App State Football: Georgia Southern ruins Mountaineers’ time in Top 25
By Zach Bigalke
App State football entered Week 9 with its first AP Top 25 visit. They won’t be ranked long, as Georgia Southern trounced the Mountaineers on Thursday night.
Georgia Southern rolled up a convincing 34-14 win over No. 25 Appalachian State on Thursday night in Statesboro, ruining the Mountaineers’ time in the AP Top 25 and ruining their chances of landing in the College Football Playoff selection committee’s rankings when they release the first Top 25 list on October 30. In the process, the Eagles also snagged a critical Sun Belt victory to keep pace with Troy in the East Division race.
The Eagles entered the game with the nation’s best turnover margin, and they padded that stat further en route to the blowout. A run-dominant triple option offense engineered another giveaway-free game, as the most disciplined offense in the FBS kept the ball moving and out of Appalachian State’s hands.
More critically, though, the Eagles defense snatched four interceptions off Appalachian State. The Mountaineers struggled to pass the ball due to a combination of precipitation and the early exit of starter Zac Thomas after taking a big hit in the first quarter. Once the Mountaineers were forced to turn to their second- and third-string quarterbacks, Georgia Southern tormented inexperienced passers Peyton Derrick and Jacob Huesman. Each quarterback threw two picks.
As a result, Appalachian State will fall right back out of the polls. This was hardly unprecedented. The last time that the Sun Belt earned a spot in the AP Top 25, Troy followed up their landmark takedown of LSU in 2017 with a dud of a showing against South Alabama in a 19-8 loss on Thursday night. After lasting only a fortnight in the rankings thanks to a bye, the Trojans fell right back out of the poll and never came back.
The same will almost certainly hold true for Appalachian State. Yes, there were plenty of mitigating factors as Satterfield was forced to shuffle through his quarterback depth chart after the injury to Thomas. But that will be of little consequence for a team that already had one loss on its record.
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Now the question comes down to whether the Eagles will have a shot at clawing up the rankings. Georgia Southern’s only loss remains a 38-7 defeat on the road against No. 2 Clemson, and Chad Lunsford’s team looks like the new dark-horse to fight for a New Year’s Six spot out of the Sun Belt.