GODADDY.COM BOWL ARKANSAS STATE VS. KENT STATE

Oh, thanks guys

When coaches cash in, players, aides pay

Arkansas State interim coach John Thompson, who was the team’s defensive coordinator during a 9-3 Sun Belt Conference championship season, will return to ASU next season as part of new Coach Bryan Harsin’s staff. Thompson said it is the players who suffer in the wake of coaching changes before the end of the season.
Arkansas State interim coach John Thompson, who was the team’s defensive coordinator during a 9-3 Sun Belt Conference championship season, will return to ASU next season as part of new Coach Bryan Harsin’s staff. Thompson said it is the players who suffer in the wake of coaching changes before the end of the season.

— Two days after receiving invitations to the GoDaddy.com Bowl, players at Arkansas State and Kent State received much more unsettling news.

Their head coaches, like those at so many of their midmajor brethren, were moving on to better-paying jobs in BCS conferences.

It has become the theme of this year’s bowl season, with more than a quarter of the bowl match ups featuring at least one team with an interim coach. The end result: a month of preparation being made more difficult by the parallel process of a coaching transition.

“There’s only one thing that’s constant,” ASU cornerbacks coach David Gunn said,“and that’s change.”

That’s what ASU (9-3) and No. 25 Kent State (11-2) have dealt with in the four weeks leading up to today’s 8 p.m. game at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

On Dec. 4, two days after ASU received its bowl bid and three days after wrapping up a second consecutive Sun Belt Conference championship, Gus Malzahn was named the new coach at Auburn, leaving ASU after one season.

Malzahn was in front of microphones and cameras during a news conference later that night at Auburn. Earlier that day, Darrell Hazell had agreed to become the next coach at Purdue, and the next morning he held a team meeting informing his Kent State players of his plans.

There is one big difference. Hazell will be on the Kent State sideline tonight. He asked Kent State Athletic Director Joel Nielsen if he could stick around to finish what he started with the Golden Flashes.

“It was tough on them early,” Hazell said Friday, talking about his players. “There were torn opinions in the locker room, very emotional. You can’t think how the players think, but you can empathize with them a little bit. I’ve been here two years and now I’m leaving. That’s hard on them. But it’s the reality of our profession.”

ASU and Kent State are part of an increasing pattern. Nine of this season’s 35 bowl games have involved at least one team being led by an interim coach.

Most of the coaches have left schools in college football’s non-BCS qualifier leagues for bigger, higher-paying jobs. But two bowl teams - North Carolina State and Purdue - needed coaches after firing theirs. The other eight coaches took jobs at schools in BCS conferences. Only three of the coaches - Texas Tech’s Tommy Tuberville (Cincinnati), Cincinnati’s Butch Jones (Tennessee) and Wisconsin’s Bret Bielema (Arkansas) - went from one BCS school to another.

Financial gain and increased notoriety are the main attractions for coaches moving up and out. Malzahn went from making about $850,000 annually at ASU to $2.3 million at Auburn, and Hazell will reportedly be paid $2 million per year at Purdue.

Most at ASU and Kent State understand that. No ASU officials have said publicly that they are upset with Malzahn for not sticking around to coach the bowl game. ASU Athletic Director Terry Mohajir said Friday he even suggested Malzahn just focus on his new duties rather than being split between two places.

But a certain level of acceptance doesn’t make the month leading up to the bowl game any less awkward.

Players are suddenly listening to new voices after a 14-week season. Assistant coaches have taken on more responsibility while some are also trying to find new jobs. Offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee and offensive line coach J.B. Grimes will head to Auburn after tonight, and interim coach John Thompson and running backs coach Eliah Drinkwitz have been hired by new ASU Coach Bryan Harsin. But five ASU assistants aren’t sure where they’ll be coaching next season.

It is mostly understood that if a school in the Sun Belt or the Mid-American conferences has any success, the process will find the coaches, too.

But Thompson said he doesn’t like how tough it is on players.

“You know, the players get left out on that,” he said. “It’s not a pretty part of the business. You wish there could be some regulations. If we want to take care of these players and want to call them student-athletes and do what’s best for the players, then you’ve got to look at that.

“I’m not being critical of anybody. But the players are the ones that are left out on their own.”

ASU’s very recent experience with the process has helped in the past month.

Ten Red Wolves players who are expected to play significant roles tonight started in the 38-20 loss to Northern Illinois in last year’s GoDaddy.com Bowl.

That game came after then-ASU Coach Hugh Freeze took the Ole Miss job and four assistants went to Oxford, Miss., with him. That meant Gunn, who served as interim coach after Freeze left, had to bring in two aides just to help through the bowl game.

“Last year we had four coaches,” senior quarterback Ryan Aplin said. “The stress level for the coaches - especially Coach Gunn - I can’t imagine what that was like. It’s completely different. You’re meeting with your [same] position coach every day. It’s just nice.”

On the other side of Ladd-Peebles Stadium tonight will be a Kent State team filled with underclassmen who will be playing their final game for Hazell.

Quarterback Spencer Keith, a Little Rock native who went to Pulaski Academy, said Hazell leaving wasn’t that tough on him because he won’t play for Paul Haynes, the former Arkansas defensive coordinator who was named Hazell’s successor.

But Keith said he’s sympathetic of his younger teammates. The disappointment was made easier when Hazell announced he wasn’t leaving for Purdue until after tonight’s game. And that, some said this week, could provide an edge against ASU.

“Coach Hazell, he cares about us,” sophomore running back Trayion Durham said. “That’s why he stuck around. I’m just thankful.”

Sports, Pages 19 on 01/06/2013

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