Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

MOBILE, Ala. — Taylor Stockemer had forgotten how bad losing felt. He and his Arkansas State teammates got a refresher.

Northern Illinois halted the Red Wolves’ nine-game streak with a 38-20 victory in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. It was the first loss for ASU in more than 16 weeks.

“It’s definitely a horrible feeling going back to losing,” Stockemer said.

For a team that had gone 4-8 the previous two seasons, forgetting what it felt like to lose is a big deal. ASU, picked to finish middle of the pack in the Sun Belt, exceeded expectations in clinching a league title and winning 10 games in the regular season for the first time since 1975.

Arkansas State had the chance to win 11 games and potentially finish in the Top 25, but the sort of mistakes that had been habitual in more difficult seasons popped up again. ASU committed five turnovers, had a costly roughing the passer penalty and gave up a first down on a fake field goal that seemed to turn the game early.

Sugar Bowl participant Virginia Tech was the last team to beat the Red Wolves prior to Northern Illinois. That game against the Hokies, currently ranked No. 17 in the Associated Press poll, was Sept. 17. From there Arkansas State reeled off nine consecutive victories, clinching the bowl bid and an outright Sun Belt Conference championship in the process.

That’s the sort of win streak that gets you a bowl and a primetime spot on ESPN. Another byproduct of the success is the man who oversaw it heads out for a bigger, better-paying gig.

Former coach Hugh Freeze, now at Ole Miss, was among the 38,734 on hand for the game. But he watched from a box inside the Ladd-Peebles Stadium pressbox. Freeze was one of five Red Wolves coaches to leave for Oxford, Miss., including defensive coordinator Dave Wommack, and the instability of the past month seemed to take its toll on the Red Wolves.

ASU was using “interim” assistant coaches, including a retired high school coach and a former college defensive coordinator. Graduate assistants were asked to take on in-game duties, which was a great learning experience, but hardly ideal for winning the bowl.

Early in the game, as the Red Wolves jumped out to a 13-0 lead, it looked like the transition didn’t matter. Or as some in the pressbox joked, maybe Freeze was back calling plays one last time. He wasn’t, of course. And once ASU seemed to get off its initial scripted plays, the in-game adjustments needed were hard to come by.

Interim Coach David Gunn dismissed the idea that ASU lost because of the transition. As he’d said before the game, the schemes and players were the same.

“Yes, we had a couple coaches, a few coaches leave,” Gunn said. “... But our administration moved very quickly to make sure we had everything we needed to be successful; [it has] given us what we needed to win. The staff was not an issue.”