Courtesy Sun Belt Sports | SunBeltSports.org
NEW ORLEANS — App State (8-4, 6-2 SBC) is seeking its fifth all-time Sun Belt football championship in Saturday’s Hercules Tires Sun Belt Football Championship Game at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Troy, Ala. The game is set for 4 p.m. ET/3 p.m. CT and will be broadcast nationwide on ESPN.
A four-time championship game qualifier since the event’s inception in 2018, the Mountaineers will aim to become the first road victor in the contest. Home teams are 4-0 all-time in the championship game, but App State owns 35 road wins since joining the FBS in 2014—trailing only Ohio State (40), Boise State (39), Alabama (37) and Clemson (37).
An App State win over Troy (10-2, 7-1 SBC) would also make the Mountaineers the first three-time Sun Belt champion in the championship game era and would keep the Mountaineers in contention for their sixth 10-win season since joining the FBS in 2014.
Since that transition, App State is 94-34—with only Alabama (126), Clemson (118), Ohio State (115), Georgia (113) and Oklahoma (102) amassing more wins over the span. The Mountaineers will also be bowl bound for the eighth time in nine opportunities and boast a 6-1 all-time record in Bowl Season.
App State opened its season with a 45-24 win over in-state foe Gardner-Webb in front of a crowd of 36,075 fans at Kidd Brewer Stadium—and junior quarterback Joey Aguilar had a coming-out party in relief of injured starter redshirt freshman Ryan Burger. Aguilar completed 11-of-13 passes for 174 yards and four touchdowns in the win.
The Mountaineers then nearly unseated No. 17/16 North Carolina in Chapel Hill, but fell 40-34 in double-overtime. It marked App State’s eighth-straight game against an autonomy five opponent that was decided by seven points or less, including last year’s 17-14 win over No. 6/6 Texas A&M.
App State added a dominant 43-28 home win over in-state rival East Carolina, to the delight of a record-tying crowd of 40,168 at Kidd Brewer Stadium, before falling in a 22-19 heartbreaker at Wyoming to close its non-conference slate.
Head coach Shawn Clark’s team started 1-2 in Sun Belt Conference play, escaping ULM with a 41-40 victory on a career-long 54-yard field goal from junior kicker Michael Hughes as time expired. Coastal Carolina returned the favor a week later in Boone—winning 27-24 on a walk-off 24-yard field goal—and Old Dominion made it back-to-back one-possession losses—scoring the game-winning touchdown in a 28-21 victory with 48 seconds to play.
In fact, each of App State’s four losses in 2023 have been one-possession games decided in the closing seconds—by a combined 19 points.
Since a 3-4 start, the Mountaineers have rattled off a five-game winning streak to climb the Sun Belt East Division standings and earn the date with Sun Belt West Division champion Troy Saturday. Four of those victories—48-38 over Southern Miss, 31-9 over Marshall, 42-14 at Georgia State and 44-27 over Georgia Southern—have been convincing wins.
The fifth was arguably the statement win of App State’s season. The Mountaineers knocked No. 18/21-ranked James Madison from the ranks of the unbeaten following a record-setting ESPN College GameDay crowd of 26,000 in Harrisonburg.
After the Dukes erased a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit, forcing overtime, App State’s defense held James Madison to a field goal. On offense, Aguilar found redshirt junior wide receiver Kaedin Robinson on an eight-yard touchdown to seal the 26-23 overtime win. After making the third-down catch at the five-yard line, Robinson broke multiple tackles and stretched the ball into the end zone to cue the Mountaineer celebration. App State’s victory snapped the Dukes 13-game winning streak.
Aguilar broke App State’s single-season record for touchdown passes in the regular-season finale and needs 67 yards to become the Mountaineers single-season passing yards leader. The junior has completed 247-of-389 passes for 3,271 yards and 33 touchdowns this season. The only quarterbacks with more touchdown passes entering this weekend’s title games are LSU’s Jayden Daniels (40) and Oregon’s Bo Nix (37). Aguilar also ranks among the Top 25 nationally in points responsible for (9th, 210), total offense (14th, 295.1), passing yards (17th, 3,271) and passing efficiency (21st, 157.50).
Aguilar’s top targets have been Robinson—with 53 catches for 717 yards and 10 touchdowns; junior wide receiver Christan Horn—with 29 catches for 502 yards and six touchdowns; and junior tight end Eli Wilson—with 29 catches for 306 yards and five touchdowns. The running back tandem of junior Nate Noel—787 yards and five touchdowns—and redshirt freshman Kanye Roberts—595 yards and five touchdowns—have provided App State with a balanced attack.
On the defensive side of the ball, redshirt senior linebacker Andrew Parker Jr. has compiled a team-high 103 tackles and freshman linebacker Nate Johnson has tallied a team-high 8.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks. Redshirt senior cornerback Tyrek Funderburk and redshirt sophomore safety Jordan Favors each boast four interceptions on the year.
A win Saturday would secure the fifth all-time Sun Belt title for the Mountaineers—who won four-straight from 2016-19—and would be the first victory by a road team in the six-year history of the event. App State owns an 8-3 lead in the all-time series with Troy, including a 7-1 mark at the FBS level and a 4-2 record in Troy.
