BOONE, N.C. — The stakes are clear for each side, with spoiler roles only of secondary importance.
Those can't be discounted totally in a rivalry game, though.
App State (5-5, 3-4 Sun Belt) closes the regular season Saturday night at Georgia Southern (7-4, 5-2) needing a victory to become bowl eligible. Reaching that six-win benchmark would also prevent the Eagles from possibly earning a share of the Sun Belt's East Division title and appearing in the Sun Belt Championship Game.
Georgia Southern can accomplish both of those things by winning on its home turf and having division-leading Marshall (8-3, 6-1) lose on the road at James Madison (8-3, 4-3). Georgia Southern won the head-to-head matchup against Marshall in the case of a tie, but the Marshall-JMU game starts two hours after the 6 p.m. kickoff at Paulson Stadium in Statesboro, Ga., so scoreboard watching won't be necessary if App State comes through with its first conference road win of the season.
Two years ago, App State arrived in Statesboro with a 6-5 record but needed one more victory to become bowl eligible because two of its wins had been against FCS opponents. The Mountaineers lost in heartbreaking fashion, missing an opportunity to win in regulation before falling 51-48 in two overtimes.
This year, a five-loss App State team faces another win-or-no-postseason scenario in Statesboro given its 11-game regular season — the Mountaineers' home game against Liberty scheduled for Sept. 28 was canceled due to the impact from Hurricane Helene's Sept. 27 arrival.
App State picked up its 100th win as an FBS program last weekend, making it one of only 10 programs in the country to have reached triple-digit victories since the Mountaineers and Eagles made the FCS-to-FBS jump in 2014. App State's 7-11 record in Statesboro includes a 2-3 mark in Sun Belt matchups.
Under head coach
Shawn Clark, whose first full season began in 2020, the Mountaineers are 20-1 when winning the turnover battle. The 34-20 victory against an eight-win JMU squad last weekend was just the second time this season that App State has won the turnover battle.
Meanwhile, Georgia Southern has posted similar numbers since the 2020 season, going 23-5 when it wins the turnover battle and 4-22 when losing it.
Continuing its trend under head coach Clay Helton, the Eagles are averaging 246.6 passing yards per game, with quarterback JC French totaling 15 touchdown passes and seven interceptions this season. Derwin Burgess Jr., Dalen Cobb and Josh Dallas all have at least 500 receiving yards and three touchdowns this season, while Jalen White has scored nine rushing touchdowns. He is averaging a team-high 48.1 yards per game on the ground.
Defensively, the Eagles are coming off a 26-6 road win in which it limited Coastal Carolina to 280 yards of total offense.
When App State running back
Ahmani Marshall rushed for 115 yards against Georgia State on Oct. 26, it was App State's fifth straight game with a different leading rusher, but that started Marshall's active streak of four straight 100-yard games. He followed the Georgia State win with big games against ODU (120 yards), Coastal Carolina (124 yards) and JMU (108 yards).
Joey Aguilar ranks 14
th nationally by averaging 271.3 passing yards per game, and
Makai Jackson had five catches for 162 yards against JMU in the Mountaineers' first game without standout receiver
Kaedin Robinson. In the second quarter alone, Jackson had gains of 52 yards, 29 yards and 64 yards (touchdown).
App State has fallen behind in the opening five minutes in six games this season, while Louisiana also jumped ahead with points on its opening drive, but the Mountaineers were able to erase an early 14-0 deficit against JMU and take a lead into halftime. Not playing from behind affects play calling on both sides of the ball, contributing to the fact App State has 19 sacks in its five wins and one total sack in its five losses.
