Arkansas State University cares most today about defeating Texas State University.
But the Red Wolves know the real end to their regular season will be decided today in Monroe, La., not so much at 3 p.m. when they play against the Bobcats in San Marcos, Texas.
ASU (7-4, 4-3) can still earn a berth to the Sun Belt Conference's first-ever championship game on Dec. 1 even with three league losses. For that to happen, the Red Wolves will need to defeat Texas State (3-8, 1-6) and have Louisiana-Monroe (6-5, 4-3) defeat Louisiana-Lafayette (6-5, 4-3) at home.
ASU would then leap ahead of the Ragin' Cajuns, whom the Red Wolves lost 47-43 in October. The Red Wolves would win the SBC West tie-breaker over the Warhawks who they defeated 31-17 last week in Jonesboro.
The Ragin' Cajuns and Warhawks will kick off at 2 p.m. in Monroe with the contest likely to conclude before ASU's game at Texas State ends.
ASU Coach Blake Anderson wants the Red Wolves' attention on Texas State, not what's going on in Monroe.
"I just want us to focus on our job," Anderson said. "I want us to be excited when it's over if we get help. We're going to be excited about the next step, which hopefully is a really good bowl game. We can't control it. I sure don't want to be thinking about things other than doing our job. I think that's where you mess up."
"I'd hate to know what happened and then we not get our job done."
It's been almost a week since Texas State fired third-year coach Everett Withers on Sunday and elevated defensive coordinator Chris Woods to interim head coach.
Withers was 7-28 with the Bobcats, including 2-21 against Sun Belt opponents.
"At the end of the day, we understand. We might not agree, but we understand," Woods said Monday on the Sun Belt coaches teleconference call. "And we have a job to do this week, and that's to try and go win a football game."
Anderson said he does not expect the Bobcats to make a complete overhaul against the Red Wolves. The changes are not expected to be dramatic, but ASU is unsure how the Bobcats will respond to such an abrupt change atop their program.
"They're learning the lessons that Coach Withers had impressed upon them, that the program's bigger than any one person," Woods said.
In its final game under Withers, Texas State held Troy -- which is playing today for a spot in the Sun Belt Championship Game against Appalachian State -- to four field goals and 220 total yards in a 12-7 loss. The 12 points were a season low for Troy.
One week later, Texas State will attempt to defeat ASU for the first time since 2014, something Withers never accomplished.
"It's obviously been an unusual, and somewhat difficult, week," Woods said.
Sports on 11/24/2018