Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Anderson: Thankful for gesture
The tributes to Wendy Anderson, the late wife of Arkansas State University Coach Blake Anderson, continue to pour in.
On Saturday at Sanford Stadium against No. 3 Georgia, ASU players and coaches can expect to see, among plenty of red and black, the color pink as well.
On Tuesday, the Athens, Ga., nonprofit organization, Bulldogs Battling Breast Cancer, which according to its website has raised $750,000 to help fight the disease, sent out a tweet encouraging Georgia fans to wear pink to the game in honor of Wendy Anderson. It’s since been retweeted over 1,000 times.
“We want to show Coach Anderson that, regardless of the score on Saturday, he and his family are in our thoughts [and] prayers,” the tweet said. “If you’re headed to Sanford Stadium on Saturday, please consider wearing at least a little pink, in honor of Wendy Anderson. #WearPinkForWendy #NotFightingAlone”
Blake Anderson said Wednesday that he was pleasantly surprised by the idea.
“It’s a completely genuine, classy gesture from people that don’t know you. Very surprising and obviously very much appreciated,” Anderson said. “Just caught me off guard, to be honest with you. Teared me up. I wasn’t expecting it, and extremely flattered and thankful for those folks and so many others that have stepped up in so many different ways.”
It’s not the first tribute from an opponent this season. In the season opener against SMU in Jonesboro, Mustangs coaches wore patches of Wendy Anderson’s initials on their shirts and players wore a sticker on their helmets with her initials.
Return stirs players
ASU players are still beaming over their head coach’s surprising return to the sidelines Saturday night in Las Vegas, a 43-17 win over UNLV that improved the Red Wolves to 1-1.
Players weren’t expecting Anderson to burst through the door at the pregame team meeting at the hotel hours before kickoff, effectively ending his nearly three-week absence after the passing of his wife on Aug. 19.
“Man, it was great energy, real positive,” said senior cornerback Jeremy Smith, who returned an interception for a touchdown on UNLV’s game-opening drive. “I mean, we had no idea he was gonna come in there. Just being through what we’ve been through these past few months, just hearing his voice out of nowhere coming into the room, it just kind of lit the room up. The guys were ready to go. We were fired up, ready to play right then and right there. Man, it was awesome.”
Junior quarterback Logan Bonner, who’s close with Anderson’s family, said the victory “was one of the biggest wins I’ve been a part of.”
“It was huge,” Bonner said. “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to win and we wanted to win that [SMU] game so bad, and we were really just hurt that we didn’t get it done. But just coming back and working hard and getting back to win and absolutely going out there and playing a complete game and dominating, I think that it was a really big win for us.”
Anderson said Wednesday that both senior wide receiver Dahu Green and sophomore running back Marcel Murray are still dayto-day with injuries.
“We’ll see how things look,” Anderson said. “[Thursday]’s really probably where we need to make some decisions.”
After suffering a broken ankle in last year’s season opener that sidelined him for the remainder of the year, Green has missed the first two games of this season already with a nagging knee injury from fall camp. Murray rolled his ankle in the second quarter of the victory over UNLV and missed the second half.
Junior receiver Jonathan Adams has tallied 12 catches for 120 yards in two games in place of Green. Last year, Adams had 17 receptions for 267 yards and 3 touchdowns.
“A year ago, J was playing, I thought, at a really high level before he got hurt, and it’s great to have him back,” Anderson said. “He gets more and more confidence each week.”
Aside from Murray, junior Ryan Graham, true freshman Isaiah Azubuike and junior DJ Chatman all received carries against UNLV. Graham, a junior college transfer who impressed in fall camp and who coaches have been high on, led the way with 12 attempts for 103 yards and a touchdown. He could be relied on again against Georgia.
“Ryan Graham has been a pleasant surprise. We liked him or we wouldn’t have recruited him,” Anderson said. “But just how quickly he’s stepped in and made an impact, taken some pressure off of Marcel, stepping up when Marcel was hurt the other day, those are all huge things for us. We’re really excited about how he’s progressing, and he’s got a solid career ahead of him.”
Grupe kicking well
In July at Sun Belt Media Day, Anderson didn’t mince words when asked how he felt about the kicking position.
“I feel pretty nervous about that position going into camp,” Anderson said. “We recruited Tristan Mattson this summer to come in and hopefully take over that job. … It is one of those positions that would have won a game or two more over the course of the last couple years.”
Anderson is singing a bit of a different tune now, based on improvement he’s seen in sophomore Blake Grupe.
Grupe, who struggled at times last year and narrowly beat out true freshman Tristan Mattson for the starting job, is off to a strong start this season. Grupe hit 3-of-3 field goal attempts, including a long of 38 yards, in the victory over UNLV.
“He’s kicking it better, more consistently than a year ago,” Anderson said. “Worked at it over the summer, challenged him and I was trying to replace [him], tried to put him in a position where he knew that there was competition gonna be coming in, and he stepped up. … He’ll more than likely have to kick one that really, really counts in the heat of battle somewhere in the near future, and hopefully he can perform then as well.”