Coached into the Off Season: The Number 3

3: a number that means a lot to App fans over the last decade.  Three consecutive national championships from 2005-2007.  The unprecedented "three-peat" had a nice ring to it, no pun intended.  It happened to a school that plays its home football games at 3,333 ft.  The three-time champs started a "Dynast-three" that lasted another three years after 2007, with another three consecutive SoCon championships.  Every third down, Kidd Brewer Stadium roars.  Guess how many fingers are held up by each fan as that bell starts ringing.  That's right, three.  There might not be another program anywhere that draws such a numeric connection.

3: the number of rushing yards collected by App State during the 34-12 beat down they took at the hands of the University of Maine Black Bears on Saturday.  It seems the three spot took on an entirely new and opposite connotation for The Mountaineers during this year's short-and-sour playoff run.  When I heard this stat Saturday night, it only drove home conclusions I had already made while watching that afternoon's excruciating game.  In the spirit of Appalachian State's ongoing connection to the great Dale Earnheart's number, here are three specific reasons ASU lost by 3 touchdowns.


1.  The Offensive Line:  It doesn't take a football background to notice the wet paper bag standing between our quarterback and the defensive line Saturday.  I must reiterate, three rushing yards!  That's nine feet. 108 inches.  If Jamal Jackson had stood at the line of scrimmage and fallen forward twice, he could have doubled the team's movement on the ground.  If you include sacks, App collected -9 yards rushing on the day.  What a disgrace and a long fall from our days of the "good" three's.  Of course, some blame could be allocated to the backs, but from what I saw, the offensive line was getting manhandled up and down the field.  Holes were not open and progress was not being made.  Despite outweighing their opponent in the trenches, The App's allowed multiple big sacks and could not move the pile.  The Maine defense completely dictated how ASU operated.  We became a one-dimensional, pass-first team.  This played right into the Black Bear's favor with one of the most talented secondaries in the FCS.

2. Discipline:  During the first half, for the most part, the App's responded well to the pressure of the situation.  We went into the locker room down by only a touchdown.  It was after the break when ASU began to crumble and the lack of discipline of the team became apparent.  As Maine added to their lead, the ASU offense looked increasingly desperate and out of sink.  The Black Bears were sending blitzes and Jamal was scrambling well, but it wasn't enough to even make the second half competitive.  Jackson was sacked over ten yards behind the line of scrimmage multiple times.  The emotion from the offensive line inspired by the utter dominance their opponents were having on them wasn't channeled into a hard-nosed second half comeback.  They instead chose to give up.  I watched the extra point kick after the last Maine touchdown and noticed that the team barely even moved.  They had no fight left at all.  That is not characteristic of ASU teams in the past.  The lack of discipline came to a tee when team veteran and NFL bound, Brian Quick threw the ball out of anger after he failed to catch a short pass.  This penalty cost us another 15 yards and the disastrous game continued.

3. Coaching:  In truth, the above two points can easily be subcategories of this one.  There are many responsibilities that fall on a coaching staff.  Some examples include game preparation, play calling, player morale, discipline ect.  This leadership is essential for success.  That being said, I don't believe I have ever seen a staff fail in so many different facets of one single game, as I did Saturday.  The team was not prepared for this game.  We had two weeks to prepare for this game and Maine sports a run-of-the-mill, pro-style offense, hardly a curve ball.  From their first possession, Maine seemed to do what they wanted with the ball.  With 250 yards passing and 216 yards rushing on the day, it's hard to imagine a more balanced offense.  It wasn't just the preparation that haunted our defense all day.  We failed to adjust to anything UM was doing.  They ran the same play, a quick out pass to the flat, every possession, and the defense made no adjustments to defend it.

Offensively, it looked much worse.  Predictable play calling led to countless third and long situations.  We had Baker-Boney, an established success running between the tackles, back from injury, but instead chose to run Stephen Miller up the middle more often than not.  Stephen Miller is a phenomenal athlete and open field runner, but he's one of the smallest guys on the team.  When there is no hole in the first place due to a sun-par offensive line, we needed a little more size at running back to move the pile.  The allocation of personnel was deplorable.  The play calling by committee that has been questionable all season was confirmed in this Maine game.  That's what happens in the playoffs.  You have to play good teams.

Bob McClain has been exposed this year.  The strife among the offensive line this season is unprecedented.  One player quiting and another being released after angrily expressing his hatred for the coaching staff via twitter is writing on the wall (again pardon the pun).  Regardless of whether or not McClain is in fact, being unreasonable to his players is irrelevant.  The fact is, the perception is there and that's all that matters.  How can our offensive line be expected to play to their potential when they hate and don't respect their coach?  How will this effect recruiting?  If we hope to improve on our glaring weakness next year, changes need to be made.

*Image from bleacherreport.com

Rivalry?

There are a lot of schools in the Southern Conference that perceive App State as their most hated rival.  Georgia Southern and Furman fans could certainly make a strong case, depending on their graduation year.  Over the past two decades, Furman, Georgia Southern and Appalachian have taken turns beating each other; occupying the "big three" of the conference.  All three of these schools have won national championships during this time.  Wofford fans might also throw their hats in the ring of hatred.  During App's recently vacated tenure as six-time conference champs, we shared the title with the terriers twice.

Indeed, there's a long list of schools who's fans circle the App State game on the schedule every year, but there is one in particular that hates App above all things: The Western Carolina Catamounts.  In this annual clash of North Carolina mountain schools, called "the Battle for the Old Mountain Jug," the winner enjoys the eternal glory of hoisting a yellow-painted, 25-pound moonshine bottle.  The trouble for Western is, since 1984, the cats have only had the thing twice.

Of course, Western hasn't faired quite as badly in other sports.  They've won more often than not on the basketball court as of late and just defeated the mountaineers in women's soccer, but as far as the grid iron goes, these kitties aren't competitive.  In fact, with the all-time series 56-18-1 since 1976, "the Battle for the Old Mountain Jug" might be considered one of the most one sided rivalries of all time.  They love to hate us, and perhaps that is a direct result of an almost guaranteed Catamount loss every season.

Western's football woes have reached a critical level this year, even by their lack-luster standards.  Following multiple seasons of finishing at the bottom the conference, Western Carolina Football has set the bar even lower by losing every game against a division one opponent so far in the 2011 season.  Their only win came against Mars Hill in which the division two school still managed to score 31 points.  Over the past few weeks, Western has fired their defensive coordinator and athletic director, with head coach Wagner likely on the way out at the end of the season.

On the opposite side of the FCS spectrum of success, App State has become the standard of championship subdivision success, with three national championships and six conference championships in the last decade.  The 2011 season has brought the Mountaineers a few more losses than usual, and hope of an unprecedented seven straight is unlikely at this point, but App State is still considered a playoff contender.  With a move to the FBS on the horizon, many App fans are looking in the rear-view mirror and having trouble spotting the little purple cats, struggling to keep up in the distance. 

In light of widening gap between these institution's football programs, its pretty safe to say that this isn't the year Western will collect it's third win against the Apps in 23 years.  Furthermore, with ASU on it's way out the door and Western's program in shambles, it is unlikely that the kitties will collect any more wins against the Mountaineers at all.  It appears the rivalry will be dead upon App State trading the 'C' for  'B', that is, if a it still exists at all.

*photo from sharenator.com

The Dark Side....

  

Special thanks to HP productions for the surprise youtube promotion

GAME PREVIEW- Samford at Appalachian State

Since Samford entered the Southern Conference in 2008, we App fans have enjoyed a 3-0 lead in the series.  They've always put up somewhat of a fight, but no Mountaineer fan would tell you they were ever sincerely worried before or during any one of those games.  Just another small dog on the schedule (bringing the total to 3).  After all, this happened last time Lil Sammy was in town.  Perhaps that's why our battle with the Bulldogs of Birmingham landed on homecoming weekend.  Easy pickins right?....Gulp......

Regardless of the circumstances of their spot on our schedule, I never would have expected to be this nervous about Saturday's game.  This is not the Samford team of the past few years.  They are coming off of two respectable wins against Furman and Elon, they're rockin' a sweet new, Auburn-style offense and they boast the same overall record as App State (4-2).  It's not just that Cam Newton left Auburn as the number one draft pick and the school just tossed their offensive strategies to their little in-state neighbors in Birmingham.  These pups have the athletes to run it.  Their every-man Truss ran for 191 yards and three touchdowns against Elon last weekend.  This guy leads the conference in kick/punt return yards as well.

Yup, these guys are bona fide!  And it couldn't have come at a better time.  With the defense gutted with key injuries and possible suspensions for mysterious off-the-field happenings, we just moved Walter Payton second runner up and SoCon offensive player of the year Deandre Presley from QB to corner.  Of course he is, at least physically, perfectly suited for the position.  5'11" and very fast is a text book defensive back.  You also have to take into account his experience running an offense and recognizing receiver routes and formations. But for the most part, it seems like an act of desperation.  Jamill Lott, a promising young receiver, has also been moved to the backfield for the Apps on D.  It was clear last week that we were just running out of players.

After running up the score on another bulldog school in Charleston, the ASU defense let the Citadel come back from 49-14 to 49-42 before taking a knee in victory formation.  Of course two key App fumbles gave the Citadel a short field, they ran back a blocked punt and relied on a lot of trickery in the first half to get their first 14, but it's hard to not be concerned after such an outrageous comeback.  Coach Moore attributed their stellar resurgence to just running out of players on defense.  Hopefully the new offensive transfers will help this depth problem or we will be in for a long season watching every school run the score up in the fourth quarter because we have players in that have no business being out there.

Don't fret though, last week also showcased an offensive spark unseen the entire season.  Jamal Jackson has arrived.  If the offensive line performs as well this week against a defense that blitzes,  that it did last week against one that didn't at all, it should bode very well for the remainder of our season and our ability to operate offensively regardless of a defense's style.  Steven Miller had a career day as ASU ran for 318 yards.  We seemed to be back to our old ways last Saturday.  Now it's time to test it again.

Let's not forget what Lil Sammy is walking into on Saturday.  The homecoming crowd will be over 30 thousand.  That's a few more than the modest crowd that watched Samford beat Elon last week.  During the UTC game, Coleman had to check down and tell each lineman individually what play was coming next and it is very likely that the botched field goal snap that we ran back for the game winning touchdown was a direct result of confusion generated by the Rock.  Kidd Brewer is a hard play to win if you're the visitor.  Only four have done it over the past eight years.

Prediction: With Sammy coming into the Rock, I don't see us losing.  We're not a bad team this year and a lot of uncontrollable tribulations are the main thing that's making this season more difficult than years past.  With our offense back on track, I expect the Apps to light up the score board/Samford defense.  It may get close at times and when we start to run out of defensive personnel towards the end of the game, it will be a barn burner.

42-34 App

*Photo from expatads.com

Faith Restored, The Rock Still Rocks

I’ve always placed a lot of emphasis on a school’s stadium atmosphere with regard to the support and power of a program.  There is a distinct correlation between home-field rowdiness and my perception and respect for the school.  A lot of implications can be made based on how loud the place is on third down.  How many people paid for a ticket? How big is the venue in the first place to provide space for all the noise making fans? Do people really care enough about the team to jump and scream in a manner that would certainly get you committed outside of such a context?  Would that also make them the type to continue coming to games in the event of a rough season? All of these things are subtly indicative of the condition of a football program. 

Over the past four years, the condition of the App State game day experience has been one in which I have taken great pride.  In the world of FCS football, few stadium atmospheres affect the outcome of a game.  With the average stadium in the subdivision boasting a meager 9,425 fans every home game (NCAA.org), Kidd Brewer’s average of almost 30,000 last year stands head and shoulders above the rest.  The Rock has developed quite the reputation over the last half decade as one of the most difficult places to play in the FCS.  It is an FBS caliber atmosphere and the fact that the App’s have only lost four home games since 2003 proves it.

It is for this reason that I was thoroughly worried about our program at the onset of the season.  After the day of unpleasantness in Blacksburg, I expected the first home game at the Rock to be as rowdy and electric as it has been.  There was new turf and new end zone seating to show off and with the FBS transition, I expected App nation to show up in force and raise all sorts of hell.  The attendance that day was 26,415 and you couldn’t find a quieter bunch in a monastery.  We were on the periphery of the home side student section, waving the flag and yelling on every defensive play as usual, but we couldn’t manage to rile up the surrounding crowd to save our lives.  By the end of the game, most had left early and you could hear a pin drop. 

I was filled with worry and disdain, but with the next week being the night game, I held tight to hope, praying that this wouldn’t be the theme throughout the season.  The night game makes it possible for more people to make the trip and the extra time at the tailgate building anticipation and enjoying stiff drink would make the crowd a lot louder than the previous week’s meek display.  When we entered the game, we decided to sit in the brand new temporary end zone section; little did we know that such a decision would ruin the experience.  The fans in this section were even more apathetic than the week before.  Of course they rarely cheered, but one group took it a step beyond by heckling us for trying to get the crowd into it.  I was in the twilight zone.  Not only was the stadium not loud anymore, but there were actually people there that were actively discouraging loud, involved fanship. 

            The week following the SSU game, I was anxious.  Was this the end of Kidd Brewer Stadium as I had come to know and love it? Was the low fanship a sign of our program’s decline? Is it just the fact that freshmen don’t know what to do and they haven’t had a chance to learn?  Was last year’s graduating class responsible for a lot of the noise of the last four years? Perhaps the weak out of conference opponents of the last two weeks had something to do with it.  I really had no idea and the only thing that would really seal my conclusion was a conference game.  13 ranked UTC was coming to town.  They gave us a barn-burner last year and if this didn’t get the fans out and rowdy, it could only be assumed that my worst fears had been realized. 

            We got there early, flag and all, and sat in a more central student section location.  By kickoff the place was packed. Official attendance for Saturday was 27,304, though many believe it was much higher.  Instead of the offensive shoot out that was expected, the game evolved into a defensive slug fest, ideal for noise and crowd involvement.  Every time the Moc’s had the ball the stadium roared.  BJ Coleman had to tell every lineman individually what play was coming next.  When a corner blitz came on a second down and Coleman was sacked in a manner described by a Chattanooga newspaper writer as a “decapitation,” the Rock literally shook to its foundation.  The ensuing third down was the loudest I have ever heard in Kidd Brewer Stadium.  When the App’s picked up a botched snap and ran it over 60 yards to paint and the lead, the crowd was at its loudest level.  Camera men on the top of the Owen’s field house had difficulty keeping their cameras steady as the mosh-pit of a student section churned with jubilant pandemonium.  The Apps won 14-12 and my faith in our stadium was restored. 

*Photo from playattherock.com