BOONE, N.C. – Appalachian State now has company from the Carolinas on its Sun Belt Conference schedule.
A week after traveling more than 2,500 miles for a league game at Idaho, the first-place Mountaineers (4-2, 3-0) play host to Coastal Carolina (1-5, 0-3) on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in Kidd Brewer Stadium.
Coastal, the only Sun Belt school within a five-hour drive of Boone, is in its first year as an FBS program. The Chanticleers began playing football in 2003 and were 10-2 last year in their FCS swan song.
They opened this season with a 38-28 victory against UMass and had close losses in their first two Sun Belt games against ULM (51-43) and Georgia State (27-21) before falling 51-17 at Arkansas State last weekend. No stranger to close Sun Belt games, App State is looking to reach 4-0 in league play for the third straight year.
Senior safety
A.J. Howard made a goal-line tackle on the final play of a 20-13 win at Texas State, and App State trailed twice in the fourth quarter of a 45-31 victory against New Mexico State. The Mountaineers overcame a 20-0 deficit and took their first lead with 7:24 remaining in the 23-20 victory at Idaho.
"We have to get off to a quick start," App State head coach
Scott Satterfield said. "We've not started well in any of our conference games this year. We've played great second halves, but not first halves. That's the concentration this week — to get off to a great start in the first half."
App State won all three of its FCS showdowns with Coastal Carolina in Boone, prevailing 30-3 in 2005, 45-28 in a 2006 playoff game and 55-14 in 2012. That was Joe Moglia's first season as the Chanticleers' head coach, and the former TD Ameritrade CEO is taking a medical leave of absence this season.
First-year associate head coach/offensive coordinator Jamey Chadwell is serving as the interim head coach following a successful run as the head coach at Charleston Southern, which ran a triple-option offense.
After intercepting six passes two weeks ago and recording six sacks last weekend, stopping the run will be a key for an App State defense led by the combined 85 tackles from inside linebackers
Eric Boggs and
Anthony Flory.
"With what they do scheme-wise, they always present problems for defenses the way they can run the football and control the clock," Satterfield said.
Boggs was all over the field at Idaho, where he recorded six solo tackles, two fumble recoveries, one sack, three tackles for loss and two pass breakups. He has a team-leading 48 tackles this season and ranks 14th among active FBS players with 293 career stops.
"On defense, they have some guys who really know how to get after the football," Chadwell said. "It's probably the best secondary that we've seen, so it's a huge challenge for us."
Offensively,
Jalin Moore accounted for 241 of the Mountaineers' 350 rushing yards against New Mexico State on Oct. 7, and App State pulled out the comeback win last week with big plays in the passing game, as
Taylor Lamb threw three touchdown passes in the second half.
Redshirt freshman
Marcus Williams Jr. and the other young backs on App State's roster could have opportunities to contribute in support of Moore against Coastal Carolina.
