SoCon Football 2012: No.8 Appalachian State Hosts No.21 The Citadel Saturday

No. 21 The Citadel (2-0, 1-0 SoCon) at  No.8 Appalachian State (1-1, 0-0 SoCon)

Preview:

Appalachian State and The Citadel will clash in the Southern Conference Game of the Week, as the Bulldogs head to the High Country sporting their first national ranking since the 2008 season.

Both ASU and The Citadel are coming off wins over ranked foes, with the Mountaineers posting a 35-27 win over No. 12 Montana last week, while the Bulldogs were busy dispatching the third-ranked team in FCS football, with a 23-21 win over Georgia Southern in Charleston to open up Southern Conference play.

The win was a monumental one for the Bulldogs, who notched their first win over a Top 5 ranked FCS foe since getting a 20-3 over top-ranked Marshall in 1988. The Bulldogs were picked to finish eighth in the SoCon in the preseason by the league’s coaches and media, but have shown at least early on that they will be a factor in the Southern Conference race this fall.

Appalachian State, on the other hand, looked nearly unstoppable offensively in its win over Montana last Saturday. The Mountaineers enter Saturday’s matchup with Bulldogs ranking 28th nationally in total offense (418.0 YPG), 16th in pass offense (280.0 YPG), 59th in rushing offense (135.0 YPG) and 54th in scoring offense (24.0 PPG).

Leading that big-play attack this season for the Mountaineers is Jamal Jackson (47-of-74 passing, 560 yds, 2 TDs, INT/23 rush att, 99 yds, 2 TDs), who is in his second season as the starting signal-caller for the Black and Gold, and continues to not only prove why he is the best quarterback in the Southern Conference, but also one of the best in the nation.

Jackson’s first start for the Mountaineers in the spread offense came last season against the Bulldogs, as he started the contest for an injured DeAndre Presley, completing 15-straight passes and hasn’t looked back, never relinquishing the starting job. In all nine starts he has as the ASU starting signal-caller, Jackson has amassed 250 or more yards of total offense in every start.

Jackson has plenty of targets when going to the air, but the top three big-play threats when the Apps go to the air will be Sean Price (8 rec, 103 yds, 1 TD, 12.9 YPR) and preseason All-SoCon honorees Andrew Peacock (10 rec, 134 yds, 1 TD, 13.4 YPR) and Tony Washington (9 rec, 124 yds, 13.8 YPR).

Price was sensational in his first collegiate start for the Mountaineers last week, proving he could be a deep threat just like his predecessor Brian Quick, as he got the Mountaineers on the board for the first time on the evening, with a 32-yard scoring catch with about nine minutes remaining in the opening quarter.

The running game is led by Steven Miller (41 rush att, 138 yds, 2 TDs, 3.4 YPC/2 rec, 12 yds) and Michael Frazier (2 att, 8 yds, 4.0 YPC). Miller has had to shoulder much of the rushing load this season with an injury to Rod Chisholm in the opener, which will sideline him for the better part of the next month.

Miller showed he could get the tough yards in last week’s win over the Grizzlies, rushing for 99 yards and a pair of TDs on 27 carries to power the ASU ground attack.  Like Jackson, Miller introduced himself onto the scene for the Mountaineers against the Bulldogs, rushing for a career-high 102 yards and a pair of scores in ASU’s 49-42 road win.

Another option in the running game that could play a role on Saturday is junior Michael Frazier (2 att, 8 yds, 4.0 YPC), who is a powerful and is particularly beneficial in short-yardage situations. Frazier’s two carries against the Grizzlies last Saturday were the first of his career, as he originally began his career as a defensive back in the Black and Gold.

The unit that has been a pleasant surprise this fall has been the play of the ASU offensive line. An inexperienced, much-maligned unit last season, the unit has clearly shown leadership and growth through the first two weeks under the direction of first-year coach Dwayne Ledford.

The ASU front has allowed only one sack on 74 pass attempts through the first couple of weeks of the campaign, while also paving the way for 276 yards and four TDs on the ground through the first couple of weeks.

ASU’s explosiveness on offense, however, still reminds most ASU fans of the ‘04 and ‘05 units, which relied a bit more on the pass than the ground game, whereas the 2006-09 units were much more balanced.

Coming into the season, ASU’s five starters along the offensive line—Regan Dufort (RT), Kendall Lamm (LT), Graham Fisher (C), Shaq Counts (LG) and Alex Acey (RG) had made a combined seven starts.

The Citadel always seems to field one of the top defensive units in the Southern Conference each season and 2012 looks like it won’t be any different judging by the first two performances from the Bulldogs in 2012.

Entering Saturday afternoon’s contest against the Mountaineers, The Citadel’s defense ranks 42nd nationally in total defense (313.5 YPG), 38th in scoring defense (17.5 PPG), third in pass defense (73.0 YPG), 89th in rush defense (240.5 YPG) and 19th in turnover margin (+1.00).

The Citadel defense, which have their numbers skewed a bit having faced one of the top ground attacks in the nation in Georgia Southern last Saturday, held the Eagles to just 72 yards on the ground in the second half of Saturday night’s victory. The Bulldogs’ defense is extremely young at linebacker and at a couple of positions in the secondary.

The strength of the defense, as is usually the case with The Citadel, is the defensive line. Anchoring that unit for Higgins’ Bulldogs this season has been Chris Billingslea (13 tackles, 1.0 sack, 1.0 TFL, 1 FF, 2 PBUs). Billingslea will be asked to anchor the defensive front until the return of Derek Douglas at mid-season, as he recovers from an ACL tear he suffered in spring drills.

Watch out for Rah Muhammad at (22 tackles, 1.5 TFL, 1 FF), linebacker, who is in his first season as a starter at linebacker for the Bulldogs, and he has proven to be one of the best young players on this Bulldog defense. In the 23-21 win over Georgia Southern, Muhammad was sensational, as he posted 16 tackles, including 13 solo stops, a TFL and forced a fumble.

Gone are Jeremy Buncumb and Joseph Boateng from the Bulldogs’ secondary, but experience returns in the form of cornerback Brandon McCladdie (7 tackles, 1.0 TFL) and hard-hitting safety Austin Boyle (5 tackles, 1.0 TFL, 1 INT).

The Bulldogs have had a couple of new starters in the secondary this season, as well, as Sadath-Jean Pierre (7 tackles) will start at the other cornerback position opposite McCladdie, while Nick Willis (8 tackles, 1 FF, 1 FR) will join Boyle at safety.

The ASU defense has performed a bit below expectations so far this season, but that is understandable in some respects considering the Mountaineers’ first two opponents were East Carolina and Montana.

Coming into Saturday afternoon’s showdown at The Rock, Appalachian State brings a defense into the matchup that ranks 82nd nationally in pass defense (436.5 YPG), 66th in scoring defense (31.0 PPG), 98th in pass defense (274.5 YPG), and 63rd in rush defense (162.0 YPG). Appalachian State operates out of a 3-4 defensive scheme, with the strength of this defense being its linebacking corps.

The strength of this defense is its talented quartet of linebackers, which features a pair of All-Americans, in inside linebackers Jeremy Kimbrough (27 tackles, 2.0 TFL) and Brandon Grier (22 tackles, 3.0 TFL, 2.0 sacks, 1 FF).

Kimbrough, who entered the season as a member of the Buck Buchanan Award watch list, has lived up to that preseason hype and currently leads the SoCon in tackles coming into this weekend’s contest.

Kimbrough is among the most physical linebackers in the SoCon. In last season’s road win against the Bulldogs, Kimbrough led the Mountaineer defense with 11 tackles.

Teaming with Kimbrough in the middle of that ASU defense will be Grier, who is also off to a strong start to the 2012 season and is showing why he is a preseason All-SoCon selection. Grier currently ranks tied for third in the SoCon in total tackles, with 22 stops on the campaign.

Grier is another linebacker that is a tremendous athlete, and runs well from sideline-to-sideline. In last week’s win over Montana, Grier tied a career high with three tackles-for-loss. He had a monster game with 13 tackles, 3.0 TFL and recorded the Mountaineers’ only two sacks of the evening.

Two freshmen and a sophomore will start along the defensive line, which is easily the youngest unit on the defensive side of the ball for the Black and Gold.

Leading the unit this fall and the lone returning starter on the defensive line is Ronald Blair (7 tackles, 1.0 TFL, 1 FR, 2 QBHs), who garnered SoCon All-Freshman honors last season.

Blair is the best pass-rushing down lineman for the Mountaineers and he had 3.5 sacks last season, but is still in search of his first sack this season. Blair has played well in big games in his career, as evidenced by his eight tackles and two tackles-for-loss in last season’s 24-17 win over top-ranked Georgia Southern at The Rock.

Over the past five years, ASU’s secondary has been among the best in the nation year-in and year-out, and since 2008, the Mountaineers have picked off more passes (72) than any other school in the SoCon.

With All-Americans in the unit seemingly every season in the secondary, with players like Corey Lynch (2003-07), Mark LeGree (2004-08) and now Demetrius McCray, the Mountaineers have had more success in the secondary on defense than any other position since winning their first of three national titles in 2005.

Demetrius McCray (6 tackles, 2 INTs) came up big once again in a big game from his cornerback position, picking off a pair of passes against Montana last week. One of his INTs led directly to an ASU scoring drive and the other effectively ended Montana’s hopes of driving down and getting the potential game-tying score.

McCray comes into the contest with eight-career INTs, including five INTs last season to become the first CB to lead ASU in INTs since Mark Mayo in 1991.

One of McCray’s league leading five picks last fall came against Georgia Southern, and four of his five INTs last fall came against teams that run the triple option offense. Like his LB teammate, McCray is a part of the preseason Buck Buchanan Award watch list.

The Mountaineers are strong at safety as well, returning All-SoCon strong safety Troy Sanders (15 tackles, 1.5 TFL, 1 INT). Sanders is the most experienced player on the ASU defense, having played in 41 career games, including having made 27-consecutive starts at safety.

The Citadel enters with an offense in its third season of operation, as the Bulldogs utilize a triple-option look similar to SoCon schools Georgia Southern and Wofford.

Coming into Saturday’s contest at The Rock, the Bulldogs rank 20th nationally in scoring offense (36.0 PPG), 39th in total offense (390.0 YPG), 5th in rushing offense (323.5 YPG) and 110th in passing offense (66.5 YPG).

The Bulldogs will call upon the services of two signal-callers in Boone on Saturday, with both Aaron Miller (7-of-11 passing, 107 yds/14 rush att, 33 yds, 2.4 YPC) and Ben Dupree (1-of-4 passing, 26 yds, 1 TD/34 rush att, 169 yds, 2 TDs, 5.0 YPC) having once again effectively led the Bulldogs’ offense this season.

Dupree, a senior, will start and get a majority of the snaps on Saturday against the Mountaineers.  His experienced leadership has proven to be vital to The Citadel’s offense this season.

Dupree recorded his first TD pass in two years in last week’s win over Georgia Southern, which was his only completion og the afternoon-a 26-yard strike to wideout Domonic Jones.  But Dupree is more of a threat on the ground, as his 169 yards rushing for the Bulldogs this season leads the club. Dupree was impressive rushing the ball on Saturday, leading the Bulldogs with 92 yards on 17 attempts.

Certainly their are plenty of rushing options for the Bulldogs entering Saturday’s matchup, including slotbacks Rickey Anderson (14 rush att, 110 yds, 4 TDs, 7.9 YPC) and Van Dyke Jones (8 rush att, 48 yds, 6.0 YPC/1 rec, 26 yds) , who are threats on the edge on option pitches, as well as being receiving threats coming out of the backfield.

Fullback Darien Robinson (16 rush att, 128 yds, 1 TD, 8.0 YPC), who is the Bulldogs’ second-leading rusher heading into Saturday’s SoCon showdown, is maybe the best ground option.

Robinson is a big, powerful runner for the Bulldogs, and he had a solid performance against the Mountaineers last season, rushing for 109 yards and a score. Against Georgia Southern last week, however, Robinson was held to just eight yards on four carries.

The Bulldogs have attempted just 15 passes in two games so far this season, however, when the Bulldogs do decide to take to the air, they will look to converted quarterback Matt Thompson (1 rec, 5 yds), as well as veterans Domonic Jones (2 rec, 38 yds, 1 TD, 19.0 YPR) and Greg Adams (2 rec, 28 yds, 14.0 YPR).

Both Jones and Adams are physical blockers on the perimeter, and the blocking by the receivers was cited by head coach Kevin Higgins in his weekly press conference this past Tuesday.

Perhaps the strength of this Bulldogs’ offense heading into Saturday’s Top 25 matchup is the offensive line, which returned four starters from a year ago.

Anchoring the unit this fall has been All-SoCon center Mike Sellers. Sellers will line up alongside Jim Knowles (RG), Keith Carter (G), Cullen Brown (RT), and Devin Bice (LT) as starters along the offensive line on Saturday against the Apps.

Final Prediction: Appalachian State has nine-straight over the Bulldogs in Boone by an average score of 41-17, so needless to say that Kidd Brewer Stadium has not been kind to the Bulldogs since that 25-0 win back in 1992. The Bulldogs haven’t claimed two wins over Top 10 in a single season since 1991, but on the heels of that monumental win over Georgia Southern last week, the Bulldogs have to feel confident. One of those players that proved he had ice in his veins last week was freshman walk-on kicker Thomas Warren, who booted through the game-winning 37-yard field goal for the Bulldogs to apparently erase what have been a couple of woeful seasons in the special teams department. But will this game come down to a made field goal either way given the past dominance by the Mountaineers on their home turf. It likely won’t, however, it would not surprise me, but I am taking Appalachian State in a game that will show The Citadel is ready to be a major player once again in the Southern Conference race.

Appalachian State 31, The Citadel 24