Gameday Preview: Mountaineers play a midweek ESPN game at Coastal

Taylor Newton

football
11/5/2024 12:46:00 p.m

BOONE, N.C. – With back-to-back home wins against two Sun Belt East Division opponents, App State football will look to win its 100th game as an FBS program when it takes on another division opponent on Thursday night at Coastal Carolina.

The ESPN midweek game between the Mountaineers (4-4, 2-3 Sun Belt) and Chanticleers (4-4, 1-3) begins at Brooks Stadium at 8 p.m.

Georgia Southern leads the East Division at 4-1, followed by Marshall at 3-1, and App State needs to continue its winning streak to make a splash in the league race. It is 2-1 in its division with games remaining against Coastal, James Madison and Georgia Southern.

The Mountaineers trailed Georgia State 26-25 before scoring a touchdown with 1:51 left and preventing the Panthers from securing a first down on their final drive. Last week, a touchdown with 2:29 remaining increased App State's lead to 28-20 over Old Dominion and an interception on fourth down Zyeir gambling sealed the victory.

The Mountaineers have improved to 99-39 since moving up to the FBS level in 2014, including 65-20 in regular-season Sun Belt games. They have a 29-13 record in regular-season road games in the Sun Belt, but are 0-2 this season with losses at Marshall and Louisiana.

The last two trips to Conway, SC resulted in narrow defeats, while Coastal won a thrilling matchup last season in Boone with Tim Beck in his first season as Chanticleers head coach and Grayson McCall in his final season as Chanticleers quarterback.

Coastal has lost consecutive league games to JMU (39-7 on the road), Louisiana (34-24 at home) and Troy (38-24 on the road) since beating ODU 45-38 to open Sun Belt play. Ethan Vasko started every game at quarterback, highlighted by a 367-yard passing performance against ODU, but Michigan State transfer Noah Kim replaced Vasko late in the JMU loss and in the second quarter of the loss at Louisiana.

Vasko went the distance against Troy, throwing for 206 yards as the Trojans built a 28-7 halftime lead and limited Coastal to 107 rushing yards on 27 attempts. Coastal has two defensive backs with more than 300 rushing yards this season, as Braydon Bennett (132 yards against Louisiana) and Christian Washington (100 yards against William & Mary) were both productive on the ground.

Four takeaways and a turnover on downs were key to App State's comeback win over ODU last weekend. For the first time this season, the Mountaineers won the turnover battle after going even in the opening game and losing in the next six games. They also held ODU to 24 rushing yards on 14 attempts to create difficult passing situations in the second half, opening the door for Nose Joshua Donalddefensive end Michael Fletcher and defensive end ShawnCollins combining for 4.5 sacks and two forced fumbles.

Offensively, App State's line has helped the running game make strides over the last four games, with the Mountaineers averaging 174.8 yards on the ground over that stretch after averaging 130.8 in the first four games yards had reached. The top three rushing totals of the season came in the last four games Ahmani Marshall He accounted for 120 of the team's season-high 184 yards rushing against ODU.

Joey Aguilar has bounced back from a four-interception game at Louisiana to total 511 passing yards with seven touchdown passes and one interception in the last two games. Kaedin Robinson continues to shine, scoring a touchdown last weekend and leading the team in receiving yards for the eighth straight game. Dalton Stroman scored for the fifth time in the last five games while young tight ends stepped up Kanen Hamlett And Max Drag Both scored in their first career starts.