Taylor Newton

football
Oct 31, 2024 10:44 p.m

BOONE, N.C – App State football returned to the Rock last weekend and picked up its first win in the Sun Belt Conference, where there appears to be an open race in the East Division.

For the Mountaineers to be part of that conversation, they need to keep winning, starting with another home game at Kidd Brewer Stadium on Saturday against Old Dominion.

With the usual November kickoff time of 2:30 p.m., App State (3-4, 1-3) will face the Monarchs (4-4, 3-1) on Heroes Day. Armanti Edwards, the record-setting quarterback who will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in December, will also be honored at halftime with his on-campus salute from the National Football Foundation.

The Mountaineers, who went 0-2 in league play against West Division opponents, improved to 1-1 against the East Division with a 33-26 win last weekend against Georgia State. With a 3-1 league record that includes three straight wins since a 45-37 loss at Coastal Carolina, ODU is in a tie for the top spot thanks to its 47-19 loss to top-ranked Georgia Southern last Thursday moved in to the east.


The Monarchs’ 0-3 start to the season included a 23-19 loss to South Carolina, a 20-14 home loss to East Carolina and a 37-17 home loss to Virginia Tech. The loss at Coastal left them 1-4 before beating Georgia State and Texas State back-to-back on Saturdays.


Redshirt freshman Colton Joseph has started five of the last six games for ODU, including the last four. He has totaled eight touchdown passes, two interceptions and 837 passing yards (209.3 per game) in that 3-1 stretch, along with 346 rushing yards (86.5 per game) and four touchdowns.


After running for 111 yards and three touchdowns in a 24-14 win over Texas State, he totaled 373 yards with one hand and five touchdowns against Georgia Southern, which gave up four touchdown passes in the first half before allowing Joseph , to score on a 30-yard run in the third quarter of a shortened appearance that was cut short by a lopsided lead.


ODU’s spread offense puts defenses in tough situations, as Aaron Young has rushed for at least 70 yards in three games, receiver Isaiah Page has two 100-yard games and tight end Pat Conroy leads the team with three touchdown receptions, including a 56-yard score in which he ran freely down the middle of the field against Georgia Southern.


App State struggled to stop the run from dual-threat quarterbacks Gio Lopez (South Alabama) and Braylon Braxton (Marshall) in Sun Belt losses, but the defense fared better in a loss to Louisiana that came from several Short fields resulting from ball losses were capitalized on.


Georgia State moved the ball effectively in Boone, but converted only one of its eight third-down attempts against the Mountaineers, who used the pressure from the front to score three sacks.


App State has lost the turnover battle in six straight games, with five turnovers playing a big role in the loss at Louisiana and the only advantage against Georgia State turning a chance to take a two-point lead into a momentum, which left the Mountaineers trailing by one heading into the final six minutes.



Joey Aguilar and the App State offense occurred on a day when Ahmani Marshall rushed for 115 yards and Kaedin Robinson completed five passes for 121 yards. In fact, App State has had a different leading rusher in each of its last five games, with better numbers in the last two contests, while Robinson has consistently been the team’s best receiver in all seven games. His 98.0 yards per game ranks 10th nationally and first in the Sun Belt, but is still looking for his first touchdown of the season after scoring 10 a year ago.


Monarchs head coach Ricky Rahne announced in mid-October that All-America linebacker Jason Henderson would redshirt this season, which technically means he could play in three more regular-season games after only appearing in the 2024 opener Commitment came, but ODU has gotten a big boost from players like defensive back Jahron Manning (64 tackles, three interceptions, 4.0 tackles for loss) and linebacker Mario Thompson (9.5 tackles for loss, 4.0 sacks, 52 tackles). .