App State football locks up spot in Sun Belt championship game

Appalachian State football played its way onto the Sun Belt Conference’s biggest stage with Saturday’s 55-27 romp over Georgia Southern.

The Mountaineers (8-4, 6-2) will travel to Troy (10-2, 7-1) this Saturday, Dec. 2, for the 2023 Hercules Tires Sun Belt Football Championship. The contest at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Troy, Ala., will start at 4 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN.

App State is no stranger to the Sun Belt finale. This will be the sixth year the conference has held a title game in football. ASU will be making its fourth appearance, tied with Louisiana for the most. Troy hosted last year’s game as well, beating Coastal Carolina 45-26. ASU won the championship game in 2018 and 2019 over Louisiana and lost to the Ragin’ Cajuns in 2021.

This year’s Mountaineer team fell toward the back of the Sun Belt East after losses to Coastal Carolina and Old Dominion in October. Those setbacks put App State at 3-4 overall and 1-2 in league play.

But coach Shawn Clark’s resilient bunch got on a tear and won its last five games, starting with a 48-38 triumph over Southern Miss. The next week, ASU blitzed Marshall 31-9, then closed with wins over Georgia State (42-14), James Madison (26-23 in overtime) and Saturday’s senior day victory over long-time rival Georgia Southern.

“Our kids kept believing in one another,” Clark said in a story at AppStateSports.com. “When you believe in the Black and Gold and bleed it every since day, good things will happen.”

While James Madison finished with a better conference record in the East Division (7-1), the Dukes are not eligible for the post-season this year. That stems from an NCAA rule that prohibits schools who have just transitioned up to FBS from a lower division to compete for conference titles and bowl games during the early transition process.

JMU appealed that rule but was denied by the NCAA a few weeks ago. The Dukes’ loss on the legal front is the Mountaineers’ gain.

Some more news and notes on Appalachian State as the team prepares to play football this coming weekend:

* Appalachian State did not play Troy in the regular season. The Mountaineers beat the Trojans on a Hail Mary pass in week three of the 2022 season. ESPN College GameDay was in Boone that day.

App State has been a darling in College GameDay action in recent years. The ESPN crew was at James Madison a few weeks ago when ASU handed the Dukes their first defeat of the season.

* This is the second time in three years and the third since 2014 that App State has closed a season on at least a five-game winning streak. The 2021 team won its final six games of the regular season to finish 10-2. The 2014 team went from 1-5 to 7-5.

* The Mountaineers retired the jersey for former star Armanti Edwards during Saturday’s win over Georgia Southern. An announced crowd of 31,248 was on hand for the game and halftime ceremony, a school-record attendance number for a post-Thanksgiving home game. ASU averaged 34,734 fans per game this season at The Rock, breaking its own school record and setting a new standard for the third year in a row in the Sun Belt.

* Appalachian State is 25-1 in the past 26 Senior Day games at Kidd Brewer Stadium. The Mountaineers are now 53-10 in home games as an FBS team (since 2014). They are now 65-18 against Sun Belt opponents since joining the league in 2014.

* App State now has 87 total wins since 2015, the sixth-most in the FBS behind heavyweights Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State and Oklahoma.

* Joey Aguilar came into the season as the Mountaineers’ backup quarterback. But an injury to starter Ryan Burger in the opener against Gardner-Webb thrust Aguilar into action.

He seized the role, and his four TD passes on Saturday against Georgia Southern gave him the school’s new single-season record for most touchdowns with 33.

Two of Aguilar’s TD throws went to Kaedin Robinson, who finished with eight receptions and 108 yards. Christian Horn and Eli Wilson caught the other two scoring passes. Aguilar finished 23-of-36 for 296 yards.

* Appalachian State fell behind Georgia Southern 14-3 in the first quarter. But the Mountaineers responded with a 38-3 run over a 16-minute span and led 41-17 midway through the third period.

Georgia Southern did get a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by DeAndre Buchannon, but it was too little, too late. App State led 48-24 after the play and tacked on another touchdown when Maquel Haywood found the end zone on a 27-yard run.

* Appalachian State earned 20 points off Georgia Southern turnovers. Tyrek Funderburk picked off two passes. Jordan Favors also had an interception. Trevor Moffitt recovered a fumble.

* Kanye Roberts gave App State a 100-yard rusher. He finished with 109 yards on the ground and a touchdown in 14 carries, averaging 7.8 yards per attempt. Anderson Castle added 63 yards on six totes, while Haywood finished with 61 yards on six carries.

* Michael Hughes booted a pair of field goals and made all seven PAT attempts.

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Appalachian State 2023 Football Schedule/Results