Freshman Sanders on the Rise
Coach Jerry Moore of Appalachian State said that practice leading up to last Saturday’s open date gave his staff a chance to further evaluate players, and one freshman whose stock is continuing to rise is cornerback Troy Sanders.
Sanders is getting a look at the right cornerback position manned by Ed Gainey. That doesn’t mean there will be a change for Saturday’s game against Samford, but Sanders is gaining notice.
“Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the open week we practiced just like we did during two-a-days,” Moore said this morning. “Hopefully we got some of the timing back and those kind of things, and I think we probably know a little more about our personnel right now.
“There are some guys that you count on to do well and maybe they didn’t perform quite as well and there are some kids that were kind of obscure players going into those two ballgames (against East Carolina and McNeese State) that have kind of begun to surface.
“I think it’s our job now to get the right guys on the field.”
Sanders, who has played only on special teams so far, is one of those guys who might get more playing time.
“In the process of doing that we’ve found that Sanders is really a good football player,” Moore said. “He just didn’t have much of an opportunity to play against East Carolina nor McNeese, but (defensive coordinator) John Wiley has been looking more at him in practice and he’s going to be a good football player.
“We have four or five freshmen that for one reason or another are being noticed. They’re either learning the system and knowing more of what to do or either the older guys are just not performing at the level we’d like them to.
“The fact is Ed didn’t play as well but the thing that’s been good about that is Ed has really had a good week-and-a-half of practice. I think he got a little bit of a wake-up call.”
Sanders, a 6-0, 180-pound freshman from Chester, S.C., helped lead Chester High School to back-to-back appearances in the South Carolina 3-A championship game the last two years. He was recruited by a mix of FCS and FBS programs, and committed to the Mountaineers after returning from a visit to Buffalo.