At some point later next week, Blake Anderson and his Arkansas State Red Wolves coaching staff might need a day off to rest.
You might have read or heard last week about the Southeastern Conference coaches getting their tail feathers ruffled because Penn State was bringing its coaching staff as guests to a camp at Georgia State. And it was also mentioned that Notre Dame was considering the same option with Georgia State, which happens to be the football doormat of the Sun Belt Conference right now.
Seems the SEC has a rule that prohibits coaches at its schools from being guest coaches at another school’s camp.
There is no such rule in some other conferences, thus the former Vandy coach has ventured into Georgia to try and lure some of that state’s talented crop of players to Happy Valley.
But James Franklin is not the only one taking such actions. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have partnered in Texas for years.
And this year, Arkansas State is doing the same thing.
“We did this when I was at Southern Miss,” said A-State’s head football coach Blake Anderson last week before the busy week of partnering was to begin.
So after hosting a one-day camp in Jonesboro on Sunday, the Red Wolves’ coaches hit the road for Clinton, Miss., where they would be sharing a camp with Mississippi College.
The NCAA prohibits schools from hosting camps outside of their state. In recent years, A-State has held such events at Texarkana, and will be there again next week.
“It is legal as long as the host school owns 51 percent of the camp,” said Anderson.
So after the stop in Mississippi, they move on to Alabama, where in one day they will be in Hoover and Mobile. The host school this time is West Alabama, a Division II school that is a member of the Gulf South Conference, which used to have several Arkansas schools in its membership until the local schools opted to team up with Oklahoma and form the Great American Conference.
For those who don’t follow Red Wolves football, Alabama has been the foundation for the revival of the football program. Under Steve Roberts a decision was made to start recruiting the state and that has come to fruition in recent years. Close to a quarter of the Red Wolves’ 85 scholarship players are from Alabama.
During the second series of the GoDaddy Bowl victory over Ball State in January, eight of the 11 players on the Red Wolves’ defense were Bama Boys.
It is back in Jonesboro for another camp on Wednesday, then to Little Rock on Thursday and another camp in Jonesboro on Saturday.
On Sunday they go behind enemy lines to host a camp at Springdale Har-Ber before heading to Texarkana on Tuesday. From there they hit the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for camps at Duncanville and Lewisville. East Texas Baptist is the partner in Texas.
“We are not really looking to make a lot of money off these camps,” said Anderson. “We are just wanting to see as many kids as we can. Going to them makes it a lot easier.”
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Jeff Reed is editor of Astatenation.com
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