The first time the Red Wolves played a bowl game in Mobile, it was a kind of glorious mess. Hugh Freeze’s 2011 team would meet Northern Illinois without Hugh Freeze – he had bailed for Ole Miss after a 45-14 destruction of Troy to end the regular season. In attendance, however, was recently hired head coach Gus Malzahn, an acquisition that in many ways overshadowed the 2012 GoDaddy.com Bowl itself.

The Huskies of Northern Illinois bested Arkansas State in dispiriting fashion. After a fast start that saw the Red Wolves accrue the game’s first 13 points, Northern Illinois outscored A-State 38-7 behind game MVP Chandler Harnish, who would become the NFL’s Mr. Irrelevant a couple months later. It didn’t really matter. Red Wolves fans had their eyes fixed on the future with a new celebrity head coach and the return of the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year Ryan Aplin to helm the offense.

Fourteen years later, the Red Wolves make another of many returns to Mobile, though the venue and the sponsor has changed. These days, it’s the 68 Ventures Bowl hosted at nearly-new Hancock Whitney Stadium, a dazzling upgrade over gloriously dank and moldy Ladd Peebles. Instead of a convenient post-New Year’s date, the game is being played on December 26, which isn’t very practical for fans endeavoring to make the seven hour drive between Christmas stops to grandma’s. The opponent is both new and familiar – Bowling Green, a team we haven’t played since 1974 (a 17-0 loss), but does represent the MAC, a common postseason foe.

What do we make of these Falcons from the tundra? They put a scare into Playoffs bound Penn State, holding a halftime lead on the Nittany Lions in Week 2 before succumbing 34-27. The next week, the Bowling Green issued a nearly identical scare to Texas A&M before falling 26-20. The next week, they’d lose to Old Dominion by three. Go figure.

NFL mega-prospect Harold Fannin Jr won the MAC offensive player of the year award – at tight end. Along with Fannin, running back Terion Stewart garnered first-team MAC honors. Bowling Green has transfer issues (welcome to the club). Outstanding linebacker Joseph Sip has already accepted cash a roster position at Kansas, and the before mentioned Stewart is already sized for a Virginia Tech jersey. First-team offensive lineman Alex Wollschlaeger is off to Kentucky. Always remember, the Power 4 poaches G5 stars while the G5 acquires the P4 malcontents.

But even with all that talent departing, Bowling Green is not without its weapons. Senior QB Connor Bazelak tossed for more than 2,500 yards and 15 touchdowns against just five picks. The 6’4″ 230-lb Fannon, a junior expected to bounce into the NFL Draft, gobbled up 1,342 of those yards with 9 resulting in touchdowns. The defense is the 20th stingiest in the nation, and the team sill has plenty of defenders to flummox the oft-flummoxed Red Wolves offense.

Is that a dig at Arkansas State’s offense? Yeah, a little bit. It was supposed to be better this year. It wasn’t. Still, the Jaylen Raynor-to-Corey Rucker connects is still a must-see QB/WR duo, and the run game has become significantly improved behind departing senior running back Zak Wallace. Meanwhile, Terrian Thomas remains a fourth quarter sniper in the defensive backfield, and you get the feeling that the senior duo of Justin Parks and Charles Wilekes will want to end their college careers with a crescendo of hard hits.

The seven and five Red Wolves of 2024 wasn’t a great Arkansas State team, but you have to appreciate these guys nonetheless. Six one-score victories offered plenty of excitement. Watching Rucker mature into Jay Adams/Omar Bayless territory was something special. We had the good fortune to see center Jacob Bayer triumph over a busted ACL, and witness the defense snag 14 big interceptions. We shrug our shoulders at seven wins, but man, that’s better than the two wins we had in 2021, and the three we managed in 2022. It’s even better (according to my calculator) than the six victories we garnered last season.

This is our last chance, ladies and gentlemen, to see this team in action, albeit without the services of a just a couple transfers. The team that won 5 out of six home games is largely the team will see take on the Falcons in Mobile. Let’s celebrate with them one last time.

PHOTOS: mine and something that Sports Illustrated published in 2012