If anyone epitomizes the five-year stabilization process that has been undertaken at Arkansas State, it’s defensive end Jarrod Chandler.
Chandler is a fifth-year senior, having already graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sports management in August. After redshirting his freshman season, he’s played all over the field for the Red Wolves. Saturday’s Arizona Bowl will make his fifth straight bowl appearance, as he traveled with the team his freshman year. He’s made 16 tackles and has a sack this season as a reserve defensive end, but he has become a poster child for coach Blake Anderson.
“He’s been a lot of fun to watch,” Anderson said. “Jarrod is a unique story; he committed to the previous staff, but we went to his home, asked him to stick with it and we didn’t even know what position he would play. He was an athlete you knew you wanted to have. He might be a linebacker, might be a defensive end, might be a tight end, maybe a fullback. He was a featured special teams player for us, part of the sub package on defense, then became an everyday player. You knew something explosive was going to happen. It’s been fun to watch him grow up.”
The Star caught up with Chandler shortly after the Red Wolves arrived in Arizona:
So how does Tucson stack up so far?
A: “So far it’s up there. The best one we went to was Orlando (2016 Cure Bowl). It’s not on top of Orlando, not yet, honestly. Once we venture around a little bit maybe.”
This is now your fifth bowl, but the team’s eighth in a row. Was their postseason success before you arrived a key factor for your commitment?
A: “It’s kind of the reason I committed. They’d already gone to a bowl every year; the GoDaddy Bowl, really, like three times in a row. That was the start of the trend. That’s what got me aboard. But I couldn’t imagine five in a row myself.”
Chandler stuck with the Red Wolves despite a coaching change. Arkansas State has made eight straight bowls.
What did make you stick with your commitment to Arkansas State, as you had been committed to Bryan Harsin before he took the Boise State job?
A: “The same night Coach Anderson got the job, he called me. That set me in motion. He said he’d honor their commitment, and that he was going to honor his commitment to the school. I don’t even think I knew he’d gotten the job yet. I don’t know if it was even announced, really. I felt like a priority. That he even knew who I was, knew what I was about — he’d already done his homework. I don’t know who else he called, but I know he called me. I never thought about decommitting after that phone call.”
After five years, what sticks out the most about your time in college? What would you call your highlight?
A: “There are two other fifth-year seniors. Two of my brothers. We’re the only ones who stuck it out the whole five years. That bond, that friendship is my highlight. And Jonesboro (Arkansas). I plan on staying. After the season is over, I’ll finish my Master’s here, and I want to work within the athletic department. I love Jonesboro. I come from a small town (Barton, Arkansas); everyone knows everybody. Jonesboro is 10 times bigger than where I’m from. Jonesboro feels like New York City to me.”
In what way are you the most different than the 18-year-old who arrived on campus in 2014?
A: “When I first got here, I came summer session one. June classes. I was two weeks out of graduation, from a small town, a small school. I had good academics, but it wasn’t challenging. Where I started academically at Arkansas State, it was rocky for me. I probably didn’t have that switch until after my first year. You kind of realize that the NFL is still there, but you need a degree. I started applying myself more. My first year, I put myself behind the ball. My last two semesters I took 18 and 21 hours to finish up with my class. Those were some of my best semesters. I had a 3.5 and a 3.8 both semesters, and that’s with football, then spring football, having class from 9 to 5.”
It sounds like you got a lot out of your scholarship?
A: “With Coach Anderson, every player he’s had, even seniors he had when he got here, everyone graduated. There’s 100-percent graduation. He pushes academics first. That was my turnaround. He stuck with me. Once I got my degree in August, I could tell the younger guys, go to class. Get that degree while you’re here. Graduation was a milestone moment for me.”
What makes for a good bowl experience?
A: “The people who run the bowl. I compare it to the Cure Bowl. We did charity work as a team, and there was a competition between us and UCF, and we took it so seriously. First team to pack 20,000 meals. Assembly line going on. It wasn’t all about football. It’s all about the community involvement. It’s about showing us it’s more than football. We got off the plane here, had a long day traveling, but they had the band out, and it changes your whole mood. It made me ready to get into it.”
