Postgame Notes from App State's Win vs. Elon

POSTGAME NOTES: App State 44, Elon 10
 
This was App State's eighth straight win in a Kidd Brewer Stadium season debut. The Mountaineers are now 33-5 in games at Kidd Brewer since 2015.
 
App State claimed its eighth straight victory over an in-state opponent, dating back to 2018.
 
With their 65th win since the start of the 2015 season, the Mountaineers have the fifth-most in the country during that span behind only Alabama (82), Clemson (80), Ohio State (70) and Oklahoma (70).
 
Making his first career start was DB Ronald Clarke at free safety.
 
Seven players made their App State debuts: Austyn Chestnut, Troy Everett, Justin Isler, Elijah Johnson, Jayden Ramsey, Jahmir Smith and Seth Williams.
 
The announced attendance of 30,224 was the eighth-biggest crowd in the history of Kidd Brewer Stadium. This was the first game at The Rock without crowd-size restrictions in 651 days.
 
OFFENSE
 
Chase Brice completed 19 of 25 passes for 293 yards, the most passing yards by a Mountaineer since Zac Thomas threw for 326 yards against Troy in 2019. Brice threw one touchdown and rushed for his first score as a Mountaineer.
 
Corey Sutton led all receivers with seven catches for 128 yards, his highest yardage total since racking up a career-high 173 yards at Georgia State in 2019.
 
Malik Williams set a career high with 123 receiving yards (with one touchdown), including 117 in the first half. His previous high was 113 against Troy in 2020.
 
This was the first game in which multiple Mountaineers had 100+ receiving yards since the 2017 Coastal Carolina game (Jalen Virgil 186, Ike Lewis 106).
 
With 80 rushing yards and two touchdowns on the day, Camerun Peoples now has 10 rushing scores over his last four games.
 
Watauga High School graduate Anderson Castle scored his first collegiate touchdown with a fourth-quarter, 8-yard rush to give the game its final 44-10 margin.
 
DEFENSE
 
App State has now held the opposing offense to less than 30 points in 16 straight games dating back to the 2019 season.
 
This was the 30th time that App State has allowed 10 points or less since moving to the FBS ranks in 2014.
 
The Sun Belt's leading tackler entering this game, D'Marco Jackson had a monster performance with career highs in tackles (13), tackles for loss (4.5) and sacks (3.0). His 4.5 TFLs are the most by a Mountaineer in the FBS era, and his three sacks are the most since Jordan Fehr had three in the 2018 Coastal Carolina game. 

Jackson is the first FBS player to record at least 13 tackles, 4.5 TFLs and 3.0 sacks in a game since Arizona's Scooby Wright in 2014. Wright won the Nagurski, Lombardi, Bednarik and Lambert Awards that year, as well as being named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year.

Jackson became first FBS player since 2014 (and first Sun Belt player ever) with at least 13 tackles, 4.5 TFLs and 3.0 sacks in the same game. The last FBS player was Arzona's Scooby Wright, who had 19 tackles, 4.5 TFLs and 3.0 sacks against UCLA in 2014. 
 
T.D. Roof snagged his first career interception in the end zone and returned it 90 yards. That was the Mountaineers' sixth interception return of 90+ yards in school history.
 
In his first career start, free safety Ronald Clarke had four tackles and made his first career fumble recovery.
 
SPECIAL TEAMS
 
With three field goals (from 44, 45 and 28) and five extra points, Chandler Staton scored 14 points and jumped from fifth to third place on App State's career scoring list. He now has 376 points, passing Marcus Cox (366 from 2013-16) and Julian Rauch (373 from 2004-07). Rauch had been the school's all-time points leader among kickers until Staton passed him today.