Postgame Notes From App State-Coastal Carolina

POSTGAME NOTES
 
With 76 career touchdown passes, Appalachian State senior quarterback Taylor Lamb is now App State's all-time leader. He had two touchdown passes after entering Saturday's game tied for first place with Armanti Edwards, who had 74 from 2006-09. Lamb's 76 touchdowns have come in 45 games.
 
Lamb's 427 passing yards rank second in school history behind the 433 that Edwards had against South Carolina State in 2008. It was the eighth 400-yard passing game in App State history, and Lamb's previous high was 397 yards against Liberty as a redshirt freshman in 2014.
 
Lamb is now tied for third place in Sun Belt Conference history with 76 touchdown passes, the same total FAU's Rusty Smith had from 2005-09. There's a first-place tie at 81 between Troy's Corey Robinson (2010-13) and ULM's Kolton Browning (2010-13).
 
The attendance of 30,179 ranks seventh in Kidd Brewer Stadium history and was the ninth home crowd of at least 30,000 in school history. Three of the top seven crowds have occurred in the last 10 home games, as a record 35,126 fans attended the Wake Forest game earlier this season and 34,658 attended the Miami game early in the 2016 season.
 
App State is 4-0 in Sun Belt play for the third straight season. It has won 24 of its last 26 league games and is 12-1 at home during that stretch.
 
With redshirt freshman Jalen Virgil catching five passes for 186 yards and senior Ike Lewis posting six catches for 106 yards, it was the first time App State had two 100-yard receivers since 2013, when Tony Washington (129 yards) and Andrew Peacock (127) both hit triple digits against Georgia Southern.
 
It was the second straight 100-yard game for Lewis, who had six catches for 101 yards at Idaho. The Mountaineers have had four different players record a 100-yard receiving game this season, as the other players with at least 100 receiving yards in a game were T.J. Watkins (102 against Wake Forest on Sept. 23) and Collin Reed (106 against Savannah State on Sept. 9).
 
Virgil's 186 receiving yards rank 10^th in school history and are the most in a game since Sean Price had 231 receiving yards against Georgia Southern in 2012.
 
Virgil had five catches, and the nine single-game yardage totals higher than his 186 all featured at least seven catches by that receiver. The highest receiving yardage total for an App State player with five catches or less before Saturday was 172 on four catches from Brian Quick against Wofford in 2008.
 
The 83-yard touchdown to Virgil in the first quarter was the second-longest pass of Lamb's career. He had an 84-yard touchdown to Watkins in the Wake Forest game earlier this season. Virgil's 83-yard play is tied for the seventh-longest reception in App State history.
 
Redshirt freshman Marcus Williams Jr. scored the first two touchdowns of his career. He had two 1-yard scoring runs in the fourth quarter.

In between Ricky Fergerson's 46-yard touchdown with 35 seconds left in a 59-14 win against ULM in October 2015 and Williams' two-touchdown effort Saturday, the Mountaineers had played 26 full games with Marcus Cox, Jalin Moore and Terrence Upshaw accounting for all of the touchdown runs by App State running backs.
 
App State sophomore Akeem Davis-Gaither made his first career start at linebacker and made two tackles. Senior linebacker Devan Stringer had made 39 consecutive starts dating back to his freshman season.
 
App State junior cornerback Tae Hayes, who had half of a sack at Texas State, recorded the first solo sack of his career when he forced a second-quarter fumble. Defensive tackle Caleb Spurlin made his first career fumble recovery.
 
With one sack, Rashaad Townes has four sacks in the last five games.
 
App State scored on its opening possession for the second time this season. It also scored a touchdown on its first drive against Savannah State.