The Hybrid!

The Arkansas State Red Wolves defense has a position that is called “the Wolf”.  It is a hybrid position that is designed to be half safety, half linebacker.  One of the best athletes on the ASU football squad is set to man the Wolf this fall – Don Jones.  But that is not what this article is about.

This is a story about 3 coaches.  One that came and rebuilt a program – Steve Roberts ; one that took the program where it had never been before – Hugh Freeze; and what I think we have now – the Hybrid – Gus Malzahn.

Steve Roberts took over at Arkansas State when the program was almost beyond repair.  One of the worst football programs in the country when Roberts took over in December 2001, ASU fans were coming off a Thanksgiving day massacre at the hands of the mighty Nichols State Colonels.  It seemed the program had hit an all-time low.    Roberts helped increase the talent pool by recruiting a very solid group of athletes over his 10 years at Arkansas State.  Roberts had 4 seasons of 6 wins and 2 seasons with 5 wins in the span from 2002-2008.  While that doesn’t all that wonderful, just remember that from 1990-2001 there was only one season that had more than 4 wins.  Roberts also had a number of athletes that were drafted during his time and it was practically all but 2 of his recruits that lead the Red Wolves to the 2011 10-3 season and Go Daddy Bowl.  He and his staff did a good job of evaluating talent and finding the “diamonds in the rough.  The Red Wolves squads under Roberts were hard-nosed teams that played hard and loved to strike you.  His kids worked hard to maintain a positive image for the university and they were very good students – winning multiple academic championships in the SBC. 

Roberts’ downside was his conservatism.  Unfortunately for him it crept into all facets of the football program eventually.  First off, it hurt the way he recruited.  He was not willing to spend time and money recruiting an athlete that he felt would end up jumping ship to a bigger school, so he wouldn’t recruit against the big teams and he waited until late in the year to really get his classes.  He hated the media and the fans.  He didn’t want to deal with the criticism that came with being a Division I head football coach and it ended up hurting him with some media and many fans.  But the biggest outpouring of his conservatism came on the field – particularly with the offense.  The game plan was vanilla.  It wasn’t difficult to see what was coming and it was on the field conservativeness that kept those 6-6 teams from being 7,8,9 win teams.  Thus after back to back 4-8 seasons and 10 years of conservatism, it was time for Steve to go.

Hugh Freeze was the offensive coordinator during the last 4-8 season, but it was his offense that kept that team from an uglier record.  Freeze wasn’t Roberts’ first choice as OC and I believe that Hugh was just too “wide open” for Steve.  But the offensive guru had become the fan and media darling during his one season as OC and was handed the reins to the program in December 2010.  Freeze put together a decent recruiting class in the few months he had and proved his worth as a recruiter by picking up some top guys like Josh Jarboe, Kyle Coleman, and Artez Brown.  Freeze was from the Ed Orgeron style of recruiting which was “offer them all, and take the best 25”.  After signing his first class in February, Freeze immediately began to make offers to guys everywhere.  Offering 5 star recruits and almost everyone else, I was a little perplexed with some of the early commits as they weren’t quite the talent level as I was expecting.  I was told that the evaluation of recruits lacked a little to be desired and there was a bit of “needing to have another commit to keep the publicity front going”.  

Well by now the season had quickly blown in and the perfect storm hit us like lightning.  Freeze’s offense was running to perfection and his motivational skills had all 100+ Red Wolves believing in themselves and the team.  After eking out victories on the road versus Western Kentucky and UL-Monroe, this team decided they were unbeatable.  They played like gangbusters.  The more confidence that got the better they were and by the end of the season, old rivals that routinely bullied the Red Wolves around were being pounded into the ground by Freeze, his up-tempo offense, and the battery of athletes on the ASU defense.  ASU fans were pounding their chests and proclaiming the coming of a new era when it became apparent that we were all about to really “Feel the Freeze”.  The man that had invited the press into team meetings and was beloved by ASU fans for bringing the program back to life was heading to Ole Miss for his “dream job”.  I was told by someone on the inside that Freeze was always ready to jump to the big time and the chance to go to Ole Miss was an easy choice (I do believe that Freeze loved his time at ASU and would have stayed if it hadn’t been a “big” program) so it was back to the drawing board for ASU.

The dream come true.  Never in my mind did I think it was possible for ASU to hire Gus Malzahn.  Well maybe when he was at Tulsa or the OC at Arkansas but I figured once his meteoric rise to fame landed him at Auburn we were out of the picture.  Well it happened and what I have found in this short time is what I believe to be a very interesting picture of a man. 

Malzahn is very similar to both Hugh Freeze and Steve Roberts.  How can that be you may ask as Freeze and Roberts seem like polar opposites. Well, let me see if I can explain my thoughts. 

On the field it is simple to see the similarities of Gus and Hugh.  Both want the fast paced, high octane attacking style offense and defense.  They want to put major pressure on the other team with the tempo and to get the most out of the game by getting in as many snaps as possible.  Completely opposite of Roberts, who would prefer a time consuming drive eat up an entire quarter if possible.  All coaches strive for balance in an offense but Roberts would love to just pound the ball with a 3 yards and a cloud of dust mentality.  Hugh seemed to prefer to throw it the majority of the time.  Malzahn is more similar to Roberts in that he would tell you that the running game is the way to go……just up-tempo!

Malzahn and Hugh both LOVE the recruiting game.  And though Malzahn understands the needs to make early offers to top recruits, you see more of the evaluation with this staff.  They are really only interested in those that they have truly evaluated as stars or hidden gems. (Note a number of the recruits that Freeze had committed to ASU that Malzahn dropped didn’t end up signing with D1 programs)  Roberts took the time to evaluate a number of good football players and Malzahn and company have the same mentality. 

Freeze was quick to tell the world what was happening with everything inside ASU football.  He was as open to the media as a coach can be.  Roberts was as closed off and secretive as you can be, sometimes to the point that it lost him publicity.  Malzahn can also play it close to the vest, though he does understand the times to use the media to his benefit for publicity sake.  Basically, to sums it up, Malzahn is conservative like Roberts, but like Freeze he understands the importance of being wide open when he needs to be.  All in all, he has the best of both and is the perfect Hybrid!   

Don Jones would be proud.