JONESBORO - Blake Anderson almost didn’t make it through his first signing day as Arkansas State’s coach.
Anderson took a phone call sometime Wednesday morning from James Tabary, a quarterback from New Orleans who had been committed to ASU since December but had been mulling a recent offer from East Carolina.
As Anderson told it, Tabary said that he had decided to take the offer from the Pirates. There was a pause, then Tabary cracked up and told his new coach that he was staying with the Red Wolves before sending in his letter of intent.
“You could feel my heart beating about 9 million miles an hour,” Anderson said. “He couldn’t hold it long enough. He started cracking up on me, laughing. When I got his name on that dotted line, I told him, ‘Turnabout is fair play, dude. I’ve got you.’ ”
Tabary’s prank and a late-morning pledge from running back Daryl Rollins-Davis of Knoxville, Tenn., highlighted Anderson’s first recruiting class that was cobbled together in the seven weeks after he was hired Dec. 14.
The 25-man class includes a mix of those who committed to previous coach Bryan Harsin, like Tabary, and those Anderson’s staff identified over the past few weeks, like Rollins-Davis and American River (Calif.) College wide receiver Tyler Trosin, who didn’t receive an offer until this past weekend.
ASU signed seven defensive linemen from nine states. Most of them, Anderson said, share one common trait: Speed.
“We really wanted to target as much speed in any position that we could,” Anderson said. “All of those guys have speed. We really want to be built around speed, so we targeted that as often as we could.”
Recruiting coordinator Keith Heckendorf said recruits weren’t scared off by the school’s recent history with coaching turnover. Anderson will be ASU’s fifth coach in five years when the season starts in August, but Heckendorf said that was just a minor issue.
“A lot of the guys that had been recruited by other places, they used that against us,” he said. “I think Coach Anderson does a great job of showing his commitment and the family-type atmosphere that he’s trying to create.”
Anderson was set to cap his class at 24 players until Rollins-Davis called around 11:30 a.m. to tell the coaches that he was choosing ASU over offers from Middle Tennessee, New Mexico State, Georgia State and others.
“For how it happened, the very last fax at the end of the recruiting day, it was an awesome experience,” Anderson said. “We were high-fiving and chest-bumping, and then we were ready to go take a nap.”
ASU had to sweat out some late offers to land some of its recruits. Tabary decided against accepting a late offer from East Carolina. Cornerback D.J. Armstead received one from Louisville, and offensive lineman Daniel Keith had one from Miami.
Anderson saw ASU’s ability to keep those players in the fold as a bit of momentum for his new program.
“I think it speaks to the quality of players we’re recruiting,” he said. “We know that going in, that we’re going to have to battle until the end and create relationships where guys don’t flip.”
Arkansas State signings
POS. NAME HT. WT. SCHOOL
DT Charles Alexander 6-4 300 Los Medanos CC
DB D.J. Armstead 5-11 185 Florence, Ala.
OL Christian Beard 6-4 260 Waco (Texas) Midway
OL Jhamahl Bell 6-4 295 Warren
RB Brandon Byner 5-11 177 Bessemer (Ala.) City
DE Caleb Caston 6-1 190 Pascagoula, Miss.
DE Jarrod Chandler 6-2 205 Aubrey Barton
LB Carderious Dean 6-3 245 Itawamba CC *
DB Charles Gaskins 6-0 180 Tallahassee (Fla.) Godby
DB Charles Grant 5-10 180 Mesquite, Texas
OL Kyle Harris 6-3 285 Itawamba CC*
RB Terrance Hollingsworth 5-8 175 Berry, Ala.
DT Marcus Hudson 6-4 265 Manor, Texas
OL Daniel Keith 6-5 260 Florence, Ala.
DB Khari Lain 5-10 188 Sandy Creek, Ga.
WR Blake Mack 6-3 193 Lonoke
DT Chuks Ota 6-2 285 Jonesboro
RB Daryl Rollins-Davis 5-7 175 Knoxville (Tenn.) Fulton
DE Kyle Strickland 6-4 245 Brandon, Miss.
DT E.J. Sutton 6-2 270 Schertz (Texas) Clemens
QB James Tabary 6-2 190 New Orleans
WR Blaise Taylor 5-9 160 Auburn, Ala.*
LB A.J. Turner 6-2 210 Lepanto (Univ. of Ark.)*
DB Nehemiah Wagner 6-0 170 Mesquite (Texas) Horn*Mid-year signee available for spring practice NOTE
DT Kyle Strickland also signed with Copiah-Lincoln (Miss.) Community College
Sports, Pages 15 on 02/06/2014