Bryan Harsin almost missed out on his first appearance at the Little Rock Touchdown Club.
Arkansas State’s first-year football coach was in the middle of cutting up film Monday for an exchange with South Alabama, the Red Wolves’ opponent Saturday, when he learned that a planned flight from Jonesboro to Little Rock was canceled because of heavy fog.
“I thought, ‘Well, this is probably out,’ ” Harsin said.
Not quite. With the help of Jeff Hankins, ASU’s vice president for strategic communications, Harsin and a small contingent from Jonesboro arranged for a car and zoomed down U.S. 67, arriving about 15 minutes after the club began its meeting at the Embassy Suites in west Little Rock.
“[Hankins] was all over it,” Harsin said. “There’s no way.We’re going to be up here and be a part of this.”
Seven days after a 23-7 loss to Louisiana-Lafayette on national television, Harsin spent almost 30 minutes addressing about 150 in attendance about that loss and how ASU (3-4, 1-1) has dealt with this season after winning the past two Sun Belt Conference championships.
“You’ve got to play harder when the bull’s-eye is on your chest,” Harsin said.
He said ASU will continue to do that while fighting to become bowl eligible over its final five games. The South Alabama game leads off a string of five games in which ASU must win three to become eligible for a third consecutive bowl game appearance.
Harsin said he hasn’t sensed a letdown following the loss to Louisiana-Lafayette, which essentially left the Red Wolves in a two-game hole in the race for the conference title. They practiced Wednesday and Thursday before taking the weekend off and practiced again Sunday.
Now it’s back to a normal schedule for the first time in weeks.
In an effort to spark a bit of urgency for a team he has described as inconsistent, Harsin recalled a Sunday night meeting with players in which he laid out the remaining possibilities.
“If we take care of the next five games, maybe there’s six,” Harsin told his players. “The reality sets in, and they look at it like they’ve got five left and the sense of urgency starts to pick up.”
That doesn’t mean adjustments aren’t required.
Harsin mentioned ASU’s inability to stop Louisiana-Lafayette’s running backs from getting to the edge as the main reason the Red Wolves allowed 265 rushing yards and one of the most lopsided time-of-possession stats in school history. Alonzo Harris ran for 105 yards, averaging 3.6 yards per carry. Elijah Mc-Guire also had 110 yards on 10 carries, most of which came on a 70-yard run down the left sideline that set up a score.
ASU defensive tackle Ryan Carrethers had 16 tackles in the game, the most for a defensive tackle in the FBS this year, which earned him Sun Belt Defensive Player of theWeek honors - but Harsin said tackling on the edge remains an issue.
“That’s been a key emphasis for us,” Harsin said.
Harsin also reiterated a desire to simplify an offense that has stalled in its four losses.
The Red Wolves are fifth in the eight-team Sun Belt Conference at 436.6 yards per game, but ASU has been held to an average of 317.5 yards per game in losses to Auburn, Memphis, Missouri and Louisiana-Lafayette.
A slimmed-down look, which Harsin said involves formations but not play-calling, could be employed against South Alabama (3-4, 1-2), which ranks fifth in the league in total defense (416.0) and sixth in scoring defense (29.1 ppg).
“Just really honing in on the concepts and running our concepts correctly,” he said. “Just getting back to the basics: This is a base DNA pass play, lets run it perfectly before we move on to any of our little toys.”S. Alabama (3-4) DATE OPPONENT TIME/RESULT Aug. 29 Southern Utah L, 22-21 Sept. 7 at Tulane W, 41-39 Sept. 14 W. Kentucky W, 31-24 Sept. 28 at Tennessee L, 31-24 Oct. 5 at Troy L, 33-34 Oct. 19 Kent State W, 38-21 Oct. 26 at Texas State L, 33-31 Nov. 2 Arkansas State 6:30 p.m. Nov. 16 at Navy TBA Nov. 23 Louisiana-Monroe TBA Nov. 30 at Georgia State TBA Dec. 7 La.-Lafayette TBA Sun Belt game THURSDAY’S GAME All times Central Louisiana-Monroe at Troy, 6:30 p.m.
SATURDAY’S GAMES Western Kentucky at Georgia State, 11 a.m.
New Mexico State at Louisiana-Lafayette, 3 p.m.
Texas State at Idaho, 3 p.m.
Arkansas State at South Alabama, 6:30 p.m.
Up next ARKANSAS STATE AT SOUTH ALABAMA WHEN 6:30 p.m. Saturday WHERE Ladd-Peebles Stadium, Mobile, Ala.
RECORDS Arkansas State 3-4, 1-1 Sun Belt; South Alabama 3-4, 1-2 RADIO KFIN-FM, 107.9, in Jonesboro; KKSP-FM, 93.3, in Bryant/Little Rock
Sports, Pages 17 on 10/29/2013