Kind of surprised that he’s not being mentioned.
Now that’s funny.
Doubt we will ever hire a coach straight from a state.
He’s a very good coach and he apparently is in the mix as a possibility at TX A&M. And like it or not, A&M is a higher profile program than Arkansas.
Blake Anderson is only in the mix if Jimbo and probably Morris both turn the Aggies down. They probably would go after Jeff Brohm at Purdue as well, before Anderson, and maybe even (gasp!) Bobby Petrino.
Right now if Blake Anderson was a race horse he would be an also eligible who won’t even get to run unless others scratch. A lot of others.
aTm hiring Blake Anderson? Not gonna happen.
I’d think Anderson would be a very good candidate at a lower profile P5 school (say someplace like Kansas, Minnesota, Wake Forest) or a higher profile G5 school like SMU or Memphis than he would be for any SEC school. Besides, while Anderson’s record at ASU has been good, it’s hardly been astounding. They’re something like 1-15 against FBS competition under him. (I’m too lazy to look up the actual number but that’s not far off. He lost to UCA last year & got pummeled by SMU this year. Winning & splitting SBC championships is nice, but it’s not going to get somebody great job prospects without some decent non-conference wins to go with it.
I think you are confusing Power 5 with FBS. Every team in the Sun Belt is an FBS team.
No Arkansas State team has defeated a Power 5 program since Hugh Freeze began the program’s run in 2011.
I’m surprised he hasn’t been mentioned more either. I think he is a good coach. If he was at a different school he might be getting more interest from the UA. It seems that acknowledging that ASU even exists is taboo for our school.
The three ASU coaches prior to Anderson have gone directly to top 25 type schools.
Freeze to Ole Miss
Gus to Auburn
Anderson’s immediate predecessor to Boise State
Freeze had the best record ASU had in the previous 20-25 years. And it was by a pretty large margin. It didn’t surprise me to see him get offered at Ole Miss, his alma mater. Gus had been the very successful OC at Auburn (they won a national championship) when took the gig at ASU. It wasn’t at all surprising Auburn brought him back. They’d have done it at the time if he’d spent the year cattle farming. Nonetheless, he too had a very good record at ASU. Finally, Harsin, was a hometown hero at Boise. Harsin’s record at ASU was pretty good, too. But Boise, despite it’s tremendous success as a G5 school, still isn’t the SEC. It’s the very type school I could see offering Anderson.
I’m not dissing Anderson because he’s at ASU, I’m simply saying there’s nothing in his record that makes me want him here. Apparently my assessment of his record isn’t unique. He’s been at ASU for about 4 years now & always had about the same record he’s on track to have there this year (7-4 or 8-3 since Miami canceled their game this year due to the hurricane in Fla. Otherwise it’d be 7-5 or 8-4).) No P5 school one has come calling yet & if a P5 offered, he’d go. If a Boise or some other upper tier G5 offered, he’d go there, too.