BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State offensive linemen pride themselves on appearing in the picture.
Sometimes they do their jobs so well that
Darrynton Evans makes it impossible.
Winning as a ranked FBS team for the first time, No. 24 App State rushed for a season-high 302 yards in a 52-7 victory against ULM on Saturday. Evans' 59-yard touchdown run started a 136-yard day that required just 17 carries,
Marcus Williams Jr. added 79 yards and quarterback
Zac Thomas rushed for 58 more.
When App State's linemen are performing like they've been instructed to by coach
Shawn Clark, ESPN cameras will catch them hustling downfield to provide a late block or push a pile forward. In other cases, like on the Mountaineers' third offensive play, they'll help create a hole so big that an untouched Evans sprints away from everyone.
"I hate saying it all the time, but do your job — we came here to play a physical brand of football, whether that's in the run game or pass game," junior center
Noah Hannon said. "Our job is to get these guys out in space with time to make plays with the ball. We pride ourselves on being a physical team and pride ourselves in running down the field and being on the ball.
"If Darrynton is down the field, when you're watching film or ESPN, you should see all five guys in the screen at the same time. Granted, it's hard when he gets going like that, but we try."
Hannon laughed at the last statement, leading him to respond to a joking follow-up question about Evans having a speed advantage over him by saying, "He does now. When I first got here, he didn't, but the past couple years he's had some good offseasons that've really helped him."
Evans' third run of 50-plus yards this season began with solid work up front from Hannon, left tackle
Victor Johnson, left guard Ryan Nuezil, right guard
Baer Hunter and right tackle
Cooper Hodges. Neuzil, Hannon and Hunter created a wall on the right side, and H-back
Henry Pearson's up-the-middle effort to make a next-level block on a ULM linebacker had Evans off to the races.
Evans' touchdown, followed by
Chandler Staton's extra point, tied the game after a game-opening score from ULM and ignited a streak of 52 unanswered points by the Mountaineers.
"Henry had a great block on a linebacker that really sprung the play," Hannon said. "We saw how they were going to line up to that formation and that look, and we got on our scheme. Henry did his job, and y'all see how fast No. 3 is. That was the rest from there."
While the Mountaineers didn't give up any sacks, Thomas did have to use his elusiveness to escape pressure and scramble for big gains on a few occasions. There's certainly room for improvement, but the running backs benefited greatly from the work of the five starting linemen and
Cole Garrison, who played meaningful snaps at tackle.
There were other downfield efforts from the tight ends and receivers, notably
Malik Williams' block to create an extra 15 yards on a short pass to Evans and
Thomas Hennigan driving a defender several yards out of bounds during run close to the end zone.
Head coach
Eliah Drinkwitz even seemed to follow the linemen's lead, recording a season-high run of approximately 25 yards as he went from one end of the coaches' box to the other while sprinting down the sideline to follow
Corey Sutton, who had broken a tackle to gain 44 more yards on what turned out to be a 54-yard reception.
In all, App State put up a season-high 572 yards of offense against the Warhawks.
"The coaches put a scheme together so that if we do our job, the plays will hit," Hannon said. "We left a lot of running yards out there, but the best part is, we have great backs like Darrynton. If you just give them a little hole, they'll be able to run through it, so big props to them."
