Over the past few weeks ESPN has taken an interactive approach in bringing fans inside the office of Mark Dantonio, David Cutcliffe, and Bob Stoops to explore their offices and uncover some pretty cool stories behind things that they have sitting around to impress recruits and visitors.
But the most popular thing in Blake Anderson's office at Arkansas State has nothing to do with recruiting, or impressing visitors, but rather focuses on his staff, their stomachs, and their overall morale. Anderson's most popular thing in his office is the staff "snack closet".
Filled with honey buns, granola bars, Pringles, Kit Kats, Wheat Thins, and just about every other delicious snack you can imagine, the snack closet is a hit with his entire staff...especially the grad assistants (and Trooper Taylor and those honey buns).
It's a stash extensive enough to make a kid at fat camp jealous (think 90's movie Heavyweights)
"When I was on staff with Dan Dodd at New Mexico, Dan always had snacks around, maybe not to the extent that we do now." Anderson explained as his inspiration behind the snack closet.
"My thought process coming here, I really, truly believe that my job is to serve the guys around me. To make their jobs easier, to make their jobs better. I can't pay them as much as I want, I'd love to pay them all more...especially the GAs."
"So if I can take what they pay me, which is probably a whole lot more than I deserve to be honest, I'm going to take some of that and go out and make sure my guys are taken care of throughout the day and make their job a little easier."
Tennessee and Ohio State may have catered meals for their staff and grad assistants, but that obviously isn't the case a lot of places. Credit coach Anderson (and his wife Wendy) for getting creative and taking care of their staff.
If you're an assistant without a snack closet in the offices, you may want to find a subtle way to show this to your head coach.