TOP STORYLINES
• App State opens the 2023 season vs. Gardner-Webb, which is ranked No. 24 in the preseason FCS Coaches' Poll. Beginning their 10th season as a Sun Belt member, the Mountaineers are facing Gardner-Webb for the ninth time overall and the first since 2018.
• Members of the new Big South-OVC Football Association and coached by Tre Lamb (former App State QB
Taylor's Lamb's cousin), Gardner-Webb went 5-0 in Big South play last year and won an FCS playoff game. The Runnin' Bulldogs led in the fourth quarter of a 31-27 loss to Coastal Carolina and trailed 21-7 through three quarters of a 28-7 loss to Marshall.
• Of App State's six losses in 2022, five were by seven points or less. According to ESPN's David Hale, no team finishing .500 or worse in the Playoff Era had a better yards margin per game than App State's plus-108.1 (455.3 gained compared to 347.2 allowed per game).
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Shawn Clark's staff in 2023 has six new assistant coaches, including two coordinators in
Frank Ponce (offense) and
Scot Sloan (defense) who have both returned to Boone, plus a new Director of Athletic Performance (
Matt Greenhalgh) who also has returned to Boone.
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Frank Ponce, an App State QBs coach from 2013-18 and offensive coordinator in 2021, is back for his third stint with the Mountaineers, who have one other new offensive assistant in OL coach
Mike Cummings. Ponce helped recruit QB
Ryan Burger and coached him at the start of App State's 2022 spring practices, before Ponce took a job at Miami and Burger redshirted as a true freshman. At Miami, Ponce spent time recruiting QB
Joey Aguilar, a California-based JUCO transfer who signed with App State before Ponce returned to the High Country.
• Before being Georgia Southern's defensive coordinator from 2018-21 and coaching at Army in 2022,
Scot Sloan coached at App State from 2010-17. App State assistants
Victor Cabral (DL) and
Travis Cunningham (ILBs) worked on Sloan's staff in Statesboro, and new OLBs coach
AJ Howard was a standout App State defender while being coached by Sloan from 2014-17.
• Breaking down the 2023 roster, App State returns six offensive starters from 2022 (including three interior linemen) and four defensive starters (plus opening-game starter
Brendan Harrington, an outside linebacker who suffered a season-ending injury in the opener). There are 32 scholarship newcomers on the roster, including 14 from the transfer portal, as App State ranks 120th among 133 FBS teams in returning production from 2022, according to ESPN.
• App State, which is 9-1 against FCS teams since its FBS transition in 2014, is facing a ranked FCS team for the first time since the Mountaineers' final SoCon season in 2013. That was a 33-21 win at No. 24 Wofford on Nov. 16, 2013.
• Five years ago, App State played its home opener vs. Gardner-Webb and won 72-7 behind two blocked punts from
Steven Jones Jr. The Mountaineers scored twice on special teams, with Jones Jr. recovering one of his blocks for a score and
Clifton Duck returning a punt for a TD.
• With a player vote helping decide the honorees, App State has announced eight captains for the 2023 season: sixth-year redshirt senior
Andrew Parker Jr. (ILB), sixth-year redshirt senior
Bucky Williams (OL), fifth-year senior
Isaiah Helms (OL) , fifth-year senior
Nick Ross (FS), fifth-year redshirt junior
Jackson Greene (FS), fifth-year redshirt junior
Brendan Harrington (OLB), fifth-year redshirt junior
Milan Tucker (WR/KR) and fourth-year junior
Christan Horn (WR).
• App State has won four Sun Belt titles (plus the 2021 East Division title) and gone 6-1 in bowl games (with a record-setting 6-0 start) since its 2014 FBS transition. With an 85-25 record since starting 1-5 in 2014, the Mountaineers are among the FBS leaders since 2014 in overall wins (tied No. 6 with 86), road wins (tied for No. 4 with 32) and shutouts (tied for No. 6 with seven).
• At 48-9 in home games since the 2014 transition, App State's home winning percentage of 84.2 in that span ranks sixth nationally and first among Group of Five programs.
• App State has moved forward from a wild 2022 that included a September in which, after drawing a stadium-record 40,168 fans and scoring 40 fourth-quarter points in a 63-61 loss to UNC, the Mountaineers won 17-14 win at then-No. 6 Texas A&M to trigger a Boone visit from ESPN's College Game Day for a home game against Troy.
Chase Brice's 53-yard, Hail Mary TD pass to
Christan Horn gave the Mountaineers a 32-28 win over the eventual Sun Belt champ.
• Six of the top eight crowds in Kidd Brewer Stadium history occurred in 2022, as App State eclipsed 30,000 fans in all seven home games. Season tickets for 2023 sold out in early June, and three home games on the 2023 schedule already have sold out (ECU, Marshall, Southern Miss).
• App State announced that
Armanti Edwards, a star QB from 2006-09, will have his No. 14 retired this fall. The ceremony will occur at halftime of the App State-Georgia Southern home game on Nov. 25, the culmination of a season-long celebration of Edwards' career. The honoring of Edwards' No. 14 is the last time App State plans to take a jersey number out of circulation due to limited inventory of jersey numbers for the roster each season — current student-athletes wearing No. 14 will have the option to wear it for the remainder of their time at App State.
OFFENSIVE OUTLOOK
• App State's six returning starters on offense include three interior linemen in center
Isaiah Helms, left guard
Damion Daley and right guard
Bucky Williams, who have played in a combined 132 NCAA games. The Mountaineers will have two new starting tackles after RT
Cooper Hodges was drafted by the Jaguars and LT
Anderson Hardy was signed by the Chiefs.
• The Mountaineers also have significant starting experience among their receivers/tight ends, including WR
Christan Horn, WR
Kaedin Robinson (five starts last season), slot WR
Dashaun Davis (six starts last year) and TE
Miller Gibbs (five starts in two-TE sets last year).
• A talented running back room includes returning starter
Nate Noel (team leader in rushing the last two years is on the preseason watch list for the Reese's Senior Bowl),
Ahmani Marshall (228 yards over the final two games of 2022),
Kanye Roberts (6.7 yards per carry as a true freshman in 2022) and
Maquel Haywood (1,334 all-purpose yards in two seasons at Navy).
• At QB, new starter
Ryan Burger appeared in one game last year as a true freshman, playing 26 snaps vs. Robert Morris. He completed 4 of 6 passes for 40 yards and rushed twice for 23 yards.
• According to ESPN's Bill Connelly, App State's fourth-down aggressiveness in 2022 contributed to the Mountaineers ranking 12th nationally in fourth-down payoff, like the fourth-down conversion while in field-goal range to set up the second touchdown in the win at Texas A&M.
DEFENSIVE OUTLOOK
• The top defensive returners for App State include FS
Nick Ross (52 career games; team-high 73 stops as a strong safety in 2022), ILB
Andrew Parker Jr., DE
DeAndre Dingle-Prince and OLB
Brendan Harrington (19 starts from 2020-21 before suffering a season-ending injury in the 2022 opener). Last year, CB
Ethan Johnson, DT
Markus Clark and OLB
Donovan Spellman played significant snaps as true freshmen.
• The defense could have several impact transfers, including DE
Shawn Collins (Rutgers), DE
Michael Fletcher (Michigan State), OLB
Thomas Davis (Miami), CB
Tyrek Funderburk (Richmond), CB
Jarrett Paul (Kansas) and NICKEL
Jalik Thomas (JUCO).
SPECIAL TEAMS
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Milan Tucker, who switched from CB to slot WR after the first fall scrimmage, returns after earning All-America honors as a kick returner in 2022. He ranked second nationally with a kick return average of 28.2 yards and had a 96-yard return for a touchdown against Marshall.
