Success for Indians under construction
TODD TRAUBARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
JONESBORO -- While Arkansas State is hoping to put a vastly improved football team on display this season, the Indians already are assured of having a vastly improved display case.
Two major improvements to Indian Stadium are under way, with one project designed to enhance the football experience for fans and the other designed to improve life for the coaches and players.
Work is almost complete on the 17-by-23-foot video screen and scoreboard in the south end zone. The state of the art, high resolution screen, costing just over $1 million, should be ready in time for the home opener against Nicholls State on Sept. 15.
Work continues on the $4.5 million field house expansion, also in the south end zone. When construction is completed in late spring, the field house will have grown from two to three stories and will include office space, meeting rooms and study areas and an expanded weight room and training facilities.
"We're in a building mode," Arkansas State Coach and Athletic Director Joe Hollis said. "And a building mode means we're in a competitive mode."
The scoreboard project was privately funded, while the field house project was funded through state appropriations. The best part, Hollis said, is that both are paid for already.
"The great thing about it is the money's in the bank," Hollis said. "People are pulling for ASU."
Despite the Indians' 1-10 record last year, supporters lined up to help with the scoreboard project.
"After 18 months of setting the table, it took about three weeks to get it all done," associate athletic director Chris Wyche said about the fund-raising.
With the Indians moving into the Sun Belt Conference for football this season, Wyche said the projects would speak well of Arkansas State's program to the rest of the conference.
"Hopefully it says that we are forward thinking and have a program that is moving in the right direction," Wyche said.
The Indians still have to prove that on the field. Competition continues among the five candidates for quarterback: Josh Driscoll, Tommy Miller, Elliot Jacobs, Bryan Gauthreaux and Michael Clark.
None have taken a snap in a NCAA Division I game and only Miller and Gauthreaux are returnees.
"The possibility of a newcomer starting at quarterback is good," Hollis said.
Whoever wins the job will have to get a handle on ASU's new one-back, Spread offense. Like the scoreboard and field house projects, the offense, implemented by new offensive coordinator Phil Davis, is something new to Hollis.
"Is it scary for me? Yeah," Hollis said, "because my whole background has been two-back. ... The big thing is you want to be balanced at the end of the year. If you're one-dimensional, you're going to pay for it."
Arkansas State started summer camp with 41 newcomers, which means the Indians will have some growing up to do. But it seems like just about everything is new with the Indians these days.
Along with the construction, players, coaches, conference and offense, the Indians finally have found an acceptable schedule to Hollis.
After playing four top 25 teams and five home games last year, ASU has two Division I-AA opponents, six home games and, for the first time in Hollis' five years, an open date Sept. 29.
To Hollis, the most important thing is the early home games.
"Thank goodness we're playing a game in Jonesboro in September," Hollis said. "Two games followed by an open date. ... Before I retire we're going to start the season with a home game."
Arkansas State's most challenging opponents, at least on paper, will be Georgia in the season opener at Athens, Ga., on Sept. 1 and Ole Miss, which travels to Jonesboro on Oct. 6.
Though Ole Miss may pose problems for the Indians, the game is expected to be one of the marquee events of the season, the kind of game people had in mind when they put the stadium renovations into action.
"It's the first SEC team to ever come to campus and play a football game in modern history," Hollis said. "I expect a full house."
This article was published on August 27, 2001
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