More Coaching Changes Coming To The Sun Belt
More coaching changes are coming in the Sun Belt.
It began with Arkansas State’s Gus Malzahn accepting the head coaching position with Auburn University. Now Florida International has dismissed Mario Cristobal after a 3-9 season.
Last season Cristobal’s name came up for several opening around the country but he stayed with FIU. His first three seasons with the Golden Panthers were tough but he showed improvement. In 2007 his team went 1-11, then in 2008 they improved to 5-7, in 2009 they slipped back to 3-9. But in 2010 they went 7-6 with a win in the Little Caeser’s Bowl. Then in 2011 they started off strong but finished with an 8-5 record and a loss in the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl.
His overall record at FIU was 27-47 (20-26 SBC, 1-1 Bowls). This season they had wins over Akron, South Alabama and Florida Atlantic.
FIU’s Executive Director of Sports and Entertainment Pete Garcia announced Cristobal’s dismissal with the following press release. “Today we informed Coach (Mario) Cristobal that a change was being made in the direction of our football program. I want to thank Coach for all that he has done to develop the football program over the past six seasons. We will now turn our attention to attract the very best candidate to fill the position of head coach. We will begin a national search immediately.”
There are reports swirling that Western Kentucky’s head coach Willie Taggart may accept the position at the University of South Florida that became vacant when the University fired head coach Skip Holtz earlier this week.
The leading name for the FIU position is former UNC head coach Butch Davis. Other possible names are FSU OC James Coley, Miami DC Mark D’Onofrio, Texas DC Manny Diaz, Navy OC Ivin Jasper, Lousiana Tech OC Tony Franklin and Jacksonville Jaguars assistant offensive line coach Ron Prince.
Four Jags Earn Conference Honors
Game Captains for South Alabama Romelle Jones, B.J. Scott, Greg Hollinger and Alex Page meet the Troy captains at mid-field for the coin toss in the two teams first meeting and the Jaguars first Sun Belt Conference game.
Four Jaguars have been honored with All-Sun Belt Conference honors on Wednesday.
First-team selection Jake Johnson was the top tackler in the conference. Alex Page was voted to the second-team All-Sun Belt team. While B.J. Scott and Enrique Williams were chosen for honorable mention recognition.
Voting was conducted by the 10 head coaches in the conference and selected members of the media. This was the first time in the programs four year history that they were able to be selected for All-Conference honors.
Jake Johnson is a 6’1″, 240-pound senior linebacker from Fredericksburg, VA. He is the only player in the conference that averages double-digits in tackles after totally 131 total stops in 13 games this season. He ranks third in the conference with 15 tackles for loss with at least one in every game this season. He also has three sacks and six quarterback hurries. He led the team in stops seven times this season and had double-digit tackles in a game five times this season.
Alex Page, a 6’1″ 245-pound junior defensive lineman from Prattville, AL, ranked fifth in the conference with six sacks and eighth with 11.5 tackles for loss. He recorded a career-best 64 tackles which ranked fifth on the team and the most among the Jags defensive linemen. He also became the first player at his position in Jag history to record double-digit tackles with 10 against FAU.
B.J. Scott is a 5’11” 205-pound senior safety from Prichard, AL. He transferred to South Alabama from the University of Alabama with two years of eligibility. Scott ended the season with 84 tackles, six of them for a loss. He also had two interceptions, three passes broken up and two forced fubmles with a fumble recovery. He had four games with double-digit tackles including a career-best 12 in the season finale against Hawaii. He finished tied for 15th in the conference this season with an average of 6.5 tackles per game.
Enrique Williams is a 6′, 235-pound junior linebacker from Mobile, AL. He finished the season with 105 tackles, which was good enough for seventh in the conference, with six of them for losses. He finished four games with double-digit tackles and led the team in tackles on five occasions. He had a career best 12 tackles against then #23 ranked Mississippi State and again at Arkansas State in the Jags first ever conference road game.
The defense, led by these four individuals, allowed an average of 383.7 yards per game to finish the season ranked second in the conference in total defense and ranked 3rd in the conference against the pass. The Jags also led the conference in red zone defense and was second in opponent third-down conversion percentage as well.
Arkansas State Looking For New Head Coach For Second Consecutive Season
Photo from astateredwolves.com.
Arkansas State is searching for a head football coach for the second year in a row as Gus Malzahn accepted the position at Auburn University. This also marks the second season in a row that the Red Wolves will visit the GoDaddy.com Bowl without their head coach.
Sources did not know if ASU would name an interim coach for the bowl game or if Malzahn wants or intends to coach the team in the bowl game.
Tim Hudson, chancellor of ASU and Terry Mohajir, director of athletics, issued statements yesterday concerning the football program.
“Coach Gus Malzahn informed us this afternoon that he would be accepting the head coaching position at Auburn University,” ASU Chancellor Dr. Tim Hudson said. “We appreciate his contributions to our conference championship season and wish him well.”
Hudson, Mohajir as well as ASU System President Dr. Charles L. Welch will begin an immediate search for Malzahn’s successor.
“The back-to-back championships in the Sun Belt Conference make this a very attractive position, and we’re confident we’ll have a lot of interest,” Mohajir said. “This administration, this community and the entire Arkansas State family have demonstrated our commitment to have a nationally prominent intercollegiate athletics program and will continue to do so.”
Mohajir said that he would be meeting with Malzahn to discuss the transition and “keeping the interests of our student-athletes foremost in mind.” Mohajir’s plan is for Malzahn and his staff to coach the Red Wolves in their bowl game on January 6 against Kent State in Mobile, AL.
“We remain firmly committed to our facilities upgrade plans,” Welch said. “We owe this to our student-athletes and fans, and we remain excited about the opportunities ahead for the Red Wolves.”
However, after Malzahn meets with Auburn officials to finalize his contract and timeline those plans by Mahajir may not pan out.
But Arkansas State may not be the only team in the GoDaddy.com Bowl with a new coach or searching for a new coach. It is being reported that Kent State’s head coach Darrell Hazell has accepted the head coaching position at Purdue University according to Brett McMurphy of ESPN.
More Coaching Changes In The Sun Belt
More coaching changes are coming in the Sun Belt.
It began with Arkansas State’s Gus Malzahn accepting the head coaching position with Auburn University. Now Florida International has dismissed Mario Cristobal after a 3-9 season.
Last season Cristobal’s name came up for several opening around the country but he stayed with FIU. His first three seasons with the Golden Panthers were tough but he showed improvement. In 2007 his team went 1-11, then in 2008 they improved to 5-7, in 2009 they slipped back to 3-9. But in 2010 they went 7-6 with a win in the Little Caeser’s Bowl. Then in 2011 they started off strong but finished with an 8-5 record and a loss in the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl.
His overall record at FIU was 27-47 (20-26 SBC, 1-1 Bowls). This season they had wins over Akron, South Alabama and Florida Atlantic.
FIU’s Executive Director of Sports and Entertainment Pete Garcia announced Cristobal’s dismissal with the following press release. “Today we informed Coach (Mario) Cristobal that a change was being made in the direction of our football program. I want to thank Coach for all that he has done to develop the football program over the past six seasons. We will now turn our attention to attract the very best candidate to fill the position of head coach. We will begin a national search immediately.”
There are reports swirling that Western Kentucky’s head coach Willie Taggart may accept the position at the University of South Florida that became vacant when the University fired head coach Skip Holtz earlier this week.
Jags Fall To New Mexico State 58-52
The Jags fell behind by 17 points early against New Mexico State but would rally back but could not overcome the Aggies, losing 58-52 Tuesday night at the Mitchell Center. With the loss the Jags fall to 4-4 on the season (2-0 SBC) and New Mexico State improves to 5-4 on the season.
South Alabama would close within two points with about two minutes left in the game, however missed free throws and two turnovers would be the Jags undoing.
“We had so many chances to win that ball game, but we just couldn’t get over the hump,” head coach Ronnie Arrow said. “It seemed like every time we got it to one point or three points we made a horrible decision on shot selection or turned the ball over.”
After the Jags took their only lead of the game at 4-2, the Aggies would go on a 21-2 run over an almost 10 minute span. The Jags would make their first field goal attempt of the game, but would go stone cold by missing 16 of their next 18 shots including a run of nine consecutive misses.
“We shot 31 percent,” Arrow said. “I thought our shot selection was pretty bad.”
Mychal Ammons agreed in his post-game interview, calling some of the Jaguars shot selections “crazy”.
However the Jags would respond with eight unanswered points that was capped off with a Freddie Goldstein three-pointer. Overall, they finished the half on a 19-8 run to go into the locker room down 31-25.
In the opening moments of the second half Ammons would cut the Aggie lead to two points after nailing a three-pointer, but New Mexico State would answer with a 9-2 run to extend their lead to nine points at 42-33 with 11:10 left in the game.
With 4:32 left in the game and trailing 53-46 the Jags would get a tip-in from Javier Carter and a three-pointer from Xavier Roberson around a pair of Aggies free throws to cut their lead to 54-51. But missed free throws by the Jaguars would prevent the Jags from cutting the Aggie lead down to one point.
The Aggies did just enough from the free throw line to put the pressure on the Jaguars, making 1-of-2 but Ammons would miss the front end of a 1 and 1 with 1:17 left in the game. Yet the Jags were within three points 55-52 with 33.7 seconds left, but a backdoor pass was deflected and stolen forcing the Jags to foul.
“We just right there at the end drew up a play,” Arrow said. “Mychal ran it and was wide open and we threw the ball away. That would have cut it to one point. We turn the ball over, they go down and instead of being down one they make the free throws and we’re down five. I’m happy that our guys came back but I’m disappointed in crucial situations we didn’t do what we could to win the game.”
“Tonight if we made our free throws we probably would have won the game,” Arrow continued. “(We were) nine for 17. We were leading the conference in free throw shooting. So we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot. You only get so many times in a game. And it’s just sad because we still had an opportunity to win the game.”
Ammons would lead the Jags with 16 points and eight rebounds. Augustine Rubit and Carter both would score eight points each with 10 rebounds and 6 rebounds respectively. Roberson would chip in seven points and freshman Barrington Stevens added six points.
The Jags will go on the road for another non-conference match-up with UAB in Birmingham. Tip-off is scheduled for 7pm at Bartow Arena.
Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson Releases Statement Concerning Bowl Selections
Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson released the following statement on Monday regarding bowl selections.
“While I am happy to have a record number of Sun Belt teams in bowl games this season, I would be even happier if Middle Tennessee would have received a bid. Additionally, our persistent efforts working for Arkansas State to appear in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl were not rewarded. I am disappointed with both of these outcomes and I understand why our fans feel so strongly about the results. Like our fans, coaches and student-athletes, I wanted what was best for Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee.
“I am also disappointed to hear that there is public opinion that I worked against schools in our conference – that could not be further from the truth. In fact, a great deal of work was done with our member institutions in an attempt to get the best possible outcome for bowl games.
“I also understand that there is frustration that Middle Tennessee was not selected since they finished in a tie for second place in the league standings, but it is important to note that between our two bowl agreements only the league champion must be accommodated. Arkansas State as league champion will be playing in the Godaddy.com Bowl and the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, which by contract had first selection regardless of standings, chose Louisiana-Lafayette. The AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl and Little Caesars Pizza Bowl are not bowls that the Sun Belt Conference is contracted with, thus they were free to take whichever school they wanted. The same is true with the AutoZone Liberty Bowl and their desire to take Iowa State. Those bowl games chose the teams that they wanted the most.
“There has also been a lot of talk about Middle Tennessee being left out of a bowl game because they have announced that they will be leaving the Sun Belt Conference. At no point in time was that ever part of any conversation between Sun Belt officials and a representative of a bowl game. It truly was a nonfactor in how the selections were made. Again to reiterate, the bowl games selected the teams that they most wanted.”
Some Middle Tennessee State fans suggested that Benson did not work to get their team a bowl berth because the University has announced it is leaving the Sun Belt Conference in favor of Conference USA. However commissioner Benson addressed that in his press release.
Arkansas State was hoping to play in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis. However that did not come to fruition.
Defensive Coordinator Bill Clark Interested In Jacksonville State Opening
Defensive Coordinator and Linebackers Coach Bill Clark works with the linebacker corps during pregame warmups prior to the Jags 9-3 win over Nicholls State.
South Alabama assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Bill Clark has expressed interest in the head coach opening at Jacksonville State University.
Coach Clark is an Anniston native and an 1990 graduate of Jacksonville State has not interviewed for the job. Yet.
But he has informed head coach Joey Jones about his interest in the position and well as informed the JSU officials of his interest in the position.
“I was called about the job on Friday when it first was announced that coach Crowe had been let go and I had an interest in looking at it,” Clark said Monday night to AL.com. “Obviously I’m very happy here and I have a great job. I talked to Joey about after the game on Saturday and he knows I’m going to look into it and see what it entails.”
Jacksonville State ended the season with a 6-5 record with losses to Arkansas to start the season and to Florida to end the season. Crowe posted an 87-57 record in his 13 seasons as the Gamecocks head coach. JSU athletics director Warren Koegel dismissed Crowe, the second-winningest coach in school hisotry, with two years on his contract.
Crowe led the Gamecocks to the Ohio Valley Conference titles in 2003, 2004 and 2011. He also led them to three NCAA FCS playoff appearances but failed to win a playoff game.
Coach Clark received his bachelor’s degree from Jacksonville State in 1990 in physical education. His first coaching job was an assistant at nearby Piedmont High School. He later served as an assistant at Tuscaloosa County High, Coffee County GA. High and Dothan High schools before being named head coach at Prattville.
He was the head coach at Prattville from 1999 – 2007 where he won two Class 6A state championships and his final two teams won 30 consecutive games. His 2007 Prattville team was ranked #2 in the country by USA Today.
Clark racked up a 107-11 record at Prattville with a 90.7% winning percentage. The last regular-season loss by one of his Prattville teams was in 2002. He was named the Alabama High School Athletic Association Coach of the Year following his final season with the Lions.
He left Prattville to join Coach Jones’ staff at South Alabama. He was one of the first hires by Coach Jones.
South Alabama’s defense have done a great job over the last four seasons. This year the defense still dug in even though they lost a number of players to season ending injuries. Quadarius Ford injured his knee in preseason camp. They then lost senior defensive linemen Anthony Taylor to a broken leg at Mississippi State before losing Randon Carnathan to a torn ACL at Louisiana-Monroe.
There were many times this season the defense was beat by big plays, particularly in the secondary. However the Jaguar defense would dig in their heels and all but shut down their opponents in the second half of many games.
Jags Set To Face Off Against New Mexico State Tonight At The Mitchell Center
South Alabama men’s basketball team returns home after a 2-0 start in the Sun Belt Conference. They will host former conference rival New Mexico State on Tuesday night with tip-off scheduled for 7:05pm.
“That’s what it’s all about – winning conference games,” Jaguar head coach Ronnie Arrow said. “Non-conference games are a lead-up to the conference. Not only are we 2-0, but we’re 2-0 on the road, so that’s even better. I was proud of our guys with the way we won. There’s room for improvement, especially in late-game situations, but I thought our guards came ready to play. That’s the best overall they’ve played since Florida State.”
“Now it comes time to see how we handle this,” Arrow continued. “We went and opened up with Florida State and didn’t show up for some games. Our defense was really good (last week) and hopefully now our guys will keep buying in because our defense leads to slam-dunk offense.”
This game at home will only be the second of the season so far in their seven games this season.
The Jags used their sharp 3-point shooting over the last two games to propell them to wins. The Jags have made 20 in a two game span including eight from junior Xavier Roberson with a career high five at FAU.
“The game has become 3-point shooting,” coach Arrow said. “If you’re hitting 3-point shots, you don’t have to draw up plays. It’s penetrate-and-pitch and get up and down the court. Along the way you have to execute in key situations and I think we’re getting better at that. But it’s always nice to be able to pitch to the shooters and have them hit 3-pointers.”
The New Mexico State Aggies enter the game leading the WAC in 3-point defense (.272) and are second in scoring defense with 60.5 points per game.
“They pressure the ball a lot,” Arrow said of the Aggie defense. “Whenever you have that kind of size inside, you don’t have to worry about the hole. You don’t have to come off shooters. When they drive, you have the gigantic guys back there guarding the hole so you don’t have to hedge and can stay on the shooters. That’s why they’re so good at not giving up 3s.”
The Aggies enter the game with a 4-4 record but has won three of their last four games and is coming off of a 68-60 win over then undefeated Southern Miss on Saturday. Their one loss in the last four games came by one point to UTEP 55-54.
Coach Arrow stressed that they out-rebound teams by about 11 rebounds per game. “We’re going to have to box them out and we can’t give up second shots,” he said. “When they’re playing at their best, their bigs are getting buckets right around the hole and we can’t let that happen.”
South Alabama will have tall challenge to defeat the Aggies. They have five players listed at 6’8″ or taller including a 6’10 center and a 7’5” 360-pound freshman center who averages 6.1 points per game and 11 blocks in 14.6 minutes per game.
“Their guys are just big and you can’t let them just catch the ball on the blocks,” Arrow said. “You have to make them get off the block somehow. You have to make them uncomfortable. Bhullar, if he catches it under the rim, I don’t think he has to jump to dunk it. We cannot give them second shots from offensive rebounds. We have to make them work for their shots.”
“We don’t need to pound it in there and expect to shoot it over these guys,” said continued. “We have to take them off the dribble and just make outside shots. We have to do what we do to get and get everybody shots, not just our inside guys.”
Augustine Rubit and Javier Carter will be key for the Jags to counter the Aggie height on the court. Combined they average 23.5 points and 16.5 rebounds per game last week.
A Sun Belt Record Four Teams Selected For Bowls
The Sun Belt conference made history on Sunday as four teams were selected to represent the conference in bowl games.
Sun Belt champion Arkansas State will return to Mobile to play #25 ranked Kent State in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. The University of Louisiana-Lafayette was selected by the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl to play East Carolina. Louisiana-Monroe was selected to play in the Advocare V100 Independence Bowl against Ohio University. Western Kentucky was selected to play Central Michigan in the Little Ceasers Pizza Bowl.
Overall, five Sun Belt schools were bowl eligible. Middle Tennessee State, who played Arkansas State on Saturday in a defacto championship game in Jonesboro, AK., was the only bowl eligible Sun Belt team to not receive a bowl berth.
MTSU finshed the season with an 8-4 record overall, which tied with ULL and ULM with second-best in the conference. Arkansas State finished with a 9-3 record and each of the second place schools finished with a 6-2 conference record. Western Kentucky finished with a 7-5 record and 4-4 in the Sun Belt and lost to Middle Tennessee during the regular season.
However the Pizza Bowl was more interested in Western Kentucky since it will be the schools first-ever bowl game instead of Middle Tennessee. Earlier this week, Middle Tennessee announced it was leaving the Sun Belt Conference for Conference USA.
Arkansas State’s head coach Gus Malzahn is being mentioned for several coaching vacancies including Arkansas and Auburn. Senior quarterback Ryan Aplin will lead the Red Wolf offense into Ladd-Peebles stadium for the second season in a row. The GoDaddy.com bowl will kickoff on Sunday, January 6 at 8pm and is the only bowl game on that day, the day before the BCS national championship game.
ULL finished the season strong with three consecutive victories once it’s offense solidified. The Ragin’ Cajuns’ are coached by second-year head coach Mark Hudspeth who has also been mentioned for a few coaching positions. The New Orleans Bowl will kick off in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome at 11am on December 22.
ULM is led by quarterback Kolton Browning who helped them upset Arkansas in overtime in the season-opening game in Arkansas. Head coach Todd Berry lead the team to Auburn and a near-win in overtime. They also played tough at Baylor but lost by five points. The Independence Bowl will kick off in Shreveport, LA at 1pm on December 28.
Western Kentucky is coached by third-year head coach Willie Taggart. His first season the Hilltoppers finished 2-10 but now has back-to-back bowl eligible seasons of 7-5, but will go to only their first bowl game this year. WKU is led by running back Antoine Andrews who is the conference’s leading rusher averaging 134.1 yards per game. The Hilltoppers started the season with a pair of wins over Austin Peay and Kentucky with a loss at Alabama between them. They ended a three game losing streak with a win over North Texas in the season finale. The Little Caesars Pizza Bowl will kick off at Ford Field in Detroit, MI at 6:30pm on December 26.
Jaguar Basketball Downs FIU 79-68
The South Alabama men’s basketball team was in action on Saturday evening in their second game of a two-game conference swing through Florida. The Jags came out with a win against Florida International 79-68.
The Jags improved to 4-3 on the season and 2-0 in conference play while FIU falls to 2-3 on the season and 1-1 so far in the conference. The win also made coach Ronnie Arrow the Sun Belt Conference’s all-time leader in conference wins by breaking his tie with Gene Bartow.
“I thought we had a very solid game and I thought the guys did, in certain situations, what we had to do to win,” coach Arrow said. “We’re still fouling too much at the end when we shouldn’t be trying to block 3-point shots, and hopefully we’ll get better at that, but the bottom line is, we’re 2-0 in the conference and we’re 2-0 on the road in the conference. That’s what it’s all about, conference play getting you ready for the postseason.”
“Coach Bartow was not only a great coach, but a great person, and to be even mentioned in the same breath with him is great,” Arrow continued. “I’m really happy, but I’m happy to be 2-0 in the conference.”
The Jags shot a season best 53.3% from the floor and 54.2% from three-point range. The 13 three’s they made was a new season high as well. Eight of the 13 three pointers came in the first half and at one point has six consecutive field goals came from behind the three point line. Three of those in a row came from Mychal Ammons.
The Jags used that three point attack to turn a four point deficit into a 10 point lead with 7:16 left left before halftime.
South Alabama would stretch its lead to 20 points in the first 11 minutes of the second half.
Mychal Ammons scored a game-high 21 points while adding five rebounds and two assists. Augustine Rubit chipped in 19 points and came one short of a double-double with nine. Antoine Allen added 13 points, Freddie Goldstein chipped in 11 points and five rebounds as well. Two other Jaguars scored in single digits.
South Alabama will return home to host New Mexico State with tip-off scheduled for 7:05 pm.