Sun Belt media days

Anderson works on new puzzle

Arkansas State head coach Blake Anderson speaks with reporters during the Sun Belt media day in New Orleans, Tuesday, July 22, 2014. (AP Photo)
Arkansas State head coach Blake Anderson speaks with reporters during the Sun Belt media day in New Orleans, Tuesday, July 22, 2014. (AP Photo)

NEW ORLEANS -- Arkansas State has earned at least a share of the Sun Belt Conference title in each of the past three seasons and a bowl victory the past two, but it's clear that the Red Wolves enter this season as one of the hunters.

Even their own coach thinks so.

Blake Anderson addressed reporters at the Superdome during Sun Belt media day Tuesday, one day after linebacker Qushaun Lee was named the league's preseason defensive player of the year and 10 other Red Wolves were selected to one of two all-conference teams.

Still, Anderson and all 10 of the other league coaches voted Louisiana-Lafayette to win the conference, making the Ragin' Cajuns the overwhelming favorite to win a league title it shared with ASU last season.

Having the league's preseason offensive player of the year, quarterback Terrance Broadway, along with two leading rushers and a leading receiver among eight first-team selections on offense usually leads to such a label.

"Pieces of the puzzle," Anderson said of what led him to vote the Ragin' Cajuns atop the Sun Belt preseason predictions. "I think those put them in the position where we all feel like they're the ones to knock off."

That isn't to say Anderson doesn't have high expectations for his own team, which returns 13 players with starting experience, 10 of whom are on a defense that had seven players chosen for the two preseason all-conference teams.

The Ragin' Cajuns may be the favorite, but ASU is thought to be the best-equipped to challenge them.

The Red Wolves were picked second in the 11-team league, setting up for a possible showdown Oct. 21 in Lafayette in a Tuesday night game that will be televised by ESPN2. Each of the past three seasons the winner of that matchup has won the league title, a recent history that even Anderson said creates a natural rivalry.

"They both know that the road to the championship goes through the other," he said.

Anderson, the fourth different ASU head coach to address the media day throng in as many seasons, said there is still plenty to do before the build-up of that game.

The first-year coach said he didn't watch a minute of Louisiana-Lafayette film this summer and won't until the week of the game. He is more concerned with getting to know his own team, which needs to replace four starters on the offensive line, break in first-year starting quarterback Fredi Knighten and find depth at every offensive skill position.

What ASU has, though, is plenty of players who have started seasons in a similar fashion.

Wide receiver J.D. McKissic and safety Sterling Young joined Anderson on Tuesday at media day. Both have gone through seasons in which the Red Wolves won the league title under new a coach after being passed over as favorites before the season.

Young, a senior, has been a part of all three conference title teams under Hugh Freeze, Gus Malzahn and Bryan Harsin, while McKissic has been a part of the past two.

"We're just a team that is used to winning," McKissic said. "It's not something that we're going to let change. We're just a team that's aiming for a conference championship every year."

Louisiana-Lafayette Coach Mark Hudspeth said he welcomes the favorite's role but warned his team of the inevitable target that will be placed on their backs.

Hudspeth said the first priority is winning an outright Sun Belt title, which the Cajuns have never done. Beyond that is a chance at cracking the Top 25 polls or possibly being the one team from the five mid-major conferences that earns an automatic spot into one of the contracted bowls associated with the College Football Playoff.

"Ultimately, we want to become a team that can be a Top 25 team year in and year out," Hudspeth said. "You look at the Boise model, the TCU model, you look at the Louisville model. We want to be that team one day.

"We're making progress. We're not there yet, but you've got to set your goals high."

Anderson's vision is similar, but for now his view isn't as broad. He is worried more about each of his lines, his quarterback and finding a backup running back to Michael Gordon. That's why he isn't even concerned at this point with the matchup against the Ragin' Cajuns.

"It's one of 12," Anderson said. "We've got so many hurdles before we get to that one, I couldn't even tell you. We've got to find a way to beat Montana State. They will be plenty big enough challenge for us."

Sports on 07/23/2014

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