BOONE, N.C. — App State's seniors have a knack for forecasting the future.
With several predictions ringing true, they will be able to reflect back on careers that ended with another conference championship win at The Rock and a record-setting run heading into the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 21.
In preparing for last month's Senior Day at Kidd Brewer Stadium, play-by-play voice Adam Witten asked fifth-year senior
Victor Johnson what it would be like running out of the tunnel before, potentially, his last home game.
"I'm not even worried about it, because it's not going to be my last home game," Johnson replied.
Wins against Texas State and Troy (on the road a week later) meant that the Mountaineers would again play host to the Sun Belt Championship Game. Prior to Saturday's actual home finale, when Johnson was hanging out with fellow roommates
Josh Thomas and
Collin Reed, Thomas declared that he was going to return an interception for a touchdown.
In the third quarter of No. 20 App State's 45-38 win against Louisiana, Thomas picked off a pass and ran untouched into the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown that gave the Mountaineers a 42-17 advantage. Mobbed when he returned to the sideline, Thomas spotted an approaching Reed, who gave his classmate an enthusiastic hug to celebrate his first career TD.
"When he went and did it, I lost my mind," Reed said with a laugh. "It's always fun to see your boy and your brothers succeed."
For this 17-man class of seniors, there's been no shortage of success or celebrations.
The fifth-year quintet of Reed, Thomas, Johnson,
Akeem Davis-Gaither and
Desmond Franklin were on teams that went a combined 27-4 at The Rock and have posted an overall record of 53-12, good for the fifth-best mark in the country since they enrolled. They'll take a 4-0 bowl record into a fifth straight appearance when App State (12-1) faces UAB (9-4) in New Orleans.
The younger members of the senior class include starters
Jordan Fehr,
Noel Cook and
E.J. Scott, with the fourth-year players such as Fehr and Cook going a perfect 4-for-4 in winning Sun Belt Conference titles.
App State forced three turnovers in this year's championship game, and a senior had a role in every facet of those takeaways. Scott recovered a backfield fumble that he forced to end Louisiana's first drive, Franklin recovered a third-quarter fumble forced by Cook and Thomas' first touchdown occurred on his seventh career interception.
The senior production didn't stop there, as Davis-Gaither led the team with 10 tackles and Fehr posted eight tackles, two PBUs and two QB hurries. Reed returned from injury to contribute on both fourth-down conversions during a 14-play drive that pushed the lead to 21-0, and Johnson's performance at left tackle earned him national team of the week recognition from the PFF College site. It gave him an elite grade in 19 pass-blocking situations and determined that App State backs gained an average of more than 4.0 yards before contact when running to either side of Johnson.
That's quite the Kidd Brewer swan song for those seniors.
"It was just a great feeling," Reed said. "I've run through the last game up here a lot of times in my head just because you get overcome with emotion. It's a special place, and you want to go out the right way. A championship is the way to go out, so I'm glad we could do that."
"It's all you can ask for at this point in the season being in a championship game," Thomas added. "We just worked so hard every day to prepare ourselves for that moment, so when the moment comes, we will be ready. We were ready. That just shows all the hard work we've put in throughout the season. It definitely paid off, and I couldn't be happier."
Now, with two weeks between games, the seniors can begin work toward improving on the unbeaten bowl record and top-five win total that's taken shape since they arrived in Boone.
Franklin credits the success to a culture that's the product of being in a player-led program.
"It's been about maintaining the culture from when we first came in with the Doug Middletons and Ronald Blairs," Franklin said, leading Thomas to point to a picture of Blair on the wall of App State's team room. "They all installed that work-hard, play-hard culture in us. It's carried on with us, and we're the last class that played with them, so we've tried to instill that on the younger guys and keep it going from there."
