ASU (7-3) makes ripples in bowl pool

Quarterback Ryan Aplin (16) and the Arkansas State Red Wolves are on the cusp of a second consecutive outright Sun Belt Conference title, but the success comes after consecutive 4-8 seasons. “It’s something we talk about as a team,” Aplin said. “We’ve waited for these past few years for a long time, and it’s something we want to hold on to and keep passing down. This is what we want the program to do.” Video is available at arkansasonline. com/videos.
Quarterback Ryan Aplin (16) and the Arkansas State Red Wolves are on the cusp of a second consecutive outright Sun Belt Conference title, but the success comes after consecutive 4-8 seasons. “It’s something we talk about as a team,” Aplin said. “We’ve waited for these past few years for a long time, and it’s something we want to hold on to and keep passing down. This is what we want the program to do.” Video is available at arkansasonline. com/videos.

— On Thursday night, there were brief snippets of the future Arkansas State envisions for its football program during a 45-23 victory against Louisiana-Monroe.

Upstairs in the press box, representatives from the Liberty Bowl and New Orleans Bowl evaluated Coach Gus Malzahn’s team. In the stands, a boisterous crowd announced at 30,234 turned out for a midweek game broadcast on national television.

And on the field, the Red Wolves (7-3, 5-1 Sun Belt Conference) subdued the battered Warhawks (6-4, 4-2) in the hunt for their second consecutive outright Sun Belt title.

The past two seasons have become golden days for a program that has struggled mightily for two decades after making the jump to the Football Bowl Subdivision, with one bowl appearance in 2006 before last season.

“We’ve waited for these past few years for a long time, and it’s something we want to hold on to and keep passing down,” Arkansas State quarterback Ryan Aplin said. “This is what we want the program to do.”

Subduing Louisiana-Monroe, which entered tied with Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee for first place, puts the Red Wolves in a position to gain at least a share of the Sun Belt title next week with a victory at Troy.

“We have high goals and high dreams for our program,” Malzahn said. “If you really want to raise your program, you seize the moment, and I felt like we did that tonight.”

Arkansas State’s path to a Sun Belt crown is simple: Winout and the Red Wolves win the outright title.

Middle Tennessee (6-3, 4-1) is off this week, trailing the Red Wolves by a half-game in the standings. If the Blue Raiders can notch victories against South Alabama and Troy, a season-finale trip to Jonesboro on Dec. 1 could serve as a de facto Sun Belt title game.

With its victory over Louisiana-Monroe, Arkansas State has reeled off five consecutive victories after losing to Western Kentucky in its conference opener.

“It’s huge, but not only for all that but the self-confidence of this team,” Aplin said. “This is a really big game, and one people have been talking about for a while. For us to come out and be successful tonight, it gives us a lot of momentum.”

Malzahn said Thursday night that the Red Wolves “knew this was a big game as far as a conference championship.”

“We’ve been very tough on our players, very demanding on our players,” Malzahn said. “Those guys have won a championship before. We don’t have very many of them, but they’re leading this group.”

ASU is 1 of 49 bowl-eligible teams, with 16 others needing one more victory to reach the required number of six for a postseason bid.

The Sun Belt has two tie ins, the New Orleans Bowl and GoDaddy.com Bowl, but there are five potentially eligible teams, creating the need for the conference to scour for other games with possible openings.

There’s a chance the Big East might only fill three of its seven slots, while the Atlantic Coast Conference could come up a team short of filling its eight bowl tie-ins.

On Tuesday, the conference will hold a conference call with athletic directors at bowl-eligible schools about what options exist, with this week’s chat focused on the Big Ten and SEC, which each have 10 slots and only seven eligible teams at this time.

The Red Wolves are in the mix with other midmajor programs such as Bowling Green and Ball State to take one of those vacant slots, making Thursday night’s victory a nice addition to their resume.

But Malzahn was blunt in assessing what remains in front of the Red Wolves.

“We’ve got to finish this thing,” he said.

Sports, Pages 23 on 11/10/2012

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