BOONE, N.C. — Scott Satterfield still remembers the specific date.
Driving his packed-up pickup truck from Hillsborough on his move-in day as an Appalachian State freshman, Satterfield made a Yadkin County pit stop where Interstate 77 intersects with U.S. 421 east of Boone. A similarly aged stranger from Camden, S.C., stopped at the same spot with his family, saw Satterfield and introduced himself.
The long-standing friendship between Satterfield and Shawn Elliott officially began on Aug. 3, 1991.
They've been college teammates and roommates. They were App State assistants together for more than a decade, and now they're both Sun Belt head coaches, with Satterfield's Mountaineers (6-4, 5-1) preparing to play Saturday against Elliott's Georgia State Panthers (6-3, 5-1) in a first-place showdown at 2 p.m. on ESPN3.
They've certainly come a long way since that chance meeting at a truck stop 26 years ago.
"He's the first guy I met on the way up," Satterfield said. "It's kind of ironic that we played together for five years, captains of the '95 team together, coached together for 11 years and lived together throughout the summers when we were up here.
"Just a great relationship with him throughout the time playing and then coaching. We've won a lot of games together, so I know his team is going to be ready to play. They'll play hard and play with emotion — a lot like our teams."
App State and Georgia State entered this week as part of a four-way tie for first place with Troy and Arkansas State. The winner of Saturday's game at Georgia State Stadium (formerly Turner Field) in Atlanta will be 6-1 in the Sun Belt with a chance to clinch at least a share of a conference title in its Dec. 2 finale.
Satterfield (38-22 overall) will move into sole possession of fourth place on App State's list for coaching victories with the Mountaineers' next win, and Elliott has led the Panthers to bowl eligibility in his debut season as a full-time head coach.
When Satterfield was an App State quarterback from 1991-95, Elliott was a defensive lineman. Satterfield began his coaching career as an App State assistant from 1998-2009, and Elliott was also an assistant in Boone that entire time, working on Jerry Moore's staff from 1997-2009.
Elliott coached at South Carolina from 2010-16, even serving as the Gamecocks' interim head coach for six games following Steve Spurrier's departure in 2015. South Carolina went 1-5 to end that season, but Georgia State is 6-1 in its last seven games after starting the year with a 17-10 home loss to FCS Tennessee State and a 56-0 loss at Penn State.
"For him and us, when the ball is kicked off, you want to win," Satterfield said. "He wants to win, and we want to win. We want to play great football and come out on top. Whatever happens, you're still going to be buds, and you're still going to talk."
In addition to the head coaching connection, there are also similarities defensively, as App State defensive coordinator
Nate Woody worked at Wofford for 22 years and Georgia State defensive coordinator Nate Fuqua was promoted to the same role at Wofford a year after Woody left for Boone.
Both coordinators utilize 3-4 schemes, and the Mountaineers are coming off a 27-6 win in which they allowed only 191 yards of offense to Georgia Southern, which gained 50 of those yards in the final 1:35. The Panthers' defense ranks second in the Sun Belt by allowing only 129.2 rushing yards per game.
"We're basically running the same defense, and offensively there are a lot of similarities," Satterfield said. "The difference is they're throwing the football a little bit more than we are, and we're running the ball a little bit more."
Jalin Moore's return to practice could be a positive development for App State's run game, and the Mountaineers' offensive line is tied for fourth place nationally with only four sacks allowed this season. With redshirt freshman
Ryan Neuzil performing well at left guard in recent weeks, the line also ranks fourth nationally with only 36 quarterback pressures allowed, according to the PFF College Football site.
Defensive end
Tee Sims ranks among the national leaders in sacks and yardage lost on sacks as a leader for an App State defense that will attempt to slow down the productive Georgia State duo of quarterback Conner Manning and receiver Penny Hart.
Manning made his starting debut for the Panthers last year after transferring from Utah. He averages 266.4 passing yards per game, leads the Sun Belt with a completion percentage of 64.2 and has more than twice as many touchdown passes (13) as interceptions (six).
The 5-foot-8 Hart played in only two games last year and suffered a season-ending foot injury against Appalachian State after having a 1,000-yard season as a freshman. This year, he leads the Sun Belt with 65 catches for 961 yards and eight touchdowns.
