Cadet in the NFL

Travaris Cadet has a dinner meeting with the San Francisco 49ers and is scheduled for a private workout with the Miami Dolphins.


Link

*picture taken from optimumscouting.com

T-Shirt Infidelity

We've all seen it: people wearing the garb of other institutions walking around campus, in bars or around Boone.  Though not nearly as common as it was before the football program began to grow exponentially, it is still the quintessential pet-peeve of die hard App State fans everywhere.

The phenomenon climaxes in the spring when certain ACC teams are leading the country in basketball, but declines dramatically when ASU football is in season.  Indeed, the lack-luster performance of the ASU basketball program certainly isn't helping.  Another contributing factor is ASU's location in North Carolina, the nucleus of NCAA basketball.  Kids grow up rooting for a certain shade of blue, only to find themselves on the campus of a football school that's basketball team hasn't seen the big dance in over a decade.

It is certainly understandable that these individuals don't just trade every single piece of baby-blue swag for handsome new App gear, but there is a time and a place for such bandwagonism.  It is a blatant act of disrespect to wear another school's gear while walking around campus.  Imagine what an athlete must feel when he/she sees a student walking across campus, wearing a UNC shirt.  Wear your Tar Heel shirt when you're home watching March madness, but keep it off campus.  Show some pride in yourself and what you've accomplished.  Let the actual students of that school along with countless rednecks that didn't attend college at all glorify Bandwagon U.

There are also a small handful that openly support their favorite BCS school more than the one they attend.  This level of infidelity is inexcusable.  These people come to Appalachian, mooch a terrific education and experience, and contribute nothing.  They wear their certain blue every day, frequently bring up ACC basketball and are clueless as to the status of their own school's season.  This kind of behavior has a strong correlation with certain other undesirable personality traits.  From a very young age, they found the need to religiously pull for a school to which they most likely have no real connection what-so-ever.  They jumped on the bandwagon as children and never looked back.

These Walmart ACC fans are a detriment to Appalachian State.  Their numbers are plummeting by the year, but their presence is still utterly apparent in the campus area, especially during basketball season.  If they were to garner the same passion for their own school's basketball program that they hold for the team they arbitrarily chose out of a three-choice Walmart rack when they were five-years-old, perhaps App could become a perennial basketball contender.

But the question remains: What is an acceptable amount of T-Shirt Infidelity?

• If you have no connection to the ACC school you support, it's time to give up the charade and embrace App State.  Acceptable close connections being: a parent, son/daughter or sibling that attends of attended the school.
• If you do satisfy this first rule with a close connection, the rule of thumb is 3 or less times a month.  This is or course assuming that the individual wears App gear 6+ times a month.
• Even if every single family member attended another school and you grew up going to games there, it is never acceptable to wear the garb walking around the Appalachian campus.  
• Wearing a UNC shirt to an App basketball game will draw dirty looks and snide comments from certain die-hards, but your physical well-being will most likely not be affected. Never-the-less,  UNACCEPTABLE
• If you wear a UNC shirt to an App football game or tailgate, you will likely endure a barrage of beer cans and salty language.  Do this at your own risk.  This is also UNACCEPTABLE

*Image stolen from Nickmack.net

Memphis to Big East?

Memphis in final stages of negotiations with BigEast

Could this be the C-USA opening the ASU has been itching to fill?

DP to NFL Combine

App State's De'Andre Presley will be joining Brian Quick at this years NFL Combine.

Official Invite List

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