Red Wolves’ goal: Finish

MOBILE, Ala. — There is one constant to Arkansas State’s approach this evening.

The Red Wolves want to finish.

A season unlike any at Arkansas State wraps up when the Red Wolves tackle Mid-American Conference champion Northern Illinois tonight in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. Kickoff is 8 p.m. at a nearly sold-out Ladd-Peebles Stadium, and a national television audience will also watch.

It’s the final game of college football before the BCS championship, and there is no stage the Red Wolves would rather play on or be. As ASU went through its final bowl preparations, each player was given a T-shirt to remind them of the goal and the approach to take.

The T-shirt featured one word: Finish.

“We want to finish this off,” ASU interim coach and former Watson Chapel assistant coach David Gunn said. “I’m sure Northern Illinois feels the same way, but in order for us to put the icing on this cake, it’s important for us to finish this season in a way that would bring honor to the university, the great state of Arkansas and to these young men most of all. We went to finish.”

Arkansas State (10-2) rewrote its history books in reaching just its second FBS bowl ever.

The Red Wolves captured their first-ever outright Sun Belt Conference title, running through the league unbeaten while hardly being challenged, winning their conference games by an average margin of 17 points. ASU’s 10 victories are the most by the school in 25 years and most ever by a Sun Belt program during the regular season.

The GoDaddy.com Bowl presents one more challenge and one more opportunity for Arkansas State to add to a long list of accomplishments. The Red Wolves plan on doing so the same way they got here.

“This is about finishing and finishing the right way,” ASU linebacker Nathan Herrold said. “We won a Sun Belt Conference championship. Now we want to finish with 11 wins. There’s only one way to do that.”

ASU made it to the postseason with an attacking defense that bottled up the run and was difficult to throw on. Its offense was just as aggressive in a hurry-up, no-huddle scheme that opponents had difficulty adjusting to.

For the 24 seniors who will play their final game this evening, the GoDaddy.com Bowl represents a change in direction for the ASU program. They want to leave with a victory and a foundation that manifests a successful future.

“We want to finish strong and do something that’s never been done here,” ASU sixth-year senior Tom Castilaw said. “At the same time, we want to leave a legacy. We don’t want it to be a one-season wonder. We want to pass something on.”

Finishing strong means being the same team, playing the same way, just doing it one more time.

“We have to come at it like we’ve done every game all year long,” ASU quarterback Ryan Aplin said. “This is another great team we’re facing. They won their conference and we won our conference, so it’s going to be a battle. We need to play like we have all season.”

But with an avalanche of change crashing down since the regular season ended, the Red Wolves may have difficulty replicating their ways.

Two days after the season, head coach Hugh Freeze accepted the coaching job at the University of Mississippi and left a gaping hole at ASU. Freeze took with him four assistant coaches, including defensive coordinator Dave Wommack, to leave only a few pieces from the original staff that led the team to unprecedented achievements.

Going into the GoDaddy.com Bowl, Arkansas State has a staff that includes an interim head coach, two interim assistants, and two graduate assistants. A pair of student assistants will also help.

But even with all the changes, the Red Wolves insist they’re in good shape.

“You can’t ignore coaching changes, and you don’t know how things are going to be in the future,” Castilaw said. “But it doesn’t affect the fact that we want to play, and it’s not something that we’re going to let affect our focus or our effort.”

Aplin was initially concerned with all the turmoil, but those fears have since eased.

“We all had worries,” Aplin said. “We were skeptical about what was going to happen, but we have a new head coach and all the coaches that are here, except for two, have been here for the whole ride. It’s really nothing different. We’re comfortable with these coaches and we have a great game plan.”

In winning the Sun Belt and earning a bowl invitation, the Red Wolves accomplished many milestones along the way.

Among them, they won four road games for the first time since 1987. They also won at Middle Tennessee State for the first time ever. They finished with a winning record for the second time on the FBS level. And, they closed out victories with fourth-quarter finishes instead of collapses as had haunted them in previous years.

In a sense, Arkansas State changed some of the ways it identified itself and the ways it was perceived by others. The changes in the coaching staff are another obstacle for the Red Wolves to overcome.

“We’ve been responding to things like this all year long,” ASU defensive tackle Dorvus Woods said. “I think this is just another test for this team. I believe we can respond to this just like all the others.”

ASU receivers coach Tyler Siskey will serve as offensive coordinator and call plays while special teams coordinator Corey Batoon will serve as defensive coordinator. Gunn will have final say on calls and situational strategy.

Gunn said he will coach and the Red Wolves will play the same way they have all season.

“We have a system in place and there is no need to depart from that system,” Gunn explained. “It has worked very well throughout the course of this season. We are more than confident that it will work for one more ballgame.”

Siskey echoed Gunn’s sentiments.

“We’re going to do what we do,” Siskey said. “We’ve had a lot of success with this offense the last two years and we don’t see any reason to change it. It works.”

Northern Illinois (10-3) won eight straight to reach the GoDaddy.com Bowl, including a 23-20 win over Ohio in the MAC championship.

The Huskies have one of the top rushing attacks in the country with nearly 250 yards a game. They are led by quarterback Chandler Harnish, who was the MAC Player of the Year, and had 4,324 yards total offense and 37 touchdowns this season.

NIU is making its fourth straight bowl appearance, while Arkansas State is making its first since the New Orleans Bowl in 2005, which ASU lost to Southern Mississippi 31-19.

“What we have to do is play like the way we’ve been playing all year,” ASU linebacker Demario Davis said. “It’s another game, and you have to go into them all the same with as much focus and as much passion as you can bring. I think it’s going to be a great experience.”