BOONE, N.C. — After having last weekend's scheduled home opener against Southern Miss canceled because of Hurricane Florence, Appalachian State is now set to make its 2018 debut in Kidd Brewer Stadium with a nonconference game against in-state FCS program Gardner-Webb on Saturday.
Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m., and the game will be available on ESPN+.
Today, we'll look at how the offense from App State (1-1) matches up against the defense from Gardner-Webb (1-2):
App State Offense vs. Gardner-Webb Defense
In their last game, a 45-9 road victory against Charlotte on Sept. 8, the Mountaineers managed to put up 434 yards of offense despite running just 50 plays.
Through 65 games with
Scott Satterfield as its head coach, the only time App State has run fewer than 50 offensive plays was a water-logged, 31-13 home victory against Wyoming in 2015. The Mountaineers completed 3 of 12 passes that day but ran for 249 yards on 34 attempts, and they benefited from a 91-yard interception return for a touchdown.
Appalachian scored in all three phases at Charlotte, as
Thomas Hennigan returned a punt for a touchdown and
Austin Exford recovered a fumble in the end zone. Those plays, coupled with quick strikes like
Zac Thomas' 90-yard touchdown pass to
Corey Sutton, prevented the offense from taking a lot of snaps or chewing up much clock.
The main difference between the Wyoming and Charlotte games was App State's passing efficiency. With the 49ers' defense focused on slowing down the Mountaineers' running game, Thomas took advantage of what was available by going 14-for-14 through the air for 295 yards.
Appalachian did average 4.0 yards per carry, and
Jalin Moore's 19-yard run was part of a five-carry, 27-yard contribution on the opening drive, but Moore had only two rushing attempts after App State's first possession of the second quarter.
Darrynton Evans had an 11-yard run against Charlotte, and
Marcus Williams Jr. gained 27 yards on his first carry of the season.
Like any team, the Mountaineers want to capitalize on what's open based on the defensive scheme, but they would like to experience more success in the running game against Gardner-Webb.
"We want to be a balanced offense," Satterfield said. "(The numbers) are a little bit skewed, but if you look at it, we want to get the running game going, let our offensive line gain confidence, let our running backs get confidence running the football."
App State's average of 8.680 yards per play at Charlotte was actually topped twice last season, when the Mountaineers averaged 8.686 yards per snap in their 63-14 win against Louisiana and 8.971 yards per snap in a 54-7 victory against FCS Savannah State.
Defensively, Gardner-Webb is giving up 243.3 rushing yards per game and 6.3 yards per rushing attempt. It trailed 17-6 at halftime of a 45-6 loss to unbeaten FCS power North Carolina A&T and was behind 14-10 before Western Carolina scored on the final first-half play of the Catamounts' 28-10 victory.
Satterfield has praised several Gardner-Webb defenders, notably senior cornerback Triston Dozier and senior linebacker Corey Horne. Dozier has broken up five passes while allowing only a handful of completions, and 28 of Horne's 36 tackles have occurred in the last two games.
