Blake Anderson next ASU football coach

Blake Anderson
Blake Anderson

Arkansas State University Athletic Director Terry Mohajir announced Thursday that Blake Anderson will be the football program's new head coach, succeeding Bryan Harsin.

Mohajir announced the hiring of the University of North Carolina offensive coordinator Thursday morning on Twitter.

The website footballscoop.com reported Wednesday night that Anderson, who has spent the past two seasons leading the Tar Heels offense under Coach Larry Fedora, had agreed to be ASU’s next coach. Another website, coachingsearch.com, had refuted the report.

Mohajir said more details would be forthcoming soon. ASU announced on its Facebook page that it would hold a news conference at 2 p.m.

Anderson will be ASU's fourth coach in as many years. Hugh Freeze succeeded Steve Roberts in 2010 and then left after a year to become head coach of Ole Miss. Gus Malzahn was hired to replace Freeze, but Malzahn left for Auburn in 2012. And Malzahn's successor, Harsin, was hired by Boise State earlier this month.

In his first year, Harsin led the Red Wolves to a 7-5 record and a share of the Sun Belt Conference Championship. The team earned a berth in the GoDaddy Bowl for the third straight year.

Anderson, a native of Hubbard, Texas, holds a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Sam Houston State and a master’s degree in sports administration from Eastern New Mexico. Anderson arrived at Chapel Hill after coaching at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg since 2008, where he spent his first two seasons as the Golden Eagles' quarterbacks coach and run game coordinator, and developed Austin Davis, now a St. Louis Ram, into one of the nation’s top quarterbacks.

On Wednesday, interim coach and defensive coordinator John Thompson said Mohajir had taken his name out of the running become the full-time successor to Harsin.

Mohajir told Thompson, who is in his second season at ASU, that he was no longer being considered for the opening because of ASU’s desire to hire a coach with a background on the offensive side of the ball. Thompson has been ASU’s defensive coordinator the past two years and has coached defense his entire career.

Mohajir had named Thompson interim coach for the second time Dec. 11, the day Harsin officially took the head-coaching job at his alma mater Boise State.

Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full coverage.

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