Socon Weekend

We are heading into a weekend some may see as a formality as we head towards the matchup of the year between Appalachian State and Elon on November 14th. However the Mountaineers need to play as well as they did last week against Georgia Southern if they want to beat long time rival Furman. The Palladins play a bend but don't break style of pass defense. They can be vulnerable for plays in the short passing game. Look for Coco Hilary (who had his first 100 yd receiving game last week) Ben Jorden, and Matt Cline (9 catches in the first half last week) to have big days. It may be tougher to get the ball down field for big plays to Brian Quick. Defensively, App will have to watch out for the play action pass. Furman likes to establish the run first, and then catch the defense off guard with the pass. This could be a problem if the Mountaineers don't play disciplined football on that side of the ball. The best way to combat this may be to put some early scores on the board on offense and take away the threat of the run. The Paladins offensive line has only given up 5 sacks on the year (4th best in the country). So, Jabari Fletcher is going to have a tough task following his big game last Saturday.

Other games in the SoCon include Samford at Citadel 1 pm, Western Carolina at Chattanooga 2 pm, and Elon at Wofford at 1:30 pm. Barring a huge upset by Wofford, Elon should remain undefeated in conference.

In a follow-to my previous post on Western Kentucky (0-7) they may have their best chance at a win in a while as they play at North Texas (1-6) at 3 pm.

Go Apps

Cautionary Tale

As we head into the most important 4 weeks of the Appalachian schedule for the year, I, like many other Mountaineer fans wonder what else could be out there for the 3 time national champions. But, I think it is important to be aware of the possible consequences of stepping up to the FBS plate when your University may not be quite prepared for the jump. Western Kentucky University for the first time this year is eligible for the Sun Belt conference championship and bowl eligible. The school is ranked number 1 by ESPN. Unfortunately, the school is number 1 on the Bottom 10 List http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?page=bottom10102109 . After 14 straight losses WKU is considered to be the worst team in all of college football. Western hasn't won a BCS game since beating Middle Tennessee on September 20, 2007. I imagine the school began making plans to move up to FBS play shortly after they won the FCS national championship in Jack Harbaugh's final year, 2002. That year they had a huge 12 win season, but it has been downhill since. David Elson took over in 2003 and put up 9 wins in each of his first 2 years. That was followed by two 6 win seasons. It spiked up to 7 wins in 2007 before the bottom fell out. WKU had 2 wins last year and are 0-6 going into a game against Middle Tennessee this weekend. They are riding a 14 game losing streak. This is what I fear could happen to our Mountaineers if they go to a lower level conference like the Sun Belt. I mean you go from a title to be proud of in FCS to a very low level bowl game as your pinnacle. I would hate to see ASU fall to the lows of the current Hilltoppers.


None of that pertains to this season, though. App is headed into the stretch that will define this season. They have a must win game against Georgia Southern (3-1 Socon record with a loss to Elon) at the rock this weekend (black saturday). That will be followed by games at Furman (3-1 Socon record with a loss to Elon), UTC (2-1 Socon record with a loss to GA Southern) at home, and at Elon (3-0 Socon record with wins over GA Southern and Furman).


Other Socon games this weekend include Chattanooga at Elon, Furman at Citadel, and Wofford at WCU. The Wofford game is inconsequential and I see Furman having a layup against the Bulldogs in Charleston (even though they took App to overtime down there). Chatty could give Elon a game, but I think Scott Riddle will put Elon over the top at home.



So, that leaves the most interesting game of the weekend in Boone on SportSouth at 3 pm. App's defense better step up compared to what they looked like giving up big play after big play last week to Wofford. GA Southern throws the ball a lot more than they have in their storied past, and Cortez Gilbert will be important coming back from his head injury last week in the Wofford College game. A loss here could signal a definite changing of the guard in the conference. I expect App will step up to the challenge and get the victory at home, but it won't be easy. GA Southern took them right to the wire in last year's game. The Mountaineers would break the Socon Football record with 16 straight conference wins with a victory on Saturday (Paul Johnson's GA Southern teams are the only other one's with 15 in a row).
Go Mountaineers!!!

SOCON Weekend

Number 10 Appalachian State has not been its impressive self so far this year. This means there is little room for error if they want to win their 5th straight Socon title and get the automatic bid into the playoffs. The defense has proven to be inconsistent as they have had issues lining up, tackling and giving up big plays. On the other side the offense has been impressive with Armanti Edwards back in the lineup after an offseason lawn mower accident. But the team has lacked some of its quick strike ability from the past along with some problems in the red zone. This could be attributed to Scott Satterfield, the former play caller, leaving in the offseason to become co-offensive coordinator in charge of the passing game and qb coach at Toledo. Brad Glenn has taken over the offensive play calling duties. Regardless, look for both sides of the ball to bounce back this week in a homecoming game against 0-5 North Carolina Central at 3:30 pm eastern time. Brian Quick could have a big day as the Eagles have shown mainly man defense all year. This will be the Mountaineer's last non-conference game of the regular season. ASU is now 2-0 in SOCON action.

The other team that has emerged as a front runner for the Socon championship has been number 11 Elon (2-0 in conference). They had a big win against Furman last weeked as they scored twice in the final 2 seconds for a 19-12 victory. Terrell Hudgins set the NCAA Division I mark for career receptions. Furman led 12-10 until Adam Shreiner’s 37-yard field goal gave Elon a 13-12 lead with 2 seconds left. Shreiner’s kickoff was fumbled in the end zone and Elon’s Travis Greene recovered it for a touchdown for the final score. Elon's qb, Scott Riddle was 35 of 48 for 374 yards in the game. Elon will have Citadel (0-1) at home this week, 1:30 pm. The Bulldogs took Appalachian to overtime last weekend in Charleston, SC. We can only hope they can give Elon as much of a test as they gave App last weekend.

I wouldn't count Furman (2-1 in conference) out of the race, yet. The team's only conference loss so far came against Elon last week in a close game and we may end up seeing 3 teams with one conference loss this year. Furman is off this week before playing a strong defensive team in Samford (1-1) next week.

Georgia Southern is 2-1 in conference with their only loss coming to Elon. That loss was sandwiched by wins over Western Carolina and Wofford. They line-up out of conference on Saturday versus a UNC team whose offense has been a mess all season long. It would be great to see the Eagles knock off the Heels. That game will kick-off in Keenan stadium at 3:30 pm.

The final Socon game of the weekend is 1-1 UTC (beat Wofford, but lost to Furman) vs. 1-1 Samford (beat WCU, but lost to App). This one will start at 4 pm in Alabama.

It will be interesting to see how the picture at the top of the conference shakes out going into next weekend where App will have to shake off its inconsistency on both offense and defense if they want to handle 0-2 Wofford coming off a bye week.