Blake Anderson, the head coach who guided Arkansas State to two Sun Belt Conference titles and six consecutive bowl game appearances over seven seasons, resigned Thursday to accept a head coaching role with another Football Bowl Subdivision program, ASU announced Thursday afternoon.
Multiple national reports Thursday linked Anderson with the coaching opening at Utah State.
A national coaching search will commence immediately to fill the vacancy just six days before the early recruiting signing period opens. Offensive coordinator Keith Heckendorf has been named interim head coach.
The Red Wolves' final game of the season, originally set for 2 p.m. on Saturday at Centennial Bank Stadium, was canceled Wednesday by San Antonio’s Incarnate Word due to coronavirus-related issues and will not be rescheduled.
Anderson’s decision comes less than seven months after the 51-year old coach agreed to a three-year extension in May that would have kept him in Jonesboro through 2023. Per the extension, ASU is owed $800,000 for his departure for another job after the 2020 season. He leaves the Red Wolves tied for the third-winningest coach in program history.
This fall, ASU suffered its first losing season under Anderson as the Red Wolves battled to a 4-7 finish in a campaign that included a five-game losing streak, a series of scheduling complications and battles with covid-19, for which Anderson tested positive in September.
Announced as the 30th head coach in ASU history in December 2013 after stints as an offensive coordinator at Southern Mississippi and North Carolina, Anderson delivered stability to a program that had previously seen four head coaches come and go in as many seasons from 2010-13. In his first year in 2014, Anderson became the fourth coach in program history to earn at least seven wins in his debut season.
Those winning ways continued as the Red Wolves sported a record of 51-37 during Anderson’s tenure, remaining contenders atop the Sun Belt and reaching bowl games in every year but 2020, earning victories at the 2016 AutoNation Cure Bowl and 2019 Camellia Bowl. It was in his second and third seasons that ASU achieved its highest heights, when Anderson led the Red Wolves to back-to-back Sun Belt championships, finishing with a career-high nine wins in 2015 and his first bowl game victory in 2016 in Orlando, Fla.
Anderson’s Red Wolves never won more than eight games after 2015, but ASU earned a record of 8-5 and a share of the Sun Belt West title in 2018.
Check Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more details.