This afternoon, Arkansas State announced that Blake Anderson stepped down to "accept the same position at another FBS program."
As we laid out earlier today, Utah State looks like the next move for Anderson.
Arkansas State is a place that will intrigue a lot of quality coaches, and we take an early look at some of those guys here. What I want to focus on here is the rare air that make Arkansas State a really unique coaching opportunity for the next leader of their program.
Dating back to 2011, starting with the hire of Hugh Freeze, The Red Wolves have had four straight head coaches (not including those have led them under the interim head coach tag) that have left on their own terms.
The timing of some of those departures stung...while others may serve as a fresh start of sorts.
Freeze went 10-2 in his one season with the program before leaving for Ole Miss. The program then turned to Gus Malzahn, who also spent just one season in Jonesboro, going 9-3 before he left for Auburn. Bryan Harsin was the next coach tabbed, and he too spent one season leading the program in 2013 before he left to return to Boise State to take over for Chris Petersen.
Anderson was brought in heading into the 2014 season and immediately provided stability to a program that had seen three straight head coaches leave after one season. Anderson led the program to six straight winning seasons, and while that success brought interest from some other programs that presented really intriguing opportunities, he ultimately returned each season.
That loyalty from the school and community was returned in a big way when Anderson's wife, Wendy passed last year as they stepped up to support the grieving Anderson family in a big way. Still, as Arkansas Online pointed out in an article in August, almost a year to the date after Wendy's death, Blake shared how conversations with Missouri and Baylor over the last few years did make a part of him think that maybe a fresh start was needed.
In that article (I encourage you to go here read the full piece) Anderson shares:
"Can I stay here and do this when everything about Jonesboro reminds me of Wendy?" he'd think to himself. "The church we went to, driving by the hospice all the time, everywhere we ate, everywhere we did things. Can I do that and do a good job? Or am I going to be a basket case?"
"When God is ready to move me, he's going to move me. When the right opportunity presents itself, we're going to go," Anderson said. "I just prayed that God would put me right where I needed to be. And at the end of the day, I'm where God wanted me to be."
Utah State seems to be where Anderson is being called next.
Arkansas State opening presents a rare opportunity for their next coach. It's very rare in modern college football that a job opens where the last four head coaches have left on their own terms.
It's also a place that embraced their last coach to a degree that helped him, and his family, heal during a really challenging time in their lives. It's a job where guys have proven you can also win and capture the attention of some of the top jobs in college football too.
Stay tuned to The Scoop, as we share what we continue to hear on movement in the coaching profession.