Appalachian State Mountaineers: Grab a Share of Sun Belt Title
The Appalachian State Mountaineers earned a Sun Belt title after Troy lost to Georgia Southern.
At the beginning of the season this is likely where the Appalachian State Mountaineers saw themselves. There some unforeseen bumps and bruises along the way. They had Tennessee and it got away. They were destroyed by Miami at home. They also lost a game to Troy that could have wounded their chances at the Sun Belt Conference title.
No worries. Troy lost its second conference game of the year last night against App rival Georgia Southern. That left Appalachian State tied at 7-1 in conference with last year’s nemesis Arkansas State for the championship. The two did not play each other this year so they will have to share bragging rights on this one.
The Mountaineers are likely headed to the New Orleans Bowl since the Red Wolves of Arkansas State were in that bowl game last year. The New Orleans Bowl is the traditional landing spot of the Sun Belt Conference champion.
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It is possible for the conference to shuffle around its bowl eligible teams so do not be surprised if the Mountaineers end up somewhere else to maximize ticket sales for the conference. In this light both Mark Schlabach and Brett McMurphy of ESPN have them in the Cure Bowl in Orlando to play the Knights of Central Florida.
Marcus Cox may have been denied a thousand yard season by injury but he still became Appalachian State’s all-time leading rusher during a win against Louisiana-Monroe. His backup Jalin Moore showed good news for the future with a 1300 yard season and two more years to go. Taylor Lamb provided the steady hand and also has a season left to give.
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However if it was any unit that really stepped up this year it was the defense. If the defense gave up 20 points then App usually lost (except for Akron) and they were pretty good at not doing that.
Since the title boomeranged to the Mountaineers, the Troy game cannot be considered the regret of the year. That still has to go to the Tennessee game where the Mountaineers just could not figure out how to close the game and got beat by chance in overtime.