BOONE, N.C. — Former Appalachian State University All-American Marques Murrell became the sixth Mountaineer to appear in an NFL conference championship game when he made two tackles for the New York Jets in Sunday's AFC Championship loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

Before Murrell, the most recent Mountaineer to appear in an NFL conference championship game was his former teammate Jason Hunter, who appeared in the 2007 NFC title game with the Green Bay Packers. The other former Apps to have played in conference championship tilts are Matt Stevens (2001 — New England Patriots), Mark Royals (1999 — Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Derrick Graham (1993 — Kansas City Chiefs) and John Settle (1991 — Washington Redskins). Additionally, Daniel Wilcox was a member of Tampa Bay's 2002 World Championship team but was not active for the Bucs' NFC championship game win over Philadelphia.

Murrell played in 11 games for the Jets this season and recorded 14 combined tackles.

NEW ECU STAFF HAS APPALACHIAN PEDIGREE: John Wiley, who spent 19 of the past 21 seasons as a member of Appalachian's coaching staff, including the last 12 as defensive coordinator, has been named associate head coach and linebackers coach at East Carolina, the school announced on Monday.

Wiley was a member of head coach Jerry Moore's original staff at ASU in 1989 and, after one year stints at Iowa Wesleyan (1991) and Valdosta State (1992), returned to Appalachian in 1993, where he coached defensive backs under defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeil, who was named ECU's head coach last week. Wiley took over as the Mountaineers' defensive coordinator in 1998 and oversaw a unit that was twice the Southern Conference's top-ranked defense (2000 and 2006) and produced five SoCon Defensive Players of the Year, including three of the last four (Murrell in 2006, Corey Lynch in 2007 and Jacque Roman in 2008).

Wiley is the second veteran member of ASU's staff to move on to a top-notch NCAA Division I FBS program this offseason. Earlier this month, offensive line coach Shawn Elliott accepted a similar position at South Carolina.

“The fact that John and Shawn have moved on to such prestigious positions is a compliment to the success that we've had as a program,” Moore said. “People recognize that we've got good coaches here and that is a great testament to what we've built. We'll work to find coaches that can fill their shoes and build on the foundation that coaches like John and Shawn have been so instrumental in helping us construct.”