Red Wolves preparing to take on FIU in the Camellia Bowl

Arkansas State is in the early stages of preparing for the Camellia Bowl against Florida International. The Red Wolves learned of their opponent Sunday afternoon.

Head football coach Blake Anderson said that he is excited to be going to another bowl game.

“Really just excited to be going to another bowl,” said Anderson. “Nine straight years for the program and six straight years for us. Considering everything we faced this year it wasn’t a given, so I think the guys have definitely earned the right to go, and the goal will be to go and find a way to win.”

This is the second time Arkansas State has been invited to the Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama. The Red Wolves played in the game two years ago, but came up short against Middle Tennessee.

“We went down there a couple of years ago and didn’t play very well, and finished with a bad taste in our mouth. We’d love to go find a way to get a win, and get number eight,” said Anderson.

The Red Wolves will take on a six win Florida International team that Anderson said he doesn’t know a whole lot about right now.

“FIU. Don’t know a tremendous amount about them,” Anderson said. “Not just a whole lot of information on them, but we will start working on that as we go, and start watching tape. I know they’re well coached. Butch Davis does a great job. I know him and got a couple of guys on his staff that I coached.”

Anderson also stated that he is excited to see the team be able to have an opportunity at another bowl game.

“Really I’m just excited to see this team be able to improve, and hopefully we will get a few guys healthy and play better than we did our last outing,” Anderson said. “It’s always a big thing to finish with a win going into the offseason, and that’s going to be the main focus. I want them to have a great time. That is what bowls are about. They guys deserve it. They’ve earned it, but ultimately we want to get a win. We want to get to number eight and build momentum going into the offseason, and that is what our focus will be on. Putting together a plan that will give us a chance to beat a good FIU team.”

The Camellia Bowl is one of the first bowl games that will be played this year. The game is played on December 21, and Anderson said that there is good and bad to playing an early game.

“There is good and bad to playing in an early game,” said Anderson. “Obviously if you play early you are just kind of carrying momentum over from the season and you are still in the swing of things, then obviously being done on the 22nd and you get the opportunity for a lot of these guys to go home. Obviously the negative is juggling everything that is going on. We’ve got staff on the road everywhere to recruit. I’ll be out for home visits the next couple of days and on the road as well. Then we’ll start practices on Thursday. So you’ve got to multitask really, really well. We’ve done it before and been successful, and we’ve done it before and not gotten the job done, so we’ll try to find the balance of those two and do a better job at it.”

Anderson also stated that he paid attention to bowl projections, and thought that there were three bowls the Red Wolves could have possibly ended up in.

“I had seen the projections like a lot of people that we were going to the Cure earlier,” said Anderson. “There was no true reason as to why that was. I felt like we could have ended up in one of three bowls really. Don’t know why, but it doesn’t surprise me how it turned out. I think geographically they are good decisions for everybody, and I still have every hope that we will have a lot of people drive down to try to support this group of guys. So I think they are all good decisions, and we are excited to go.”

Anderson also noted that the Camellia Bowl treated the Red Wolves well two years ago.

“It is a great bowl. They treated us really well,” said Anderson. “Super organized, the kids had a good time. Families were able to be there, and it was a great crowd that night. We just didn’t play well enough to win. We turned the ball over too much.”

Anderson stated that he and his staff will begin breaking down film on Florida International later this week.

“I haven’t looked at them yet, I just know Butch [Davis] is a defensive guy and has had a great career stopping folks,” said Anderson. “They gave up a few points in a couple of games. Without watching them I really don’t know what to expect yet. The match ups physically, and really schematically, I’d be guessing at all of that stuff. We will get to that over the next couple of days. We really just found out the opponent yesterday, and are still breaking down film at this point.”

The Red Wolves will hit the practice field on Thursday to begin bowl prep against FIU.

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