For the first time in 19 years, Appalachian State University football opens the season against a Southern Conference foe when it travels to upstart Chattanooga for the first game of the 2010 campaign. Saturday's season opener kicks off at 3 p.m. and will be televised live across the Southeast on SportSouth as part of the network's “SoCon Saturday” Southern Conference game-of-the-week package.

NOTING SATURDAY'S MATCHUP
• Appalachian is opening the season with a conference game for only the sixth time since joining the SoCon in 1972 and the first time since it upended former league foe Marshall, 9-3, in 1991.

• ASU is 5-0 when previously opening the campaign with a SoCon game but all five were played at home.

• The Mountaineers are opening the season versus an NCAA Division I FCS opponent for only the second time in nine years. The last time the Apps opened the year with an FCS tilt was 2005 (a 24-16 win at Eastern Kentucky).

• Appalachian has not dropped a season opener to an FCS foe since 1993, a 22-10 loss at North Carolina A&T.

• ASU is 46-31-3 all-time in season openers.

• In 21 years under head coach Jerry Moore, the Mountaineers are just 9-12 in season openers, including losses in six of the last eight. However, 14 of Moore's 21 openers have come against Division I FBS competition (ASU is 3-11 in those games with wins at Wake Forest in 1995 and 2000 and No. 5 Michigan in 2007).

• ASU is 30-8 all-time in SoCon openers, including a 17-4 mark under Moore.

• Appalachian has won 20-consecutive SoCon games, the second-longest conference winning streak in the league's 77-year football history. When Saturday's game kicks off, it will have been 1,049 days since ASU suffered its last SoCon loss, a 38-35 setback to Georgia Southern on Oct. 20, 2007.

• The Mountaineers are 23-10 all-time against Chattanooga, including a 19-2 mark under Moore. The Apps have won five-straight in the series.

• Saturday's game is ASU's seventh at Chattanooga's Finley Stadium in the last seven seasons. The Mountaineers have won five-straight contests in the venue, including the 2005, 2006 and 2007 NCAA Division I Football national championship games.

For complete coverage of Saturday's matchup, including links to live audio and stats, both teams' stats, rosters, depth charts, game notes and much more, click HERE to visit GoASU.com's official Appalachian Gameday page.