Anderson says Red Wolves will benefit from early spring

It's the middle of February, yet football already is gearing back up in Jonesboro.

Arkansas State University opens spring practices today, opting for a much earlier start to spring camp than in years past.

It's typical for most teams around the country to begin spring camp in March before holding spring games in April. That's what ASU has done each year during Coach Blake Anderson's tenure until now.

The Red Wolves' spring camp will wrap up about a month before it has in the past. The spring game is slated for Thursday, March 19, at 6 p.m. at Centennial Bank Stadium in Jonesboro -- right before school lets out for spring break.

The NCAA gives teams 15 practices -- including 12 that are contact, eight of which for tackling -- each spring. The first two practices are required to be in helmets, shirts and shorts.

The decision was strategic for Anderson, who explained during his national signing day news conference that he believes it will benefit his team in the long run.

He said he pondered the switch-up for a "couple years" and considered an early spring camp last year. But with a huge offseason shakeup on the coaching staff coupled with the situation off the field with his late wife Wendy's health, "it just didn't make sense," Anderson said.

"I've been a part of it before on staff at the University of New Mexico, and I thought it was really good for us," Anderson said Feb. 5. "I've talked to several people that have gone to it, and they talked about the pros and cons, and it's just too many good things that come from it to not do it -- when you consider injury, you consider the academic phase of it on the back end, but mainly the strength and power phase of the big guys."

That latter area is where Anderson feels his program needs to improve the most this offseason.

Anderson, who's heading into his seventh season at ASU, was adamant his team must get bigger and stronger in the trenches.

He said the point of the earlier spring wrap-up is to allow the Red Wolves to have a longer, more fluid period of offseason workouts before the summer.

"If you can get them an uninterrupted cycle that we're gonna be able to create coming out of spring break all the way through the end of the semester, that's an eight-week-or-so cycle that we've been breaking up and we've been doing maintenance work in the past, and it's been folding in to finals and then to a three-week break of them not being here," Anderson said. "I think we've had some losses there. We've had to kind of start over in the summer, and we can't afford to keep doing that."

ASU also has a delicate situation at quarterback with the impending battle between Logan Bonner and Layne Hatcher.

Bonner, who will be a redshirt senior, started the first four games in 2019 before undergoing season-ending surgery for a torn ligament in the thumb of his throwing hand. Bonner had thrown for 1,052 yards, 10 touchdowns, 1 interception and completed 59.5% of his passes.

Hatcher, a former Pulaski Academy star who had transferred from Alabama in April, replaced him, leading ASU to a 6-3 record, including a Camellia Bowl victory over Florida International. Hatcher finished the season with 2,946 passing yards, 27 touchdowns, 10 interceptions and a 65.8% completion rate, enough to earn him Sun Belt freshman of the year.

The Red Wolves know they have two starting quarterbacks capable of leading them to wins, but now begins the process of deciding who is best to do so. There's also questions about who will catch their passes after seniors Omar Bayless and Kirk Merritt exhausted their eligibility.

Defensively, there are holes to be filled, especially in the secondary where the Red Wolves lost cornerbacks Jerry Jacobs, Jeremy Smith, Demari Medley and Nathan Page; nickel backs Darreon Jackson and Logan Wescott; and safety B.J. Edmonds.

"I told people I feel like we can outrun anybody in our league. We've had speed, but just size and power has been our biggest problem," Anderson said. "When we've matched up well up front, we've won. When we haven't, we've lost games -- really close, one-possession games. And we've got to play more physical, we've got to be stronger, more powerful to do that."

Sports on 02/17/2020