MOBILE, Ala. — Ryan Aplin was three days away from his final game as Arkansas State’s quarterback.
The fifth-year senior plopped down on a couch inside the team hotel after playing some teammates in table tennis and spent about 20 minutes reflecting on a career that has seen him gain more yards, score more touchdowns and win more games than most ASU quarterbacks before him.
He’s also been at the center of more change than just about any other quarterback - regular and significant change.
Aplin has played for three different head coaches - five if interim coaches for the GoDaddy.com Bowls last year and this year are included - and five offensive coordinators. Three times he’s become close to a head coach only to see him resign or leave for another job just days after the regular season ended. The past two coaches, Hugh Freeze last year and Gus Malzahn this year, left after Aplin had helped them lead a team to a Sun Belt Conference title.
So when asked what he takes away from a career that saw his school change mascots - ASU was still the Indians when he signed in February 2008 - and transform from a Sun Belt also-ran into a two-time league champion, he doesn’t take long.
“I got lucky,” he said.
Lucky, mostly because of the chance he took and the one ASU took on him.
He didn’t have a scholarship offer from former coach Steve Roberts until a couple of weeks before signing day in 2008. He had waited too long to accept an offer from Eastern Illinois, and wasn’t left with many options.
Now, almost five years after taking an offer from ASU sight unseen and just 12 hours from his home in Tampa, Fla., he’ll play his final game for the Red Wolves on Sunday night against No. 25 Kent State in the GoDaddy.com Bowl.
Aplin will exit Sunday night having set 25 career, game or single-season ASU records, including a total offense mark that sits at 12,287,and as the first ASU quarterback to lead the Red Wolves to back-to-back Sun Belt titles. Twice he has been named Sun Belt Player of the Year, and if he completes seven passes Sunday he will have completed more than any Sun Belt quarterback.
“I’ve enjoyed it,” he said. “It’s been the time of my life.”
Along the way he also has gained the respect of teammates, coaches - both past and present - and ASU Athletic Director Terry Mohajir, who was hired this fall.
Roberts offered Aplin a scholarship because his 2008 recruiting class didn’t have a quarterback, but he still talks with his former pupil.
“I’ve said it a thousand times,” Roberts said last week. “Whatever ‘it’ is, he’s got it.”
Roberts and his staff offered Aplin a scholarship after watching film of a high school all-star game, but the offer was made before Aplin could visit the campus. Film told Roberts he had a good enough arm and good enough speed, but everything else wasn’t affirmed until he arrived.
“You didn’t know what it was,” said ASU cornerbacks coach David Gunn, the only coach left who was on the staff that signed Aplin, “but you knew there was something special about Ryan Aplin.”
Aplin saw action spelling senior starter Corey Leonard - whose total offense record Aplin broke this year - for a few games as a freshman, then won the starting job as a sophomore. The Red Wolves went 4-8 that year, and Roberts was gone two days after the season ended, marking the first of many coaching transitions Aplin has endured.
Each one has been tough in its own way.
The loss of Roberts hurt, Aplin said, because “he gave me a chance when nobody else would.” When Hugh Freeze left after last year’s 10-2 regular season to take the Ole Miss job, Aplin said he felt jilted at first, almost surprised that the coach who led them to such accomplishments would leave so quickly.
“You feel like family, then you feel like they get up and punch you in the stomach and say see you later,” Aplin said. “Everything was right. Everything was going good. ... Everything was at an all-time high. Then he gets the job of his dreams.”
Malzahn’s departure to Auburn last month was easier, Aplin said, because he won’t be around next year to play through the transition. He said he felt like he was pushed harder and learned more this year than he ever has.
Offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, who will join Malzahn in Auburn after Sunday’s game, said he’s been impressed with Aplin since their first meeting. It came not long after Lashlee arrived in Jonesboro last winter. The two sat down for a talk, and Aplin was already asking for a critique.
“He said, ‘This is what I need to get better at, what do you think?’ ” Lashlee recalled. “I told him footwork and taking care of the football. It’s the same after every practice. ‘How can I get better?’ ”
The result was the most efficient season of Aplin’s career. He hasn’t passed for as many yards as he did a year ago - 3,588 last year and 3,129 this year - but he has cut down his interceptions from 16 to four.
That has helped put ASU (9-3) on the brink of a second consecutive 10-victory season for the first time. Another victory would give the Red Wolves their first victory in a bowl game as an FBS member.
None of those accomplishments is lost on Aplin, which is why he has tried his best to avoid any reflection on a successful, if turbulent, career. But he is leaving ASU in a better spot than he found it, and coaches say Aplin can’t be given enough credit for that.
“When it gets down to it, and you funnel it all out, it comes to Ryan. There’s no question about it,” ASU interim coach John Thompson said. “We’ve got leaders on our football team, but the leader and the guy is Ryan Aplin.”
Ryan’s records
Arkansas State quarterback Ryan Aplin has set 25 game, season or career school records during his career. Here are the most notable:
SEASON
Total offense (2011) 4,176
Passes attempted (2011) 476
Passes completed (2011) 304
TD passes (2012) 23
Completion perc. (2012) 67.8
Passing yards per game (2012) 276.0
CAREER
Total offense 12,287
Passes attempted 1,380
Passes completed 887
TD passes 66
Completion perc. 64.3
Yards per game 267.5
Passing yards per game 229.2
Ryan Aplin by the numbers
2 Sun Belt Conference championships won
4 Interceptions thrown this season
5 Head coaches, counting interim coaches, played under
25 Individual Arkansas State records held
31 Career rushing touchdowns
66 Career touchdown passes
97 Career touchdown accountability
1,761 Career rushing yards
10,526 Career passing yards
12,287 Career total yardage
Sports, Pages 19 on 01/05/2013