BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A painful loss in late November appeared to bring App State Football's 2025 season to an abrupt end. Instead, the Mountaineers will play deeper into December than they ever have before.
A domino effect that started with what teams the College Football Playoff field included and excluded worked its way to the High Country with App State accepting a JLab Birmingham Bowl bid opposite Sun Belt Conference rival Georgia Southern.
The Mountaineers (5-7) and Eagles (6-6) will meet again Monday in Birmingham's Protective Stadium at 2 p.m. ET (or 1 p.m. CT). The postseason showdown on ESPN will occur just 53 days after Georgia Southern exited Boone with a 25-23 win on Nov. 6, cutting the Mountaineers' lead in the long-running series to 21-18-1.
The 41st meeting will be the first outside of either Boone or Statesboro, Ga.
Postseason games against league rivals are rare but not unheard of, as these two teams met twice during the 2001 season, and App State will be playing after Christmas for the first time. The FCS title-game wins happened in mid-December, and the latest of the Mountaineers' first eight FBS bowl appearances was Dec. 23 for the 2017 Dollar General Bowl.
In unconventional fashion, App State will be making its ninth bowl appearance in 11 postseason-eligible seasons at the FBS level. The unexpected bid and timing of the game contributed to an interesting schedule, as players conducted end-of-season exit meetings with head coach
Dowell Loggains and left Boone before the surprise development prompted bowl participants to return to campus for pre-Christmas practices. There was another break to allow players to celebrate the holiday season with their families, and practice resumed Friday down in Alabama.
More than 70 members of the 2025 team are expected to be in Birmingham, including seniors who will get the opportunity to play one more game after wearing the Black and Gold for the last four of five years. Doing the right thing by embracing competition and providing seniors with a chance to play another college football game was a key factor in accepting the bowl bid.
That opportunity is meaningful for seniors such as tight end
David Larkins, a fifth-year Mountaineer who posted career highs for catches and yards during the Senior Day loss against Arkansas State on Nov. 29, and edge defender
Kevin Abrams-Verwayne, a seventh-year collegiate player who ended his fourth season in Kidd Brewer Stadium with career highs for tackles and sacks.
Other seniors have made their marks on record books and national rankings, with receiver
Dalton Stroman on pace to have the highest yards-per-catch average in school history with one game left and cornerback
Ethan Johnson being tied for second in the nation this season with his 13 pass breakups.
They'll get to suit up more one time, along with fifth-year Mountaineers such as
Kyle Arnholt,
Jayden Ramsey and
Jordan Favors. Stroman, after all, made his App State debut with a catch in the 2021 Boca Raton Bowl as a true freshman in a group with then-seniors Thomas Hennigan, Malik Williams and Jalen Virgil, and Ramsey's debut on Sept. 18, 2021 against Elon is the most distant game appearance by a current Mountaineer.
Given that Georgia Southern secured bowl eligibility with a Nov. 29 win that capped a 3-1 month, the Eagles are expected to have their full roster or something close to that available for the bowl game. Despite entering the Nov. 6 game in Boone with one of the nation's lowest-ranked rushing defenses, they built a 19-0 lead and held App State to 77 rushing yards. JC French IV threw for 352 yards, including a 47-yard touchdown in the opening minute.
Of App State's six Sun Belt losses, four were by a combined 15 points, and the Georgia Southern game was one of three losses by three points or less. In the other two, the Mountaineers held a three-point lead with a chance to push the margin to two scores with a close-range touchdown, but they had to settle for a short field goal before falling behind by a point in the closing minutes.
App State now has an opportunity Monday to end its season on a high note.
