WEEK ONE GAME NOTES: APPALACHIAN STATE
BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State opens the 2017 football season Saturday night with an ESPN game at No. 15 Georgia, the preseason favorite to win the SEC's East Division.
Coached by
Scott Satterfield, the Mountaineers are moving forward from a 10-3 season that included earning a share of the Sun Belt Conference title and beating Toledo in the Camellia Bowl. The Bulldogs closed an 8-5 debut under coach Kirby Smart with a victory against TCU in the Liberty Bowl.
In the fourth installment of a five-part series, here's a look at how App State's rushing offense matches up against Georgia's run defense:
PART ONE: App State's passing offense vs. Georgia's pass defense
PART TWO: App State's pass defense vs. Georgia's passing offense
PART THREE: App State's rush defense vs. Georgia's rushing offense
PART FIVE: Special teams outlook for App State, Georgia
After rushing for 1,402 yards in 2016, App State's
Jalin Moore was named the Sun Belt Conference's offensive player of the year.
A year-end award seemed unlikely given how the season started. The Mountaineers led most of the way in a 20-13 overtime loss at Tennessee on opening night, and
Marcus Cox rushed for 115 yards, but Moore was limited to 17 yards on seven carries.
He didn't fare much better a week later, rushing 13 times for 42 yards against Old Dominion. The leg injury that Cox suffered against Miami in Week 3 turned into a springboard for Moore, who excelled both when he was the featured back for four weeks as well as when he shared the workload with a healthy Cox over the final six games.
Named the 2017 preseason offensive player of the year in the Sun Belt, Moore has worked to improve so he can be an immediate, consistent threat for the Mountaineers as they begin their schedule with another trip to a highly ranked SEC opponent.
"He is an SEC back," Georgia coach Kirby Smart told reporters this week.
The departure of Cox, who rushed for a school-record 5,103 yards in his career thanks to a 1,040-yard effort in only nine games as a senior, leads to Moore having an elevated role as a junior. It should also create an opening for senior
Terrence Upshaw, who rushed for a combined 1,017 yards in his first two seasons.
Include the contributions of senior quarterback
Taylor Lamb, whose 126 rushing yards in the Camellia Bowl win capped a season in which he scored nine times while gaining 505 yards on the ground, and the Mountaineers have three experienced options running the ball. Lamb has totaled 1,424 rushing yards and averaged 5.7 yards per attempt, counting sacks, in his career.
Two new full-time starters, along with some experienced returners at tight end, will join senior tackle
Beau Nunn (27 career starts), senior guard
Colby Gossett (33 straight starts) and redshirt sophomore
Victor Johnson (13 starts last season) in trying to create running room against a defense that brought back 10 starters from Georgia's 2016 team.
While App State ranked 10
th nationally last year by rushing for 250.9 yards per game, making it a top-17 finisher in each of its first three FBS seasons, Georgia ranked 50
th by allowing 191.2 yards per game on the ground.
"Everybody that plays against them has a hard time running the football," App State coach
Scott Satterfield said. "We recognize that. You just try to find some ways to get the ground attack moving a little bit so you can try to stay on the sticks, but it's going to be a difficult task. Our guys up front are going to have to play a great football game in order to run the football."
Georgia, like App State, rotates its defensive linemen frequently. Led by tackle Trenton Thompson (three sacks in the Liberty Bowl), 300-pound Julian Rochester and 305-pound John Atkins, the Bulldogs are stout up front.
They're also talented and physically imposing at linebacker, starting with middle linebackers Roquan Smith (6-1, 225 pounds) and Natrez Patrick (6-3, 234 pounds) and continuing with outside linebackers Davin Bellamy (6-5, 245 pounds) and Lorenzo Carter (6-6, 243 pounds). Jonathan Ledbetter (6-4, 277 pounds) can play outside linebacker or end.
"I'm really impressed with their two linebackers that are usually in the box, (Smith) and (Patrick)," Satterfield said. "Those two guys are awesome football players who make a lot of tackles for them. They can run, they have the size and they're just really, really talented. You look at their front seven, it's extremely difficult to get any type of movement out of those guys. With their length, they cover up so many holes."
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