David Katzenmaier
football
BOONE, NC — App State football has a history of successful openers in the Sun Belt Conference and has recently seen a trend of low-hanging fruit victories.
The Mountaineers (2-1) open their league schedule Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. visiting South Alabama (1-2) at Kidd Brewer Stadium. The game will be televised by ESPN, so a national television audience will tune in as App State tries to make it 1-0 in the conference for the 10th consecutive year after suffering a losing streak in its first FBS season in 2014.
The last two openers culminated in spectacular drama, starting with Christian Horns touchdown on a 53-yard Hail Mary to cap a 32-28 win over Troy in 2022 – the same day App State hosted ESPN’s College GameDay. Last season, App State was stuck at ULM at its 19-yard line with 24 seconds left, but three consecutive Joey Aguilar Degrees to Kaedin Robinson set up Michael Hughes’ 54-yard field goal as time expired in a 41-40 win.
ESPN will be at The Rock for the first time since it was ranked 23rd on a national list of the 25 best college football stadiums. The scenery of the High Country’s changing leaves adds to the charm, as does the support of the fans.
Thirteen of the 16 largest crowds in stadium history have come since the start of 2022, and App State fans have done their part as midweek games, which have been harder to attend of late, have become more difficult to attend. The last four have drawn crowds of 34,252 (vs. Coastal Carolina on a Tuesday in 2023), 31,757 (vs. Georgia State on a Wednesday in 2022), 31,061 (vs. Coastal Carolina on a Wednesday in 2021) and 28,377 (vs. Marshall on a Thursday in 2021).
With the expansion of the Sun Belt, East Division teams will no longer face West Division opponents as often, and the Mountaineers will face South Alabama for the first time since 2021.
The Jaguars are led by Major Applewhite, the former Texas quarterback and Houston head coach who served as the Jaguars’ offensive coordinator from 2021 to 2023. After a 7-6 season in 2023, South Alabama started 0-2 with FBS losses to North Texas (52-38) and Ohio (27-20) before scoring the most points in an FBS game since 1991 with an 87-10 win over FCS-level Northwestern State last Thursday, two days before App State’s game.
Left-handed quarterback Gio Lopez, a redshirt freshman who was named the Most Valuable Player in South Alabama’s bowl victory last year, has thrown seven touchdown passes and no interceptions in two games this season. He missed the loss to Ohio with an injury but had a nearly perfect day in the win over Northwestern State.
Freshman back Fluff Bothwell has rushed for 213 yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries over the last two games, while 5-foot-8 Jamaal Pritchett has been the best receiver, catching 18 passes for 264 yards against North Texas and Ohio.
App State’s defense rebounded from a rough night at Clemson and a rocky start at East Carolina to hold the Pirates to just one field goal in the final three quarters of a 21-19 win at Greenville. Only one of ECU’s two touchdowns came from the offense, as App State’s quarterback Joey Aguilar overcame an early pick-six return and two total interceptions and threw a career-high 424 yards. Three of his receivers – Horn, Robinson and MichaelJackson – total of 323 yards with 18 pass catches.
