Monday, December 06, 2010
Appalachian State had a blast in Saturday’s wintry blast, coming away with a 42-14 victory over Western Illinois in the second round of the FCS playoffs.
Quarterback DeAndre Presley said that he liked playing in the snow, but didn’t say it was easy. The FieldTurf at Kidd Brewer Stadium was covered with a dusting by game time, and it didn’t get any better.
“It’s hard,” Presley said. “Running wise, you’ve got so much snow packed up under your cleats that you can’t really dig into the turf the way you want to. Passing-wise, it was a little difficult, too, but the (interceptions) I threw were just me trying to put it on a line instead of putting more air under it. But it is a lot different than playing when it’s not snowing.”
Presley did make it look easy. He ran for a career-high 264 yards, and the running game turned out to be the preferred method of travel in the slippery conditions
“We all said on the sideline, ‘If it’s going to take running the ball to win the game, we’re going to do it,’” Presley said.
Western Illinois, a team more reliant on passing, struggled. The Mountaineers kept the heat on quarterback Matt Barr, but defensive end Jabari Fletcher said that wasn’t as easy as it might have looked, either.
“When you dig your feet into the ground and get into the three-point stance and get your hand down, you kind of worry about being able to push off and get a good jump off the ball,” Fletcher said. “You know that you may slip. I had to wipe the snow away and kick my shoes a lot. But it was a challenge for everyone, the offensive guys, too.”
Cornerback Demetrius McCray, who had an interception and two breakups in his second start at cornerback, said that snow did help throw off Western Illinois’ timing.
“Conditions helped us out, too, because (their receivers) couldn’t really cut,” McCray said.
Friday, December 03, 2010
Odds and ends heading into Appalachian State’s game against Western Illinois in the second round of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs:
ASU is the No. 1 seed in the FCS playoffs for the third time. The Mountaineers were the top seed in 1987, when they made it to the semifinals and lost to Marshall, and in 2006, when they won a national title.
The Mountaineers are in the playoffs for the sixth straight year. That’s the second-longest streak in the field behind New Hampshire’s seven straight appearances.
What’s a Leatherneck? Western Illinois University is located in Macomb, Ill., and has an enrollment of 13,331. The school adopted the Marine Corps’ nickname, “The Fighting Leathernecks” in 1927 when coach Ray “Rock” Hanson, a Marine hero, received permission from the military. A bulldog is the team’s mascot.
There are few ties between the programs, although both Coach Jerry Moore of ASU and Mark Hendrickson of Western Illinois were once assistant coaches under Hayden Fry.
The programs will meet for the first time. ASU center Brett Irvin said that his team doesn’t know much about the Leathernecks, but that it cuts both ways.
“The good thing about it is that they really don’t know what to expect from us,” Irvin said. “It’s better than going against a team that has already played you and has the advantage of adjusting what they do the second time around.”
Dominique McDuffie, a free safety for the Mountaineers, said: “Going against an opponent you’ve never played is kind of exciting. It’s another chance to show what you can do, and another chance to see how good you really are.”
Western Illinois was 1-10 last season, and was picked to finish eighth this season in the Missouri Valley Conference’s preseason poll.
“We’ve had the biggest turnaround in school history and gotten our team in the playoffs and had a big first-round win (over Coastal Carolina),” quarterback Matt Barr of the Leathernecks said. “Now to go and play probably the most known and most successful Division I FCS teams in Appalachian State, to go play at their place in the second round, is really all you can ask for as a college football player.”
Barr, a 6-2, 210-pound senior, ranks third in the FCS with 3,312 passing yards and has thrown for 26 touchdowns.
“He throws the ball well,” Coach Jerry Moore of ASU said. “He’s an experienced player, has been in big ballgames. He moves the ball around. They’ve got several guys who can catch the ball but two of them are more dominant than the others, but he scatters the ball around to the tight ends and backs just enough to make you really have to respect those other receivers.”
Barr’s top target is senior Lito Senatus, who has 1,120 yards and 13 touchdowns receiving.
Bobby Bozzo, a defensive tackle for ASU, said of the Leatherneck’s offense: “Their offensive line is taller and leaner than some we play against. They run a kind of zone that we haven’t seen a lot. A lot of the teams we play have moved away from that normal zone scheme, but that’s kind of what we run and we go against the best zone team in FCS every spring and every camp. I feel like that’s our strong point.”
The Mountaineers will be facing a predominately passing offense, something they haven’t seen an overabundance of this season.
“They like to sling it around,” McDuffie. “No team is easy, especially in the playoffs, but if everybody will focus on their assignments, pay attention to what they’re doing and wrap up and make tackles we should be fine.”
The Mountaineers will be without starting cornerback Ed Gainey, who will have to serve a one-game suspension after being ejected for fighting in the final regular-season game against Florida.
Demetrius McCray, a sophomore who got his first start against Florida, when cornerback Troy Sanders was shifted to strong safety to fill in for injured Mark LeGree, is expected to start in Gainey’s spot. Sanders will return to cornerback, with LeGree expected back at strong safety.
Saturday’s game will be broadcast on MASN and available on ESPN’s GamePlan pay-per-view package as well as online on ESPN3.
The winner will between ASU and Western Illinois will face the winner of Saturday’s Villanova-Stephen F. Austin game in the quarterfinals. If ASU wins, the game will be in Boone either next Friday night or Saturday, Dec. 11.
Thursday, December 02, 2010
For the first time in Appalachian State’s 18 years in the FCS playoffs, the Mountaineers didn’t play an opening game on Thanksgiving weekend.
That was due to a new playoff format, and first-round bye extended to the Mountaineers.
Players said that it seemed a bit strange not to be playing last Saturday, but that it was a benefit – replacing an open week before the start of the playoffs in previous seasons and providing time for some rest after an 11-game regular season.
A lot of players went home for Thanksgiving. Bobby Bozzo, a long way from his home in New Jersey, spent time with teammate Ben Jorden’s family. DeAndre Presley, from Florida, went hunting with a friend.
All had plenty of turkey.
“I ate a lot,” Presley said. “It was kind of strange because the past few years we’ve played on Thanksgiving (weekend) but, then again, it was something that was needed for us to get rest for guys with injuries to heal and to get back into the mindset of winning.”
Brett Irvin said: “It was great. The first time in five years. Now we’re ready to go for a four-game season.
“We can focus on winning a national championship now. The Southern Conference is behind us. Florida was a team we wanted to beat, but it really doesn’t matter whether we did or didn’t, but now the focus is on our main goal – to get to Texas to play for a national championship.”
Dominique McDuffie said: “This year a lot of us got to go home, which we usually don’t get to do for Thanksgiving. That was nice, but everybody was back on Sunday ready to go.”
Coach Jerry Moore has always preferred to schedule an open date the weekend before the playoffs.
“The only negative thing about it is that you lose a little bit of your routine, but given the choice you would rather have your kids fresh,” Moore said. “Particularly in our case, we had just come off a really tough ballgame against Florida. We came back and worked hard on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then gave them three or four days off.”
McDuffie said: “The extra week was great, because we had a lot of minor injuries. We pretty much have everybody back and we’re 100 percent. We practiced hard early last week but then had some time for everybody to get their legs back. That’s the big plus for having a first-round bye.”
Bozzo said: “It was great to have that time to recover from the regular season. A lot of the bumps and bruises got better. It felt a little weird, because traditionally we’ve been here as a team throughout Thanksgiving, basically the only people on campus, but I think having the time off is better for a playoff run.”
None of the players said that the one-sided loss to Florida in the regular-season finale was a detriment to playoff readiness, and Bozzo said that there might have actually been benefit from it.
“It’s kind of like swinging with a heavy bat before you get up to the plate,” Bozzo said. “We won’t see an offensive line throughout the playoffs that were as big as them. We learned a lot from breaking down film and I feel we learned a lot that will help us.”
Read more on the Mountaineers’ FCS title bid in Friday’s Winston-Salem Journal.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
DeAndre Presley, who began this season in the shadow of prolific quarterback Armanti Edwards, has come into his own.
Aside from the passing yards and rushing totals that have led to Presley being named yesterday as one of three finalists for the Walter Payton Award, his leadership skills are most often lauded by Coach Jerry Moore.
Presley, by nature, is more talkative and a bit more of a vocal leader than was Edwards, whose sheer determination seemed to be all that was needed to inspire confidence among team members. Presley said that he learned a lot from Edwards about leading by example, but that he has done it his own way.
“It was expected so much of Armanti to make plays and to win the game, that’s what we relied on a lot,” Presley said. “This year, at the beginning of the season and all of our coaching staff told me, ‘We’re not expecting you go to out and win the game, we just want you to use the tools around you and take care of the football.’ That’s the one thing I’ve really kept focus on.
“The one thing that’s stayed the same is that we’re still winning and we still have the work ethic and we still have the drive to be champions.”
While Presley entered the season having to follow what Edwards accomplished, the bar for ASU’s team has been extremely high ever since winning the first of three national titles in 2005. That hasn’t changed.
“We won a Southern Conference championship, which was our first and primary goal, and now we’ve set our eyes on winning the national championship,” Presley said. “The bar is set high for that. Coach Moore talks about us putting the work in to be national champions and taking it one day at a time. Falling short of it will be a disappointment.”
More on Presley’s season can be found in Thursday’s Winston-Salem Journal.
Monday, November 29, 2010
First impressions of Saturday’s Western Illinois at Appalachian State matchup in the second round of the FCS playoffs:
Two potent offenses
Western Illinois ranks No. 2 in the FCS in total offense with 476 yards a game. Most of those yards are passing, with 281 a game. The Leathernecks are averaging 34.1 points a game.
Appalachian averages 425 yards a game, but is more balanced with a near-even split of passing and rushing yards. The Mountaineers average 34.5 points a game.
Two productive quarterbacks
Matt Barr, Western Illinois’ senior quarterback, ranks No. 3 nationally in passing yards with 3,312. He has thrown for 26 touchdowns and has seven interceptions in 358 attempts. He has rushed for 452 yards and averages 314 yards a game in total offense. Barr is the Missouri Valley Conference’s offensive player of the year.
DeAndre Presley, ASU’s junior quarterback, has passed for 2,223 yards and 18 touchdowns. He has thrown four interceptions in 280 attempts. Presley is as much of a running threat as passing, with 753 yards and 11 touchdowns rushing. He averages 271 yards a game in total offense. Presley is the Southern Conference’s offensive player of the year.
Defensive stars
For Western Illinois, it is senior linebacker Kyle Glazier, the Missouri Valley’s defensive player of the year. He ranks second nationally with 154 tackles. D.J. Smith, a senior linebacker for ASU, has 122 tackles this season.
Turnovers
Both teams are solid. Western Illinois has turned the ball over 10 times, and gained 22 turnovers. ASU is a plus 10 in turnover margin, with 25 gained and 15 lost.
Home field
This statistic stands out. Western Illinois is 2-4 on the road, with losses to Purdue (4-8), South Dakota State (5-6), Missouri State (5-6) and Southern Illinois (5-6). The losses were fairly close, by an average of a touchdown, but the Leathernecks clearly haven’t had great success on the road. ASU is 6-0 at home this season.
By Tommy Bowman at 05:48 PM
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Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Rick Scruggs, a veteran basketball coach now an assistant at Appalachian State, hasn’t been fazed by strange events that has surrounded the Mountaineers this season.
ASU’s game scheduled Tuesday at Tennessee Tech was cancelled after no referees showed up and it was discovered that none had been assigned. A week earlier, the start of an ASU game was delayed by nearly an hour while everyone awaited the arrival of visiting Montreat’s uniforms, which were inadvertently left behind.
Scruggs says that he’s seen a lot in his 33 years of coaching, including 24 as a head coach.
“You never know what’s around the next corner,” he said.
Scruggs recalled one time when was head coach at Belmont Abbey and the visiting team didn’t show up for a game.
“We had a crowd there and the team we were playing was coached by a good friend of mine,” Scruggs said. “It was getting close to game time and I said, ‘Guys, something’s wrong. I hope they haven’t had a wreck or something.’ I couldn’t get in touch with him on his cell so finally I decided I’d call his wife and see if she had heard anything. So I called his home in West Virginia and he answers the phone.
“That was not a good sign. We were about 30 minutes from tipoff. I said, ‘What are you doing? We’re waiting to play this game.’ He said, ‘I thought the game was tomorrow night.’
“So I told him I had to go out and make an announcement. He said, ‘Don’t make me look bad.’ So I said they had a bus breakdown right outside where they lived and we rescheduled. They came the next night and we beat them, which was good.”
Scruggs said that the uniform snafu with Montreat reminded him of one game he played while in college.
“My coach was a little bit different, and he had this idea of playing an exhibition game in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary,” Scruggs said. “So we go there to play the prisoners.
“We get in there and we had the same color uniforms that they had. So we had to wear their “away” uniforms, which was strange because they never got to play away, obviously. Those jerseys said “Fed” on them. So we came marching out in our Federal Prison uniforms.
“It was a crazy night. They took a head count when we came in and told us not to separate. They didn’t have to worry. We definitely clung together. That was as close as that team ever got.”
For more on Scruggs and his new role as an ASU’s associate head coach, check out Friday’s Winston-Salem Journal.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Here it is – App Trail’s second annual NCAA FCS playoffs “pick-the-winners” contest.
Post your picks by noon Saturday. You can use your real name or make one up one if you’re resistant to public embarrassment like me, but only one post per person please.
You get one point for correctly picking first-round winners, two points for second-round winners, three for quarterfinal winners, four for semifinal winners and five for nailing the champion.
Dominick won last year’s inaugural contest by racking up 16 points. More games this year because of expansion, so more points.
But still no prizes. Just more honor and glory.
Here goes with my picks:
FIRST ROUND
Coastal Carolina over Western Illinois (upset special)
North Dakota State over Robert Morris
Northern Iowa over Lehigh
Georgia Southern over South Carolina State
SECOND ROUND
Appalachian over Coastal
Stephen F. Austin over Villanova
Eastern Washington over SE Missouri State
Montana State over North Dakota State
Delaware over Northern Iowa
New Hampshire over Bethune-Cookman
Wofford over Jacksonville State
William & Mary over Georgia Southern
QUARTERFINALS
App over Stephen F. (revenge from ’95)
Montana State over Eastern Washington (already happened once this season)
New Hampshire over Delaware (hasn’t happened this season)
W&M over Wofford
SEMIFINAL
App over Montana State (shades of ’06)
W&M over New Hampshire (rematch from Nov. 6)
FINAL
W&M over App (in keeping with tradition, just because everybody else will pick the Mountaineers)
By Tommy Bowman at 06:37 PM
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Saturday, November 20, 2010
A final few notes from Florida:
Despite Saturday’s loss, Appalachian State will undoubtedly get one of the top four seeds for the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs and very possibly one of the top two seeds – which means home field throughout the playoffs.
Pairings will be announced Sunday morning.
“This does not damage anything at all,” quarterback DeAndre Presley of ASU said. “The only thing (the Florida loss) does is teach us what we need to learn so we can come back and be a better team for the playoffs.”
According to Southern Conference rules, cornerback Ed Gainey of ASU, who was ejected in the second quarter for fighting with Florida’s Carl Moore, will have to sit out until the second quarter in the Mountaineers’ first playoff game.
Coach Jerry Moore said that indications are that strong safety Mark LeGree, who sat out the Florida game with a hamstring injury, should return in time for the playoffs.
Punter Sam Martin provided some highlights for the Mountaineers against Florida. He had more high, booming kicks and average 45 yards a punt.
“Sam’s punting in games now like he punts in practice,” Moore said. “In practice, he kicks it out of sight. In games he hasn’t always had the good fortune of that happening to him.
“It’s a huge weapon. You get into the playoffs, it could be a difference in the game.”
Pre-game notes
Sunny skies in Florida, very pleasant, and a lot of birds flying around the open-air press box at The Swamp.
What I’m watching for today: ASU’s defense against the passing game (the Mountaineers have played two straight running teams and are a bit wounded in the secondary); and, of course, how well ASU’s offense can do against a formidable defense. We’ll also see if and how special teams factor.
Changes in the starting lineup for ASU: As expected, Troy Sanders will move from cornerback to fill in for injured strong safety Mark LeGree (hamstring). Demetrius McCray will get his first start, taking Sanders’ place at right corner.
Sites near Gainesville on this morning’s drive from Jacksonville: a lot of boiled peanut stands. That was tempting. Sites in Gainesville: a lot of ASU fans mixed in the sea of blue and orange. A “Mountaineer Nation” was set up on one corner off University Drive. ASU’s allotment of 3,000 tickets were sold out in August, but many ASU fans bought tickets through Florida’s ticket office.
Also, a lot of talk among ASU folks about last night’s two-point basketball loss at Mississippi State. The Mountaineers were up nine with two minutes left, had five guards on the court after Andre Williamson, Petey Hausley and Nathan Healy all fouled out but had killer turnovers against the Bulldogs’ pressure in the closing moments.
Just in case: ASU removed the collapsable goals posts from Kidd Brewer Stadium yesterday, remembering what happened after ASU’s victory over Michigan in 2007 when the posts were torn down and carted off by celebrating students. The move was a safety precaution in case of an upset, Plus, goal posts cost several thousand dollars.
By Tommy Bowman at 12:13 PM
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
Rachel George, a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel who covers the Florida Gators and writes a blog “Swamp Things,” participated in a five-question exchange with “AppTrail” to take a look at Saturday’s Appalachian State-Florida matchup.
Here are her responses:
1. Florida’s defense looks impressive. What do the Gators do particularly well on defense, and what player or two will ASU fans enjoy (or not enjoy) watching?
Florida’s secondary has been the strength of this team. The Gators are tied for first nationally with 17 interceptions, a number helped by the fact that corners Jeremy Brown and Janoris Jenkins, as well as strong safety Ahmad Black each have three. Free safety Will Hill has two. While the front has been struggling lately, that group has been the most solid. Black is the best tackler despite his size and Jenkins has shut down some of the best receivers in the SEC.
2. How much of the Gators’ relative struggles on offense can be linked to the loss of Tim Tebow, or are other factors directly involved?
Certainly, that’s a big void but no one player was expected to fill it. The Gators have been hurt more by injuries and suspensions this year. Chris Rainey missed five games after he was arrested. At running back and receiver, he can make big plays. Jeff Demps, called the fastest player in college football because he won the NCAA outdoor track championship in the 100 meters, has been limited or out most of the season with a foot injury. It was already going to be difficult without Tebow, but losing two of the biggest playmakers has probably had a bigger impact. And it’s not limited to those two.
3. Do the Gators typically play FCS opponents, and what was the reasoning behind scheduling ASU?
The Gators do often play an FCS team in this game as it falls between the final SEC game (vs. South Carolina) and before their big rivalry game against Florida State. Since I am new, I am not sure why ASU was picked for this year, but Coach Urban Meyer has said all week that he and Jerry Moore have a good relationship so I am sure that was part of it.
4. Urban Meyer seems to be taking the Mountaineers seriously, do you get a sense if players and fans are following suit or will it be difficult for them to gear up for an FCS opponent?
I’m not sure how excited fans will be about this one considering their general disappointment with the team this season. Four losses just doesn’t go over well with Gators fans. With that being said, losing to an FCS team – even one as good as Appalachian State – would be tough to take. Meyer is taking this seriously, and I suspect the fans are seriously concerned about losing.
5. ASU fans have seen LSU’s tiger, and experienced the Big House at Michigan. What’s the coolest thing(s) about The Swamp?
Probably a couple things. First, it can be loud, although Florida fans don’t love noon games so it might be more subdued on Saturday. One of the cooler traditions that I have seen is that all the fans stand and sing “We Are the Boys” after the third quarter. It’s pretty neat. Of course, my favorite part is the band.
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