BOONE, N.C. — For the second straight year, the Ragin' Cajuns are coming to Kidd Brewer Stadium.
Appalachian State (4-1, 2-0) resumes its Sun Belt Conference schedule with a 3:30 p.m. home game against Louisiana (3-3, 1-1). The Family Weekend matchup will be shown on ESPN+.
The departure of two teams and the first year of a divisional format affected Sun Belt scheduling, and the Ragin' Cajuns are the only West Division team to appear on the Mountaineers' schedule every year since they joined the league in 2014.
App State won 63-14 against Louisiana during last year's Senior Day in Boone. On the flip side, the Mountaineers will travel to Texas State for the second straight season. Appalachian is one of three East Division teams with no league losses entering this weekend.
Louisiana has a different head coach for this trip to the High Country, as former Furman quarterback Billy Napier has replaced Mark Hudspeth. It will be a showdown of two productive offenses, with App State ranking No. 7 nationally at 264.8 rushing yards per game and the Ragin' Cajuns in 13th place at 248.2.
"They're a very, very good offense," App State head coach
Scott Satterfield said. "When you look, they remind us of our offense quite a bit. They're in the Pistol, running inside and outside zone, doing a great job of running the football."
Behind an offensive line that's one of just 14 nationally on the Joe Moore Award Midseason Honor Roll, App State has rushed the ball for 432, 348 and 246 yards in its last three games.
Darrynton Evans,
Marcus Williams Jr.,
D'Andre Hicks and even true freshman
Camerun Peoples could share the workload as the Mountaineers play their first game without sidelined senior
Jalin Moore.
Defensively, Appalachian has been preparing for a Louisiana offense that gained 534 of its school-record 759 yards in the first half of a 66-38 win against New Mexico State last weekend.
Two big backs in 227-pound Trey Ragas and 221-pound Elijah Mitchell, as well as 5-foot-9 Raymond Calais, have helped the Ragin' Cajuns average 6.1 yards per carry this season. Meanwhile, senior quarterback Andre Nunez completed 19 of his 25 passes for five touchdowns and 315 yards against New Mexico State.
The Mountaineers are moving forward from a dominant defensive performance in which they intercepted three passes and allowed no touchdowns against Arkansas State's Justice Hansen, who has 14 touchdown passes and two interceptions in his other six games.
App State is allowing 2.9 yards per rush, one reason why it ranks No. 8 nationally in scoring defense (15.4 points per game) and No. 7 nationally in yards allowed per game (288.2). The team's top four tacklers are linebackers
Akeem Davis-Gaither (39 stops),
Jordan Fehr (33),
Anthony Flory (32) and
Noel Cook (22 in four games).
To this point in the season, Appalachian has allowed only three offensive plays of at least 30 yards: Penn State had a 46-yard pass, while South Alabama had passes of 41 and 34 yards. Since the Penn State game, the Mountaineers haven't allowed a rush of more than 16 yards.
