BOONE, N.C. — Asked to name who's faster, national rushing leader
Darrynton Evans looked to his left and pointed at receiver
Jalen Virgil.
Seated next to the standout running back during Saturday's postgame press conference, Virgil smiled and replied, "Depends on the day."
Speed matters in college football, and two skill players with sprinter's credentials helped Appalachian State improve to 2-0 on Saturday. Evans scored four touchdowns while amassing a career-high 298 all-purpose yards, and Virgil's two receiving touchdowns accounted for part of his 131 all-purpose yards.
They both contributed as kick returners, with Virgil replacing Evans as the primary option and gaining 45 yards on his first career return. That occurred before Evans, as part of the hands team, sealed the win by returning an onside kick 45 yards for a touchdown in the closing minutes.
"I'm behind possibly App State's best kick returner of all time," said Virgil, who finished second at the 2019 Sun Belt Conference Track and Field Championships with a time of 10.30 seconds in the 100 meters. "In practice, I'm always right behind Darrynton just watching how he hits the holes and taking notes from the G.O.A.T. just in case I have to get out there like I did today."
Through two weeks, Evans leads the nation with 333 rushing yards thanks to his 234-yard effort on 19 carries against Charlotte, and he became App State's career leader with his third kickoff return for a touchdown. Virgil added three catches for 86 yards, including touchdowns of 10 and 73 yards.
The Mountaineers lost redshirt freshman running back
Camerun Peoples to a torn ACL last weekend, and Evans returned the opening kickoff Saturday before shifting to a role as an offensive workhorse with big-play explosiveness.
Evans broke loose for an 87-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage and added a 68-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. He then clinched the win with his 45-yard kick return.
"
Darrynton Evans was Superman out there," head coach
Eliah Drinkwitz said.
Evans, who has run as sub-4.4 time in the 40-yard dash, is accustomed to starting fast.
Before App State ran an offensive play at Penn State last season, he scored on a 100-yard kickoff return. He gained 58 yards on his second carry against Troy in 2018 and had a 97-yard kickoff return to the 1-yard line on Louisiana's first kickoff in the Sun Belt Championship Game.
Evans better be loose from the outset, because he wastes no time in covering a lot of ground.
"That's my main thing before the game, just trying to make sure I'm as loose as possible, because you never know what could happen," Evans said.
The 234 rushing yards rank No. 3 in App State history for a back with less than 20 carries, and Virgil recorded another high yards-per-touch average during the second multi-touchdown game of his career.
He scored on receptions of 83 and 53 yards against Coastal Carolina in 2017 and has three touchdowns this season following a scoring run on an end-around in Week 1.
On the 73-yard touchdown Saturday, quarterback
Zac Thomas absorbed a big hit while unleashing a deep throw to Virgil, who caught the ball at the Charlotte 42 and sprinted the rest of the way.
As a redshirt junior, Virgil has averaged 16.6 yards on 42 career catches, and the highest career average in App State history is the 17.6 yards per catch by Rick Beasley from 1978-80.
"We have a lot of confidence in Jalen," Drinkwitz said. "He just needed his moment and his opportunity. We felt like we had a good matchup for him to the field, and we wanted to be aggressive and take those shots."
