Tag Archive for ncaa

John Miller | December 2, 2012
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FCS BRACKET CHALLENGE: Round 2 Leaderboards

Well as everyone should already know, Appalachian State’s football season ended (brutally) yesterday by a blocked extra point in overtime 38-37. That’s going to put a big damper on this contest, I have to admit. I still want to thank everyone who entered and followed AppStateNation this season. Remember, we’re still SoCon champs and it’s still great to be a Mountaineer!

For those of you like myself, who picked App State to win it all, our brackets are pretty much ruined. But you never know.

In case you were wondering about tie breakers, it goes total points -> correct tournament winner -> coin flip. To review the bracket you submitted click HERE.

Let’s take a look at the leaderboards for this week:

Rank / Name / Points / Team Picked to Win Tournament

1st Place

Michael Somogyi – 19 Illinois St

2nd Place (Tie)

KJ Eagle – 18 (5) Georgia Southern
Hapapp – 18 (1) North Dakota St

4th Place (Tie)

Marc Troglione – 17 (1) North Dakota St
bearbison – 17 (1) North Dakota St
Bryan – 17 (4) Old Dominion
Sam Nicholson – 17 (1) North Dakota St
Griz1988 – 17 (1) North Dakota St
Ryan Hotz – 17 (4) Old Dominion

10th Place (Tie)

James Wagar – 16 (1) North Dakota St
Adam Faulkner – 16 Appalachian St
CoastalFans – 16 (1) North Dakota St
Matt Lawson – 16 (5) Georgia Southern
Dave Greco III – 16 (4) Old Dominion
87ASUgrad – 16 (1) North Dakota St
Daniel Clark – 16 (1) North Dakota St
Andrew Kunkle – 16 (4) Old Dominion
Chad Evans – 16 Appalachian St
Jarad Mahlen – 16 (1) North Dakota St
takerjw – 16 (5) Georgia Southern
Will S – 16 (1) North Dakota St
Tom Donovan – 16 (3) Montana St
Eddie Ingram – 16 Appalachian St
Aikman C – 16 (1) North Dakota St
Patrick Sekel – 16 Appalachian St

26th Place (Tie)

AppStateNation – 15 Appalachian St
Matt Waddell – 15 (4) Old Dominion
Wutsurname – 15 (1) North Dakota St
Eric Bridwell – 15 (3) Montana St
DJnVa – 15 (4) Old Dominion
Seth Stratton – 15 Sam Houston St
Warren Boyette – 15 Appalachian St
John Nixon – 15 (3) Montana St
Mike Rowell – 15 (5) Georgia Southern
Eaglegus2 – 15 (5) Georgia Southern
Nick – 15 (1) North Dakota St
Josh Johnston – 15 Appalachian St
Steven warner – 15 (5) Georgia Southern
Adam Spencer – 15 Appalachian St
Matt Adams – 15 (1) North Dakota St
Thomas – 15 Appalachian St

42nd Place (Tie)

Gabriel Parsons – 14 Appalachian St
Tyler – 14 (5) Georgia Southern
SSCangrycoach – 14 (5) Georgia Southern
Bobby Penson – 14 Appalachian St
Lance Culver – 14 (5) Georgia Southern
Jacob Nall – 14 Appalachian St
Tony Bedini – 14 (4) Old Dominion
bigCasu – 14 Appalachian St
Robert – 14 (4) Old Dominion
Taylor Adams – 14 Appalachian St
Travis – 14 (4) Old Dominion
Scott Holbrook – 14 Appalachian St

54th Place (Tie)

Michael Deese – 13 (5) Georgia Southern
WataugaDave – 13 (3) Montana St
Matthew Jordan – 13 Appalachian St
Daren Moog – 13 (3) Montana St
Bryant Barbery – 13 Appalachian St
sloan goforth – 13 (1) North Dakota St
Josh – 13 (3) Montana St
Alexander Joachim – 13 (2) Eastern Washington
kth – 13 (5) Georgia Southern

63rd Place (Tie)

Dean Crider – 12 Appalachian St
Baker Loy – 12 (4) Old Dominion
Ryne – 12 (4) Old Dominion

66th Place (Tie)

Joshua Bodrey – 10 (4) Old Dominion
David – 10 Appalachian St

Category: Football | Tags: , , , , , , ,
John Miller | November 18, 2012
3 comments

CONTEST: AppStateNation’s 2013 NCAA Div-I FCS Bracket Challenge

***All brackets are due by Friday Nov 23, 2012!***

The 2013 NCAA Div-I FCS Championship will be held on Jan 5, 2013 in Frisco, TX. But there’s a lot of time until then so why not show you know more about the FCS than anyone else?

It’s the AppStateNation FCS Bracket Challenge! Fill out your bracket and after every week’s round, I’ll post the leaderboards! Then check back after the championship game to see if you won.

HOW TO ENTER:

1. Go HERE to see the bracket.

2. Click “PREDICT IT!” at the top-left.

3. Click “REGISTER HERE” OR “Login With Facebook”

4. Fill out your Name/Email. Then check your email and click the link.

5. Fill out your bracket! – No later than Nov 23, 2012 (the day before the first playoff game).

THE WINNER WILL RECEIVE:

A FREE copy of Mountaineer Magic – Vol 2! This new compilation CD highlights some of the top moments and finishes in Appalachian State Football History.

Perhaps even more importantly, you will be announced as the winner here on the site for all to see! AKA – Bragging Rights! The rest of the leaderboards will also be posted!

So what are you waiting for? Fill out your brackets!

***All brackets are due by Friday Nov 23, 2012!***
Category: Football, General | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
John Miller | October 29, 2012
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TOP-25: Appalachian State Inches Up to #14/#15; Georgia Southern #1/#2

We kept the Old Mountain Jug, but there’s no time to celebrate. This week we face the toughest test of the season. For the 3rd year in a row, either Appalachian State or Georgia Southern will be ranked #1 for the game. This year it’s the Stink.

As you probably know, we are 0-2 against triple option teams. We’re also 0-1 against teams currently in the Top-25 (we have beaten teams that were ranked at the time though). That being said, we had a real shot to win the Wofford game.

Georgia Southern has the #2 ranked rushing offense in the country. Obviously the triple option helps pad that number, but it’s made more real by the fact that they are ranked #18 in total offense. Watch out for RB Dominique Swope, currently #5 in the country for individual scoring.

Don’t sleep on their defense either. They’re ranked #4 in total defense and are devastating against the pass.

If all of that sounds scary, it should. But we aren’t freaking Western Carolina over here. We’re Appalachian State. We’re actually #10 in the country on Total Offense, better than them, plus we have better special teams statistics.

Honestly the only stat that REALLY scares me, is our #94 rushing defense. The fact that we’ve played two triple option teams and an FBS team hasn’t helped us in that category. But anyone who has watched us knows it goes deeper than that.

Georgia Southern’s weakness is their turnover margin. Ours is our rushing defense. To win, we HAVE to stop the run. I honestly don’t know if we will do it. But I know we CAN do it. Anyone who thinks we don’t have a shot has another thing coming.

If we win, we’re in the playoffs and we still have a shot at the conference title. If we lose, we’ll go into the Furman game NEEDING a win just to make the playoffs.

Let’s show the Stink who runs this conference.

FCS Coaches Poll
1. Georgia Southern (17)
2. North Dakota State (5)
3. Montana State
4. Sam Houston State (2)
5. Old Dominion
6. Lehigh (1)
7. Wofford
8. Eastern Washington (1)
9. Stony Brook
10. James Madison
11. New Hampshire
12. Northern Arizona
13. Central Arkansas
14. Appalachian State
15. Illinois State
16. Cal Poly
17. Indiana State
18. Albany
19. Tennessee State
20. Delaware
21. Harvard
22. Towson
23. Eastern Kentucky
24. Bethune-Cookman
25. South Dakota State

SportsNetwork Top-25
1. North Dakota State (59)
2. Georgia Southern (76)
3. Montana State (9)
4. Sam Houston State (9)
5. Old Dominion (2)
6. Wofford
7. Eastern Washington
8. Lehigh (4)
9. Stony Brook (4)
10. James Madison
11. New Hampshire
12. Northern Arizona (2)
13. Central Arkansas
14. Indiana State
15. Appalachian State
16. Cal Poly
17. Illinois State
18. Tennessee State
19. Towson
20. Albany
21. South Dakota State
22. Richmond
23. Delaware
23. Villanova
25. Eastern Kentucky

Category: Football | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
John Miller | October 22, 2012
2 comments

TOP-25: Appalachian State Slips to #15 & #16; Still Plenty to Play For

Although Samford, The Citadel, and Montana were all ranked at some point, according to the newest polls our only 2 games against ranked opponents are Wofford & Georgia Southern.

Personally, I didn’t think the Wofford game was as bad as some made it out to be. We made TONS of mistakes, more than we’ve made all season, and we STILL almost won against a top-10 team. You take just 1 of those away and we win that game. I have to believe that we won’t make that many mistakes against Georgia Southern.

But here we are with 3 losses. So what are we still playing for? Well in short, EVERYTHING.

This week we can win the old mountain jug. We can still win the SoCon championship. We can still make the playoffs. We can still win the National Championship. If you don’t think we can play with any FCS team in the country on any given Saturday you must be kidding yourself. If we get into the playoffs, anything can happen.

Here is how we win the SoCon. Obviously we will have to win out. Then we need a few (likely) things to happen. There are three 1-loss teams ahead of us: Georgia Southern, Wofford, & Chattanooga. Here is how they fall:

Georgia Southern: Assuming we win out, we beat them.

Wofford: They still have to play The Citadel, Samford, Chattanooga, & South Carolina. The South Carolina game doesn’t matter, but I can just about guarantee you they’ll lose to AT LEAST 1 of those other 3.

Chattanooga: They still have to play Georgia Southern, Western Carolina, Wofford, & Elon. Georgia Southern will beat them this week, and even if they don’t Wofford will.

So the sky isn’t falling. The entire season is still ahead of us. Just take it one week at a time. This week let’s tear the Catamounts a new one and take home that jug!!!

SportsNetwork Poll

1. Eastern Washington (125)
2. Georgia Southern (14)
3. North Dakota State (13)
4. Montana State
5. Sam Houston State
6. Old Dominion
7. Wofford
8. Lehigh
9. James Madison
10. Stony Brook
11. Cal Poly
12. New Hampshire
13. Northern Arizona
14. Central Arkansas
15. Indiana State
16. Appalachian State
17. Illinois State
18. Eastern Kentucky
19. Villanova
20. Delaware
21. Tennessee State
22. Youngstown State
23. Towson
24. Albany
25. Richmond

_________________

FCS Coaches Poll

1. Eastern Washington (22)
2. Georgia Southern (1)
3. North Dakota State (3)
4. Montana State
5. Sam Houston State
6. Lehigh
7. Old Dominion
8. Wofford
9. Stony Brook
10. James Madison
11. Cal Poly
12. New Hampshire
13. Northern Arizona
14. Central Arkansas
15. Appalachian State
16. Delaware
17. Illinois State
18. Eastern Kentucky
18. Indiana State
20. Albany (N.Y)
21. Tennessee State
21. Youngstown State
23. Villanova
24. Harvard
25. Towson

Category: Football | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
John Miller | October 16, 2012
2 comments

VIDEO: Preview of “Austin Trotman: The Darkhorse Story” About Former App State Wrestler

Apparently someone is making a documentary about star wrestler Austin Trotman. No one could deserve it more. Despite being a 9 seed at the 2012 NCAA Tournament, he finished 3rd overall.

For that result, he was named the SoCon Male Athlete of the Year. Not wrestler of the year, ATHLETE. The win that put him into 3rd was named GoASU’s Most Memorable Moment of the Year. It should also be noted that teammate Kyle Blevins finished 4th in the country right behind him. That’s just unbelievable.

For those who remember, the High Country Press ran an article that said he would compete at the Olympics. Thanks to help from some of you readers we cleared that up. This video kind of explains the confusion, he really was training at the Olympic center.

Personally, I love the passion Trotman shows for his sport, which is arguably the toughest there is. Appalachian is blessed to have a tremendous wrestling program, partly due to a nationally known wrestling camp we hold every year. I’ll definitely be looking forward to this documentary.

Category: General, Videos | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
John Miller | October 3, 2012
One comment

WEEK 6 PREDICTION: Elon @ #14 Appalachian State

BOOK SPOILER ALERT: Elon Sucks

Yeah I know the homecoming theme is the Big Apple…but that’s just way too nerdy so I went with Harry Potter instead. Hey if we keep playing like we did last week we might just end up being the Lord of the Rings!…Ok that was bad. I apologize.

OVERVIEW

So here we are. We’ve beaten Montana, Chattanooga, and Coastal Carolina. But we’ve lost to ECU and The Citadel.

Elon has basically won all of the games they was supposed to win and lost all of the games they were supposed to lose. They beat NC Central & D-II West Virginia State. They lost to UNC, Georgia Southern, and Wofford. They are essentially out of the conference championship race at this point. But they still have a shot at the playoffs if they win out (doubt it).

Elon’s head coach has suffered from some health problems this season. But he was back to coaching last week against Wofford and is expected to coach this week as well.

ELON’S OFFENSE

Elon has been known for their passing attack. They currently rank 30th in the country in passing offense (72nd in total offense). They’ve been trying to run the ball more this year though, with marginal success. I definitely expect us to be able to stop the run. If we are able to stop the pass, we should be in good shape. But in the last 2 weeks against top SoCon competition they put up 23 & 24 points and I expect them to put up similar to slightly lower numbers against us.

ELON’S DEFENSE

Here is their weakness. They allowed UNC to put up 62 points. Last week they let Wofford put up 49. Hell, even D-II West Virginia State was able to rack up 2 touchdowns on them. To be specific, they can’t stop the run. These stats could have been skewed from playing 2 triple option running offenses so far, but they’re ranked 108th in the country in rushing defense. It will be interesting to see how they handle our spread option.

CONCLUSION

Elon is only averaging 30yds a punt, but I don’t expect it to be field position battle anyway. Their defense won’t be able to stop us. Their offense will likely score a time or two, but nothing we can’t handle. We just need to make sure the turnover bug doesn’t pop its head up again and we’ll have ourselves a nice homecoming.

PREDICTION

Elon 21 / Appalachian State 41

Category: Football | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
John Miller | September 30, 2012
One comment

APP STATE WEEK 5: What Did We Learn?

How cool did those alt-uni’s look? It almost makes me think we need to bring something similar into our regular rotation.

I had a rough week on my predictions going 3-4 (31-12 overall). But I don’t mind one bit because those upsets helped us out tremendously in the conference title race.

Coastal Carolina 14 / @ #17 Appalachian State 55

I predicted a blowout win, but our guys exceeded even my expectations this week. Incredible job!

OFFENSE

399 Rushing yards and 285 passing yards. What else can I say? We absolutely dominated the line of scrimmage. We had the ball 13 times and on 9 of those times we scored. We did throw 1 interception but that was our only turnover of the game. If you told me we could play all of our games with only 1 turnover I would take it.

Steven Miller averaged 11.9yds a carry. Insane. He had 218 all-purpose yards and 2 touchdowns. His longest was an incredible 75yd touchdown run.

Sean Price showed up again today with 8 receptions for 128yds. The longest being a 69yd touchdown strike. He had 2 touchdowns on the game.

DEFENSE

For me, this was the question mark going into the game. Sure our defense did an awesome job against Chattanooga, but Coastal was supposed to have a really high-powered passing offense.

Minus two long drives for touchdowns in the 2nd quarter, I have nothing to complain about. They held Coastal to 114yds on the ground and a 190 in the air. Keep in mind, Coastal put up 356yds in the air against FBS Toledo just last week.

Jeremy Kimbrough had his usual excellent game with 11 tackles. Brandon Grier threw in 6 more. Stephen Burns did a nice job of forcing a fumble.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Although they’re expected, Drew Stewart & co did a nice job of making all their field goals and extra points.

Our worst play of the game was also somehow my favorite. In the 4th quarter, Sam Martin kicked-off 65 yards to the 0yd line. Then Coastal returned the ball 87 yards to the App 13. But it would have been a touchdown if Sam Martin hadn’t made an incredible tackle. I love that the kicker didn’t give up. Coastal would soon after fumble the ball back to us.

I think one of our biggest problems right now is kickoff coverage. I think Sam Martin is doing a good job of kicking the ball so hard that that there is no chance of return. However, I think that’s masking the fact that our kickoff coverage has holes. I’m sure we’ll be working on that this week. Overall, fantastic game!

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#6 Wofford 49 / @ Elon 24

If I told you Wofford would only have 16 passing yards, you would tell me that they lost in blowout fashion right? Well, on top of that they had 500 rushing yards. That’s pretty amazing.

Meanwhile, Elon had the opposite strategy. They had 361yds in the air but only 49 on the ground. I thought they would do a little better after almost beating Georgia Southern last week. But I guess Wofford is as good as advertised.

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Western Carolina 24 / @ Furman 45

I actually thought Western would get their first D-I win of the last two seasons here. What was I thinking? They’ve got a looooong way to go if they were beaten this badly by lowly Furman. WCU actually put up a decent number of yards, but it was like their defense never came out of the locker room.

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Samford 16 / @ #10 Georgia Southern 35

I had a chance to watch most of this game live after the App game ended. This was really a game of momentum. When it started, these two teams looked really evenly matched but with different styles of play. Then GSU caught a pick 6. The crowd and their defense responded off the energy from that big play.

Like the Wofford/Elon game this was a tale of two styles. GSU only had 34yds in the air, but 360 yards rushing. Samford, who usually has more of a balanced attack, had 291 yds in the air, but only 63 yds rushing. Once again Rushing > Passing when you can only do one well.

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Chattanooga 28 / @ #11 The Citadel 10

THANK YOU CHATTANOOGA!!! They gave us our first conference win of the season last week. This week they put the conference race back in our hands. Now we control our own destiny for at least a share of the SoCon title. But we need The Citadel to lose again to control our own destiny for the autobid.

Just like I was clueless when The Citadel destroyed us, I’m clueless as to how they lost to Chattanooga. The stats were almost identical between the two teams across the board. The big difference I see is that Chattanooga won the turnover battle 2-0. The Citadel also had 2 drives end on downs. Chattanooga’s only major mistake was a missed field goal early in the game.

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UTEP 18 / @ East Carolina 28

Our loss to ECU doesn’t look so bad anymore. Each team traded 3 interceptions a piece in this sloppy game. UTEP threw in a fumble for good measure. I guess their excuse is that it was raining and the ball was wet. In any case, I hope ECU keeps on winning.

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#21 Montana 26 / @ #7 Eastern Washington 32

Wow, what a heartbreaker for Montana. I really thought they were going to win this one. E Washington was up 17-10 at the half. But Montana roared back and was up 26-24 with just 2:19 left in the game. But E Washington recovered their onsides kick and turned that into a touchdown with only 00:53 left on the clock. Montana was able to move the ball to the EWU 29 but just didn’t have enough time left to score.

Category: Football | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
John Miller | September 28, 2012
One comment

WEEK 5: The OTHER Games App State Fans Should Watch

App State has a key game tomorrow towards ensuring an at-large playoff berth. But in terms of winning our conference, it’s the games that we’re not playing in this week that are more important. Actually, we’re the only SoCon team not playing a conference game tomorrow. Let’s take a look:

Saturday, Sept 28

1:30PM #6 Wofford @ Elon

Elon gets the home advantage after NEARLY taking down Georgia Southern last week. That recent experience playing against the triple option should help them. However, Wofford has the bigger advantage in that they had 2 full weeks to prepare for this game. They should be healthy, well-rested, and well-prepared. The only thing that gives me pause is that Wofford hasn’t really played anyone yet. Upset alert?! (I hope so!)

Viewing Options: TV – None / Streaming Video / Live Audio / Live Stats

Prediction: Wofford 30 / Elon 24

1:30PM Western Carolina @ Furman

Western Carolina had a 4pt heartbreaking loss against Samford last week. They’re still looking for their first D-I win of the season (they didn’t have a D-I win last season either). If they’re going to get one, this is the week. Furman lost to Samford by a similar score of 3 earlier in the season. Last week they got their first win against a lousy Presbyterian team. This is the “Battle for the Bottom”. At this point, I’m slightly more impressed with WCU and I don’t think Furman’s homefield advantage is that big. It could go either way though.

Viewing Options: TV – None / Live Audio / Live Stats

Prediction: Western Carolina 27 / Furman 24

6:00PM Samford @ #10 Georgia Southern

This is the “Underrated Vs Overrated” game of the week. Samford is the best they have ever been. They’re undefeated and actually ranked in some of the polls (not in the Sports Network poll). Georgia Southern lost to The Citadel. Their best win is a 3pt marquee victory over Elon . If there was a way for both of these teams to lose I would wish for that. But either outcome helps us in a way. I think Georgia Southern wins at home, but they have their hands full.

Viewing Options: TV – ESPN3 / Streaming Video / Live Audio / Live Stats

Prediction: Samford 21 / Georgia Southern 27

6:00PM Chattanooga @ #11 The Citadel

The Citadel is, as of the right now, the best team in the SoCon. You can throw out their 52-14 loss to NC State last week. Meanwhile, Chattanooga will have to do everything this season just to prove it hasn’t fallen all the way to the bottom of the conference. They won’t prove that this week (but I wish they would!)

Viewing Options: TV – None / Streaming Video / Live Audio / Live Stats

Prediction: Chattanooga 13 / The Citadel 41

7:00PM UTEP @ East Carolina

The ECU game feels like a distant memory at this point. This week they face UTEP, a team that has struggled against tough teams so far. Their 3 losses were to Wisconsin, Ole Miss, and Oklahoma. They did beat NMSU. It’s hard to tell where they’re at, but they’re going to be excited to play a team they have a good chance of beating. ECU is likely demoralized after losing so badly to UNC last week.

Viewing Options: TV – WITN / Streaming Video / Live Audio / Live Stats

Prediction: UTEP 28 / ECU 14

7:15PM #21 Montana @ #7 E Washington

Montana is 1 or 2 losses away from making our win against them seem mediocre. A win here from them would really help our strength of schedule. E Washington is ranked so high, partly because of their FBS win over Idaho. But then again, Idaho hasn’t even come close to winning a game this season. Last week, E Washington beat a winless Weber State team by 6. I think you can throw out the rankings for this one. In reality, E Washington hasn’t beaten anyone yet. I like Montana here.

Viewing Options: TV – Root Sports / Live Audio / Live Stats

Prediction: Montana 34 / E Washington 24

________________________

NOTE: All rankings are based on Sports Network’s weekly FCS poll.

Category: Football | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
John Miller | September 16, 2012
7 comments

APP STATE WEEK 3: What Did We Learn?

I’m sure it was clear to anyone watching yesterday that we got completely annihilated by The Citadel. In fact, as bad as the score looks, the score doesn’t quite represent just how bad we got beat. Here is my attempt to make sense of it all:

#21 The Citadel – 52 / @ #8 Appalachian State – 28

The Good

The flyover. The funnel cake. The fact that it’s over?

The Bad

THE DEFENSE looked like they had no idea what was going on against the triple option. That’s not good since Georgia Southern and Wofford also run a form of it.

THE OFFENSE looked like they had no idea what the score was (short throws & runs while down by 5 scores).

SPECIAL TEAMS was doing fine, but didn’t want to make the rest of the team look bad so they let a punt get blocked/returned for a TD.

The Ugly

FAN SUPPORT – The best thing about running this blog by myself (and not worrying about having to make money off of it) is that I can say whatever I want. Well I don’t care who hears it, this week – the only thing worse than our play was our fans.

I get it. I was as frustrated as anyone. To the handfuls of people that stayed the whole game or watched/listened to the entire game from home – I’m not talking to you. To those of you who left early, you really suck. The players didn’t get to leave early. You didn’t leave early when we were beating Montana last week. By the 2nd half, the stands were empty and now I’ve gotta listen to morons talk about firing the coaches. Did we lose BECAUSE of our fans? No, but the fickle support you just showed our players could mentally impact the next one.

It was 1 game people. You talk about a sense of entitlement from the perspective of the players? That’s nothing compared to the sense of entitlement that our fans have. Yes here at App we always expect to win. That doesn’t mean you have to be a douche when we lose.

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D-II Glenville State – 0 / @ Chattanooga – 35

The worst part about this game is that it was played on Thursday. That gave Chattanooga 3 extra days to get ready to play us this week. Other than that, UTC only allowed 17 yards rushing from Glenville State & only 78 total. They also put up 477 yards in a pretty balanced offensive display. It’s hard to really judge against such weak competition though.

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Liberty – 14 / @ #14 Montana – 34

I hope we respond to our loss this week as well as Montana did to theirs last week. They beat a solid Liberty team by double digits. Looking back I wonder how we won that game. It was like a totally different team.

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D-II West Virginia State – 14 / @ Elon – 48

Elon played without the benefit of their head coach who was hospitalized on Fri for chest pains. Best of wishes to him and his family, but if it was going to happen, it couldn’t have happened on a better week. I’m actually surprised WVSU scored twice.

___________________________________________________________________

Samford – 44 / @ Gardner-Webb – 23

Samford is quietly maintaining their undefeated status. Our game against them is going to be …READ MORE

Category: Football | Tags: , , , , , ,
John Miller | September 14, 2012
3 comments

WEEK 3 PREDICTION: #21 The Citadel @ #8 Appalachian State

First I made a remixed version of ECU’s logo. Next I put Yosef and a Montana Grizzly Bear together in a fight to the death. This week I thought we could use a visual depiction of Appalachian State & The Citadel’s place in the SoCon…everyone’s gotta have a doormat.

Overview

The last time The Citadel won at The Rock was 20 years ago. Suffice it to say – I don’t remember it. In their first game this season, The Citadel beat up on lowly Charleston Southern 49-14. Then they shocked everyone with a 23-21 upset of Georgia Southern. If you didn’t think that was surprising, maybe you need to be reminded that they hadn’t beaten a team ranked that high since 1988. However, in this instance, I think it was a matter of Georgia Southern being overrated more than The Citadel being the real deal. We’re about to find out.

Negatives

The Citadel beat Georgia Southern by forcing a lot of turnovers early. If you were to simply look at the stats from the game (minus the final score) you would think Georgia Southern won the game. Once again, avoiding those big mistakes will be key.

They are a pass first team, so our defense will have to prevent big plays in the air. The Citadel’s defense did hold Georgia Southern to only 57 yards passing, but if you factor in that they had 0yds the week before, it’s not that impressive.

Positives

The Citadel isn’t very good on 3rd down. They were 3 for 14 last week. That might stem from the fact that they are only average at running the ball. They’re going to rely on mistakes from us, and judging from our play last week we’re not going to give them any. Our offense is going to score plenty. If our defense shuts them down the way I think they will, this won’t be a game for long.

Conclusion

Congratulations to The Citadel on their win last week, but they better enjoy it while it lasts. The downside of that win for them is that they now have our full attention. This time they’ll have to play on the road against a much better than The Stink. We’re about to make last week look like an even bigger upset than it was.

Prediction

The Citadel 17 / Appalachian State 34

 

Category: Football | Tags: , , , , ,
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