Thursday, October 01, 2009

Corey Hall

Corey Hall was as pleased as anyone to see Appalachian State win its first national championship in 2005.

Hall, a former all-America defensive back who was inducted into ASU’s athletics hall of fame last Saturday, came close to a shot at a national title in 2000.

“I guess you could say we were literally a couple inches away from playing for a national championship,” Hall said.

On a snowy, 28-degree day in December of 2000 at Missoula, Montana, the Mountaineers’ chance at a first national title ended.

Jimmy Farris caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Drew Miller to give the Montana Grizzlies a 19-16 victory over the Mountaineers in the NCAA Division I-AA semifinals.

Hall was defending on the play.

“I think about it every now and then,” Hall said. “(Farris) ran a fade route and I had good position on him. I won’t make any excuses, but it was slippery, and I guess when I went up to defend the pass it just barely skimmed right over my hand. The guy just made a great catch.”

Hall and Farris both wound up in the NFL. Hall was drafted in the seventh round by the Atlanta Falcons and played three games in 2001. He now works with his brothers Joey and Kendrick, both former ASU players, for his father’s concrete contracting business near Atlanta.

He was on hand when ASU beat Northern Iowa for the national title in 2005.

“That was huge,” Hall said. “When I came here, Appalachian already had a winning tradition and I wanted to contribute to that. We got pretty close to making it all the way. To see the same coaches that were here when I was here actually win the national championship felt really good.

“I saw a lot of the former guys there, and we all felt part of it. It was great to see them take it to the next level.”

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Tyson Patterson

Tyson Patterson says he eats more selectively now, but still enjoys his gummy bears. Perhaps it’s to build up energy for another round of tourism by basketball.

Patterson, who was inducted into Appalachian State’s athletics hall of fame last Saturday, is a self-professed globetrotter.

Since finishing as the Mountaineers’ all-time leader in assists in 2000, Patterson has traveled to Belgium, Switzerland, Iceland, France, Finland and Mexico to play professional basketball.

He plans to head back to Mexico in the next few days for his 10th pro season.

“I want to play until the wheels fall off,” Patterson said.

“I just love to go see different countries and play basketball. It’s just like I dreamed as a little kid, wake up and go play basketball.”

Patterson, a native of Winston-Salem and former star at East Forsyth, will be remembered most as a point guard who led the Mountaineers to an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2000.

Coach Buzz Peterson also remembers him for his “high energy” eating habits.

“The thing that used to drive me crazy about him was that we’d have a pre-game meal and he wouldn’t eat anything except a chocolate chip cookie,” Peterson said. “That’s all he wanted.

“It was all chocolate chip cookies or gummy bears with him. He wouldn’t eat a regular meal. It used to concern me but he never ran out of energy at the end of games. He was fine.”

Tomorrow: Corey Hall.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Mark Royals

Ask Mark Royals about perseverance.

He knows about it.

It took Royals five years to make an NFL roster. Once there, he endured continual trades and releases and punted for six different teams. By the time he retired in 2003, he had played 15 years.

The key to such longevity?

“I feel like I outworked everybody on the planet,” Royals said.

Royals, among inductees into Appalachian State’s athletics hall of fame last Saturday, began dreaming about playing professional football at age 8 and took a step toward that goal after graduating from a class of 90 from Mathews High School in Virginia and landing a scholarship at ASU, where he punted from 1983 through 1985.

He made it to camp as a free agent after finishing at ASU, and was a fill-in punter for single games with the Philadelphia Eagles and St. Louis Cardinals in 1987, but didn’t stick until he signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1990.

“I got cut four years in a row,” Royals said. “My fifth year of trying I made it in Tampa.”

Once there, he didn’t let go – punting for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers again, Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars.

“I felt like if I worked hard enough and trained hard enough it would work out,” Royals said. “I didn’t feel pressured to do anything more than what I trained myself to do. I felt like I would either be good enough or I wouldn’t. For 15 years, it was good enough.”

Royals led the NFL in punting with a 45.9 average in 1997, and wound up with a 42.1 career average.

“There are so many obstacles,” Royals said. “I look at myself growing up in a small town in Virginia and achieving something like that was a childhood dream but you never really think it will happen. A lot of things have to go right, but you keep at it if you want it.”

Tomorrow: Tyson Patterson

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Takeaways

None of Appalachian’s three opponents have even fumbled this season, much less lost a fumble.

Coach Jerry Moore of the Mountaineers was pleased with his team’s defensive performance against Samford yesterday, but would like to see more turnovers created.

The Mountaineers typically do, but don’t have a forced fumble to date. They do have four interceptions (two against East Carolina and one each against McNeese State and Samford).

More notes from the Samford game: Moore was pleased with the punting of freshman Sam Martin, who kept the Bulldogs pinned in much of the day. Martin had five punts downed inside the 20-yard line…. Backup quarterback Travaris Cadet saw some time at receiver. The Mountaineers want Cadet on the field, and Moore said the hope to use him some in a non-quarterback situation.

Magic Act

The highlight in Appalachian State’s 20-7 victory over Samford yesterday might have been Armanti Edwards using his feet to make a play with his arm.

Doing his best Houdini impersonation, Edwards escaped two tackle attempts, recovered his own fumble and then found a receiver and completed a pass while being brought down by a defender.

On a second-and-11 play from Samford’s 39-yard line, Edwards scrambled and stepped out of a pursuer’s grasp. He dropped the ball, which bounced off the turf and back into his hands.

Then, while being tackled, Edwards managed to locate Cedric Baker on the right sideline and launched a pass while on the way down. It was a strike to Baker for a 16-yard gain.

“When I broke that one tackle I saw Cedric,” Edwards said. “I tried to throw but I fumbled. When I picked it up I had to turn around and find him again.”

The Mountaineers went on to a field goal and 10-0 lead.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

More Armanti

Armanti Edwards is all business on the football field – and you can read a story in today’s Winston-Salem Journal to find out more – but there is a lighter side to Edwards.

Two of his teammates shared some stories recently.

Defensive lineman Tony Robertson recalled a trip to the bathroom that resulted in more than he bargained for. Edwards, unbeknownst to Robertson, was waiting behind the shower curtain wearing a grotesque mask purchased for a Halloween party.

“I’m in there and all of the sudden Armanti busts out of the shower with that mask on,” Robertson said. “It scared the heck out of me. I took off moving faster than I ever have. I probably ran faster than he can.”

Edwards enjoys more conventional entertainment and games – “He’s probably the best Spades player in Boone,” receiver Brian Quick says – and he usually wins at whatever he’s doing.

“Even with homework, if you take the same class he’s going to try and make a better grade,” Robertson said. “Games, it’s the same way. We could play jack rocks and Armanti wants to win. It’s just built into him.”

Edwards likes to play an NCAA football video game, but in team mode rather than individual. He said he tried to create himself one time and duplicate what he really does on the field.

“It didn’t work out too good,” Edwards said, not elaborating.

Edwards played baseball in middle school, and liked basketball best in high school.

Quick, a former high-school basketball star, said that he was impressed with Edwards’ hoops skills while playing one summer during a break from football workouts.

“He was throwing me alleys, and he actually dunks the ball a lot,” Quick said. “He can jump.”

Edwards plans to begin training after the season for what he hopes will be a chance to make an NFL roster. He’d like an invitation to the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis in February, but isn’t certain that will happen.

“Since there’s so much talk about me now I would expect it, but there’s no way to know for sure,” Edwards said. “I’ve just tried to put it aside. I try not to think about it. I let it go in one ear and out the other and focus on this year.”

Edwards said that he isn’t against a move to wide receiver if necessary, but that he would like a chance at quarterback even though his 5-11 height will be an issue.

“Since the Wildcat has been used in the NFL, I think I’ve got a chance,” Edwards said. “And you look at Drew Brees and he’s only pushing six feet.

“I started at wide receiver in high school (before moving to quarterback), so playing that position wouldn’t be a big deal for me. I just want to play. Wide receiver or quarterback would be fine with me.”

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Two Early Losses

Appalachian State is 0-2 for the first time since it embarked on a run of national championships four years ago, but how much that matters, aside from a drop to No. 10 in the polls, is debatable at best.

As players are quick to point out, the Mountaineers are 0-0 in Southern Conference play. And, as I will add, as many as three losses can be sustained before playoff chances reach panic-button status.

That said, the margin for error has been reduced and Saturday’s game against Samford is important toward both conference and playoff counts. But until there’s a loss in that game, dire straits don’t apply.

It’s early.

“We all know what’s ahead of us,” said Anthony Williams, a senior and third-year starter at defensive tackle for the Mountaineers. “And the thing is we’re 0-0 in conference play. There’s no need to panic at all. We’re concerned about the little things that need to get done for us to win ballgames, and we play in a tough conference, but we still have confidence and if we come together and refocus, which I think we have this past week, I think we’ll do well on Saturday.”

For sure, the Mountaineers will need to shore up the defense (check today’s Winston-Salem Journal for more on the defense), and won’t have a cheap test against Samford.

The Bulldogs, newcomers to the SoCon last season and a team with a lot of underclassmen carrying over from the OVC, surprised by going 6-5 overall and 4-4 in league play.

The Bulldogs gave the Mountaineers quite a game last October in Birmingham, taking charge early before losing 35-24.

“They were real physical and played very hard,” Williams said. “Last year was Samford’s first year in our conference and nobody really knew what to expect from them.”

Williams said that he got more than bargained for.

“We played hard in that game but I know for me personally, I felt like I got my butt whipped as far as being physical,” he said. “It wasn’t that I played bad, but I was just physically tired. Their guys up front come off really, really hard. I learned from that.”

Other defensive players said that two lessons are in the books – playing poorly and giving up 40 points to McNeese State in the most recent game and having their hands full with Samford.

“That was a tough game last year,” cornerback Cortez Gilbert said. “We had to play them all four quarters. They’re a good team and they dominated a lot of teams in the conference after we played them last year.”

Linebacker Jacque Roman said: “Samford is a big physical team. But our focus has been on them ever since that loss (to McNeese). They’re coming to our house and we’ll be ready.”

If not, 0-3 and the significance of that won’t be debatable.

For the record, the last time the Mountaineers were 0-2 was in 2003.

That year’s team, not quite ready for prime time, opened the season with a warped time-zone loss at Hawaii and followed with a jet-lagged disaster at home against Eastern Kentucky.

Seven ASU teams with three regular-season losses have made the playoffs in Coach Jerry Moore’s tenure: 1991, 1992 (four losses), 1994, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2005 (first national title).

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

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.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Rocks at The Rock

Among notable features of Appalachian State’s new seven-story athletics complex are gorgeous views of town and campus from the building’s upper levels; an underwater treadmill in a hydro-therapy pool; and, not to be unmentioned, black-and-gold toilets with a Block A on the flushing mechanisms.

But the most striking item has to be stone work in the Mountaineers’ football locker room, which, complemented by rows of cherry lockers, gives a natural, rustic, and certainly unique feel.

The stone work, in walls and columns, isn’t what you would expect in a locker room. It’s an attention grabber right from the entrance door.

Coach Jerry Moore said that the coaching staff came up with the idea, and it was a late addition.

“We didn’t like the original way it was laid out, they had some concrete block in there,” Moore said. “I hate to word it this way, but, I said, ‘This looks like a high-school locker room.’ We had these nice cherry lockers in there stacked against yellow concrete block.

“So, two or three of us were standing there in the hallway and we got to talking about how our stadium is referred to as ‘The Rock’ and how good it would look with rock in that locker room.

“We talked about just putting rock in the entrance to begin with then Chris (Moore) or Dale (Jones) spoke up and said, ‘Why don’t we just do it all.’”

Moore said that bids were obtained and that crews from Charlotte worked relentlessly to complete the stone work before the first home game last Saturday.

“They slept in the locker room,” Moore said. “One night I came up here at 10:30 and they were working. I’d go to Wendy’s and get them hamburgers.”

Moore said that the added detail could grab the attention of future recruits.

“When a high-school kid walks into that locker room, I don’t think he’s not going to see another locker room like that anywhere,” Moore said.

“We wanted it to be as good as it could be for, not just these players, but all past and future Appalachian players. I walked through there with Robby Price, who played quarterback here (in the 1970s), and he kind of teared up when we got in there. It’s for everybody, and all those guys in the past are the ones that made this happen just like the guys now. The success we’ve had the last four years just brought it to reality.”

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Down Day on Defense

The offense looked good.

And Armanti was fine.

The defense?

Well, the offense looked good. And Armanti was fine.

Appalachian State had some issues stopping McNeese State on Saturday, and lost a game it didn’t think it would.

No shame in losing to McNeese – a top 25 team in FCS rankings, even though that was in question following a squeaker of a win over Division II Henderson State last week.

But Coach Jerry Moore acknowledged that his Mountaineers have serious “roll-up-your-sleeves” work to do before beginning Southern Conference play in two weeks against dangerous Samford.

“I think we’ve played two pretty good football teams,” said Moore, whose team is an unexpected 0-2 after losses to East Carolina and McNeese. “It’s not like we went out and lost to two inferior teams. We don’t have that kind of problem. I think the problems that we have right now are correctable.”

And Moore said that some of the problems fall on him and his staff, and some fall on his players.

“I think if you prepare a player to go out and play a game and he sees those things and doesn’t do them, then it falls on him,” he said. “I think as a coach, if you haven’t prepared them to see those things, then it falls back on the coach.”

Moore said McNeese didn’t do anything unexpected.

Other than rip the Mountaineers’ defense – expected to be pretty strong with nine starters returning from last season’s team – for 522 yards and nearly 40 points. The Cowboys were 10 of 16 on third- and fourth-down conversions.

Ed Gainey, a cornerback from Winston-Salem, said that it was a lesson learned.

“We can’t just walk out there and win,” said Gainey, who said that the defensive unit lacked focus Saturday.

“I don’t think we’re going to let this happen again.”

For the Mountaineers, they best not with Samford looming.

Moore heard a couple of his players talk about lack of focus after the game.

“That’s a term that’s used a lot,” Moore said. “Now if it’s reality, it’s one thing. If it’s just a term that you use, it’s just camouflage. I think that’s where my role starts on Monday – on the focus part, that we’re focusing on the right thing.

“It’s not like we don’t have good players or that we’ve got internal problems or anything like that. We don’t have that. We’ve got good players and there’s not a thing in the world that’s going on inside our team that’s an issue. With that in mind, I think you do a better job coaching and you do a better job as a player, understanding what coaches want and then go do it.”

And Moore heard Armanti Edwards’ response about being 0-0 – instead of 0-2 – in what really counted. Edwards was talking about conference play. Moore glanced at him and said, “Great answer.”

“I think we’re in the same place we were in ’05,” Moore said. “We lost to LSU and we lost to Kansas. And we lost to Furman. We had three losses and wound up winning the championship.”