Denim Millward
Sports Editor
After a stellar debut performance leading to a rare ISU football win, Justin Arias had every right to be happy, excited and otherwise stoked at the postgame press conference.
Based on his placid demeanor while fielding media questions, it seemed as if Arias had just finished a good novel and a chamomile tea, not carving up Dixie State’s secondary and racking up the ninth-highest passing yards in a game in ISU history.
Don’t mistake Arias’s attitude for indifference: he’s as passionate and competitive as they come. The redshirt junior simply places a high premium on maintaining composure and never getting too high or low.
“I just try to stay calm and collected,” Arias, an Agoura Hills, Calif., native, said to reporters at a Sept. 3press conference. “You can’t get too excited about one touchdown when you have another 40 or 50 minutes left to play.”
Arias’s demeanor may partially be explained by his affinity for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, whose jersey Arias wore to the Sept. 3 press conference, garnering some razzing from media members. Arias does a great job emulating Brady, who at times seems almost bored dropping back to pass while 290-pound behemoths charge at him from both sides with bad intentions.
After backing up Kevin Yost in 2011 and seeing minimal playing time, Arias redshirted for the 2012 season to singularly focus on taking the reins from Yost in 2013. By all accounts, the junior college transfer from College of the Canyons made the most out of the year he had to prepare for his journey that began Saturday. Arias drew rave reviews from his most important critic, Bengal Head Coach Mike Kramer after a successful offseason practice regimen that saw Arias take the helm from Yost, a passing stat machine. While it was perhaps initially brushed off as requisite optimism, Kramer’s insistence that the Bengal passing attack shouldn’t miss a beat transferring from Yost to Arias looked like a wholly true statement following ISU’s 40-14 defeat of Dixie State Saturday night.
Arias completed 29 of 45 passes for 439 yards, two passing touchdowns and a rushing score, his one interception being one of the few bad balls he threw all game. Also on display was Arias’s above-average mobility, though Arias did a great job not relying too heavily on his elusiveness and speed. One aspect of his game that Kramer was none too pleased with was Arias’s repeated dives forward at the end of runs instead of sliding and avoiding big hits.
“There is no question that our quarterback ran the ball and stayed upright way too much,” Kramer said in the post-game press conference, one of the few criticisms he had of Arias’s performance. Arias acknowledged this needed correction going forward, registering somewhere between Ben Stein and Mr. Rogers on the excitement and enthusiasm scale as he discussed Kramer’s critique.
Behooving Arias’s game day performance were wideouts Cameron Richmond and Luke Austin, with whom Arias already seems to have great rapport. Richmond seemed to catch everything that was thrown near him, while Austin worked hard to maximize his yards after the catch. Richmond and Austin also benefitted from Arias’s impeccable timing and impressive accuracy, which made their jobs that much easier. The immediate impact of Richmond and Austin helps fill the void left by the departure of Rodrick Rumble, the holder of just about every ISU receiving record there is.
Though tempered by the fact that the Bengals’ success came against Division II Dixie State, optimism runs high throughout Bengal nation. From the small sample size information can be gleaned from, Arias is as good as advertised, maybe better. Along with a revamped defense and a resurrected running attack, Arias has the potential to lift Idaho State University football out of the Big Sky basement it has been occupying for the better part of a decade. Arias knows about his bright future as leader of the Bengals as well as anyone.
But don’t expect him to get too excited about it.
