it will host the winner of the Sun Belt Championship Game between Louisiana-Lafayette and Appalachian State, so ASU is not headed there.
One of the Sun Belt’s four other guaranteed bowls — the Camellia Bowl, the Dollar General Bowl, the Cure Bowl and the Arizona Bowl — could host ASU.
“Just wait and see,” Anderson said. “We know there’s three weekends we could possibly play. We’ve got to be ready.”
The Cure, Camellia and New Orleans bowls are Dec. 15. The Dollar General Bowl is Dec. 22. The Arizona Bowl is Dec. 29.
Until the Red Wolves find out, they will have time to rest and recruit.
“We’ve got to get back home, get some treatment and get some perspective,” Anderson said. “Obviously, we’ve got some recruiting to do this week. We’ll be out on the road. As soon as we know, then we’ll start preparing for an opponent.”
The Red Wolves’ longest break during the regular season was nine days off between their Sept. 29 loss at Georgia Southern and Oct. 9 loss to Appalachian State on a Tuesday, which counted as their open week.
“We haven’t had an open week,” Anderson said. “These guys need a little bit of rest.”