JONESBORO - Fredi Knighten’s eyes grew wide and he sat up in his chair when asked to speak about his new head coach for the first time.
“Fast-paced offense,” Arkansas State’s sophomore quarterback said Thursday at Blake Anderson’s introductory news conference. “That’s what we love. It sells tickets.
“Honestly, on behalf of the offense, I’m super excited. I can’t contain myself. It’s going to be fun.”
“Fun” was one of a few buzz words Anderson used while being introduced as ASU’s fifth coach in five years. ASU is getting a coach with more than two decades of experience, eight of which have been spent as coordinator or co-coordinator while developing an up-tempo, no-huddle system similar to what was used by former ASU coaches Hugh Freezeand Gus Malzahn and helped spark the Red Wolves’ best run as an FBS member.
Anderson said his philosophies are closer to what Freeze did at ASU in 2011 and has done at Ole Miss than how Malzahn operates at Auburn, but he said his Red Wolves will operate faster than any team he has coached.
“We’ll be one of the fastest-operating teams in the country,” Anderson said. “You’ve obviously seen some guys play fast, but look at that and ramp it up a notch.”
Those words piqued the interest of Knighten, who was recruited to ASU by Malzahn to run his hurry-up, no-huddle offense.
Knighten played a similar style at Pulaski Academy before arriving at ASU, but he played sparingly for Malzahn in 2012 and didn’t get a chance to run the system after Malzahn left for Auburn. Knighten served as a backup to Adam Kennedy this season in former coach Bryan Harsin’s system that relied on various tempos.
Anderson’s up-tempo style is what had him on Athletic Director Terry Mohajir’s list of candidates.
Anderson, 44, has led offenses at Middle Tennessee, Louisiana-Lafayette, Southern Miss and North Carolina. He is the fourth consecutive coach ASU has hired from a similar post, and the second such hire made by Mohajir.
The second-year athletic director said Thursday he preferred a coach with a background in the Spread offense because it fits ASU’s current personnel, which he thought was important while trying to maintain ASU’s run of three consecutive seasons of at least winning a share of the Sun Belt Conference title and advancing to a bowl game.
Anderson’s reputation of developing quarterbacks also helped. North Carolina’s Bryn Renner set the school record for touchdown passes in 2012, his first under Anderson, and was second in career touchdowns before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury in November.
At Southern Miss, walk-on Austin Davis became a fouryear starter under Anderson and broke school records for touchdowns, passing yards and completion percentage. Davis is currently with the St. Louis Rams.
“Developing quarterbacks and developing offense wins this league,” said Mohajir, who also worked at Florida Atlantic when it was in the Sun Belt. “Whoever has the best quarterback usually wins the league.”
Anderson’s offense has been a work in progress.
He said he first picked it up when he was a co-coordinator at Middle Tennessee while Fedora was on his way to becoming offensive coordinator at Florida. Anderson learned the offense before Fedora left and ran it in his first season in 2002.
The schemes evolved over time as he borrowed running principles from Rich Rodriguez, now at Arizona, and passing principles from Sonny Dykes and Mike Leach.
“A lot of trial and error,” Anderson said. “A lot of compilation.”
Anderson said his ideal offense would resemble what he and Davis ran at Southern Miss in 2011.
Anderson’s offenses have had varied tempos and success in his eight seasons, but the Golden Eagles went 12-2 that year while averaging 74.4 plays per game and 6.2 yards per play, which ranked 25th nationally.
Anderson’s offense haven’t always been the fastest - North Carolina averaged 72 plays per game this year, which was less than what ASU averaged (73.5) but more than Malzahn averaged at Auburn (71.8).
Still, it was made clear that scoring fast is Anderson’s preference.
“You will never be bored,” he said. ” If we’ve got the ball, I promise you we’re going to be trying to break speed limits and we’ll be flying around.
“It’s going to be fast, it’s going to be physical, and I promise you it’ll be fun.”
Through the years
In the eight seasons Arkansas State Coach Blake Anderson has been a coordinator or co-coordinator, his offenses have operated at varying speeds with various degrees of success. He made it clear Thursday during his introduction that ASU’s offense will be as fast as he can make it, similar to what he did with Southern Miss in 2011.YEAR SCHOOL PLAYS P/GM YDS/PLAY YDS/GM 2013 North Carolina 864 72.0 6.01 432.6 2012 North Carolina 898 74.8 6.49 485.7 2011 Southern Miss 1,042 74.4 6.20 461.4 2010 Southern Miss 1,030 79.2 5.72 453.2 2007 Louisiana-Lafayette 853 71.1 5.72 406.6 2004 Middle Tennessee 784 65.3 5.6 365.8 2003 Middle Tennessee 860 71.7 5.2 372.7 2002 Middle Tennessee 764 69.5 5 375.0 SOURCE cfbstats.com
Sports, Pages 15 on 12/23/2013