ASU-Maine pregame notebook
Appalachian State hasn’t lost its opening game in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs since it began its now-seven-year run of playoff appearances in 2005.
The Mountaineers have won six straight and are 12-6 overall in playoff openers.
Their last loss in a playoff opener was to Maine, in 2002.
ASU isn’t a seeded team in this year’s playoff field, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The Mountaineers are 6-1 in their last seven playoff games as an unseeded team. They won the 2007 national title and got to the semifinals in 2009 without the benefit of a seed.
Quarterback Jamal Jackson said that he’s fine with the fact that his team is in more of an underdog role this season than it’s been in recent seasons.
“We just need to come out and play our game, it doesn’t matter if we’re the top dog or underdog,” Jackson said.
Coach Jack Cosgrove of Maine is wary of displaced quarterback DeAndre Presley, who has done a variety of things since Jackson took over – from playing defensive back, returning punts to most recently being at receiver.
“It has made it much more difficult to defend them as an offense with Jackson and Presley perhaps on the field at the same time,” Cosgrove said. “That’s a challenge in itself right there. Presley is now doing other things on the offense that really make him much more of a concern as you try to defend them.”
This is the sixth straight season that ASU has faced an opponent from the Colonial Athletic Association in the playoffs. The game against Maine will mark the eighth time in the Mountaineers’ last 13 playoff games that they’ve faced a CAA team.
Overall, the Mountaineers are 9-3 against CAA opponents in playoff games.
ASU and Maine have met once before – in the 2002 playoffs. Maine won 14-13 in Boone.
Cosgrove said that there isn’t much to draw from in regard to the 2002 game, however.
“I think it’s way too long ago, and it’s different styles of football,” he said. “We were an I formation, tailback-oriented team back then. We were down to our third-string quarterback so we were very, very conservative that day. We’re no longer in any way, shape or form built on offense like that now. Nor on defense. We were an eight-man front on defense then.
“Football is played a little differently now. We’re in the Spread game, using the sideline-to-sideline attack. And certainly Appalachian State was constructed entirely different then. They were more of a tailback-oriented team at that point as well. It was kind of an old-fashioned type of game when we played them.”
Most of both team’s players were in grade school then.
“There aren’t a lot of guys who are going to have recollection of it other than Coach (Jerry) Moore and myself,” Cosgrove said
ASU and Maine, both 8-3, are virtually identical in terms of statistics this season.
ASU has generated an average of 401 yards and 30 points a game from its Spread offense this season. Maine, which also runs the Spread, is averaging 372 yards and 30 points. Both rely on the passing game for most of the yardage. The Mountaineers average 231 a game passing; the Black Bears average 240.
Defensively, ASU has allowed an average of 343 yards and 23 points a game. Maine has allowed 348 yards and 24 points.
Read more on the ASU-Maine playoff game in Saturday’s Winston-Salem Journal.