Arkansas State Red Wolves Retooled Staff is Temporarily Derailed

Less than two weeks after I posted this story about the Red Wolves hiring of Offensive Line Coach Darren Hiller and Running Backs Coach DeAndre Smith, both have left the program. With only nine days before National Signing Day, the defections could not come at a weirder time.

Smith unexpectedly left Jonesboro for the Purdue Boilermakers. The faithful discovered this aggravating truth while perusing an otherwise ordinary day on Twitter.

Very pleased to announce DeAndre Smith as our new running backs coach! #BoilerUp https://t.co/bxSFimg316

— Purdue Football (@BoilerFootball) January 26, 2016

Red Wolves fans took a very dim view to Smith defecting to the downtrodden Boilermakers. A very dim view:

1-11, 3-9, 2-10. Good luck, better hurry.

— The End Around (@EndAroundReport) January 26, 2016

I thought poaching season was just limited to the recruits. Obviously I was wrong.

— Kara Richey (@Kara_Richey) January 26, 2016

Did you know that Purdue last won an outright conference title in 1929?! The Stock Market crashed the same year as Boilermaker football!

— Michael Crump (@michaeldcrump) January 26, 2016

What makes Smith's rejection even more hurtful is that he had been entrusted with the secret location of Coach Anderson's mystical snack cabinet.

HE's A FIRST TIMER !!! New RB Coach Mr @coachDLSmith1 makes his 1st trip to "The Snack Closet" #Family pic.twitter.com/BqmyErlRXD

— Blake Anderson (@CHbanderson) January 19, 2016

If anything turns up missing from that cabinet, Arkansas State campus police will be dispatched to Purdue. Meanwhile, circumstances are even stranger surrounding former Cincinnati OL Coach Darren Hiller who never even made it to Jonesboro.

We've been Clayhelton'd again. "Arkansas St. OL coach Darren Hiller has abruptly left after less than a week for another job per source."

— Rushosaurus rex (@RedWolfRush) January 18, 2016

Nobody seems to know what spooked Hiller, who appears to have vanished off the face of the earth. I listened to a recent interview with Coach Anderson, who spoke briefly about the incident. He did not seem thrilled with the way Hiller left. But at least we have a second opportunity to fulfill at least one outstanding qualification:

Don't care who coaches AState's offensive line in 2016, as long as he is big and fat.

— Rex Steele (@Answer2Anderson) January 11, 2016

Now the quest that had seemed to have come to an end has begun once again. Coach Anderson will have to dig deeper into his address book to fill the vacated positions. If the Red Wolves on campus are worried about the strange turnover, it hasn't affected their low-carb diets.

"When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time." @CoachMShadeed pic.twitter.com/Nau710BygD

— Blake Mack (@lets_go_fishin2) January 26, 2016

However, Coach Blake Anderson wasn't 100% satisfied with the A-State Gun Show.

@lets_go_fishin2 @CoachMShadeed @Wag_HeChilling_ @OvaThaTop29 @txsmde11 @JamesTabary Tabary gotta get to work on that gut

— Blake Anderson (@CHbanderson) January 26, 2016

You can't please everyone.

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