East Division Showdown
Another week, and another pivotal game at the top of the Sun Belt Conference’s East Division.
This time it’s unbeaten Troy (5-0) putting that mark on the line at Georgia Southern (4-1), who along with Appalachian State is only one game behind the Trojans in what shapes up as an intense race to the finish and to the berth in the Sun Belt’s inaugural championship game Dec. 1.
The race is so close that even a Troy win won’t lock things up, since the Trojans also travel to face App State in their Nov. 24 regular season finale.
“This is the third year in a row we’ve been in the thick of things,” said Troy coach Neal Brown. “We control our destiny, but in this league it’s definitely a week-to-week deal. Our margin of error is pretty small. If we’re not playing with an edge and we’re not locked in, we’re susceptible to getting beat by anybody.
“If we’re locked in and playing the right way, we’re a tough out. But we really have to be locked in against a team like Georgia Southern, and we have to play our best to have an opportunity to win.”
The Trojans will also be facing an Eagle team that was looking to go into Saturday’s key clash unbeaten in league play, and instead ran into a buzz saw in ULM’s Warhawks over the past weekend. ULM, now in sole possession of first place in the West Division at 3-2, scored early in both halves and jumped to a 20-0 lead in the game’s first 16 minutes.
“I can’t say that enough how important that was,” said ULM coach Matt Viator of the early advantage. “The only success any of my teams has ever had against option teams has been to get ahead. They (Georgia Southern) limits your possessions with their offense, and if you get behind you’re then under pressure when you get the ball back. We scored, they missed a field goal and we scored on the very next play. That was really important for us.
“We got a three-and-out to start the second half and then went down and scored.”
The Eagles had won five straight including four in a row in the Sun Belt, and had wins over both the preseason East and West favorites in App State and Arkansas State.
“Obviously we’re disappointed, but we have to stick with the process,” said Georgia Southern coach Chad Lunsford. “With our identity on offense and what we do, we want to get control early. I do think we have the ability to come back, we’d shown that against New Mexico State, but in a perfect world we’re getting the run game going and controlling the pace and how much our opponent has the ball, and on defense making sure we keep everything in front of us and not giving up anything cheap. We got out of what we do.”
Lunsford’s team is playing its final regular-season home game Saturday, and will be looking for his team to get back to the consistency that had the Eagles garnering 62 votes in last week’s Associated Press poll.
“We can’t let that linger,” he said. “If we do, it’s going to affect us. We have to do a tremendous job with corrections and make sure we understand that we can’t make the same mistakes again.”
Troy won for the seventh time in eight games and took its fifth straight league win, extending its current streak to 11 straight Sun Belt victories which is the nation’s second-longest. But its 26-16 win over Louisiana didn’t come easy, Brown said.
“We had a quality win over a really improving team,” he said. “We were able to get off to a quick start. They made a run at us late. I thought defensively we played our best game of the season so far, holding the number one offensive team in the league to three yards per rush and creating three takeaways.”
The Trojans held the Ragin’ Cajuns to 270 offensive yards, only 105 of them in the first half when Troy jumped to a 23-3 lead. But wide receiver Damion Willis grabbed the headlines away from Troy’s defense with a 10-reception, 213-yard game that included a 75-yard first-quarter touchdown. His yardage total was the most in the Sun Belt this year and the fifth-most in league history even though Sawyer Smith was making only his second start in replacing injured Kaleb Barker at quarterback.
“Any time you have injuries, sometimes it’s the guy in that position that has to step up, and sometimes it’s the guys around him,” Brown said. “Since Kaleb went down he (Willis) has stepped up his game. The last two games he’s been tough to defend and he’s gotten us going. He played unbelievable. That’s as good as any game at wide receiver of any I’ve coached in 14 years.”
Bouncing Back
Appalachian State kept pace in the East, coming back from a disappointing loss to Georgia Southern one week earlier that knocked them out of the AP Top 25. The Mountaineers put up a strong defensive effort in taking a 23-7 road win at Coastal Carolina.
App State (4-1) held the Chanticleers’ running game to 72 yards, and to only 178 total offensive yards. Coastal’s only touchdown came on a 60-yard interception return by Derambez Drinkard late in the first quarter, one that deflected off a Mountaineer receiver’s helmet.
“Our guys did a good job of staying in gaps, playing our responsibility and not trying to do someone else’s job,” said Mountaineer coach Scott Satterfield. “Our guys had a businesslike approach in getting back to work. I have great respect for what Coastal does running the ball, they grind it out and do a great job of putting pressure on defenses.”
“They shut down our offense,” said Coastal coach Joe Moglia, whose team had won two in a row. “We had trouble moving the ball across the board. When you look at App, we look at a team that’s very well coached, has good depth and does a good job with overall execution and discipline. We didn’t do great there and I hope we learned something.”
App State linebacker Jordan Fehr had three sacks and forced a safety along with eight tackles in earning league Defensive Player of the Week honors.
“If everyone plays their responsibility, that frees up our linebackers, in particular Jordan, to get some pressure on the quarterback,” Satterfield said. “He’s very athletic and very smart, he’s the quarterback for our defense and makes all the calls.”
Darrynton Evans rushed for 159 yards as Appalachian State had two 100-yard rushers for the second time this season (Marcus Williams Jr. added 103). That meant that quarterback Jacob Huesman, taking over for injured starter Zac Thomas, had less pressure in becoming the first Mountaineer quarterback to win his first career start since Jamal Jackson against The Citadel in 2001.
“I thought he played solid with the way we came out,” Satterfield said. “He made some big plays in the running game pitching on the option. We wanted to go in and run the ball and establish that and we were able to hold it for 36 minutes and keep it away from their offense. He also had a big pass to Corey Sutton (a 33-yard touchdown just before halftime). It’s hard in a first start to come out and do that.”
Playing the alma mater
Appalachian State travels Saturday to face Texas State, a game that provides memories and just a hint of nostalgia for Bobcat head coach and App State graduate Everett Withers.
“Obviously I have a lot of memories there,” said Withers, whose team captured its second straight win with a 40-31 road victory at Georgia State Saturday. “I’m very proud of what the program’s done there. But as a competitor, I want to win the game. We were so close last year, I believe that was a game that could have turned our program around if we win that one. We played well against them last year and really competed, so we have some unfinished business.”
Texas State lost 20-13 to the Mountaineers last year, and Withers is hoping the road conference win over the Panthers and the previous week’s victory over New Mexico State will give his team a boost going into a season-ending gauntlet that includes App State, Troy and Arkansas State.
“Our kids know that maybe the three best teams traditionally in our league are at the end of our schedule,” he said. “We knew that from day one, it’s not something I have to alert them to. We wind up our season with five straight bowl teams, and we’re 2-0 against that group right now.”
Still in the hunt
Arkansas State came back from a stretch of three Sun Belt losses in four games in its 38-14 victory over South Alabama Saturday, and that win kept the Red Wolves in the West Division race despite the recent setbacks.
The win also put A-State one win away from bowl eligibility for the eighth straight season. The Red Wolves have played in seven consecutive bowls, the Sun Belt’s longest such streak.
“We were able to get back in the win column and get on the right track,” said Red Wolves coach Blake Anderson. “We’ve given ourselves a chance at another bowl season and a chance to wiggle back in the conference championship race.”
The Red Wolves play two of their final three games on the road, including this weekend’s game at Coastal Carolina, and will host West Division leader ULM in between in a Nov. 17 home finale.
A-State quarterback Justice Hansen threw for 332 yards and three touchdowns in leading the Red Wolves to 509 offensive yards, and Justin McInnis had 177 receiving yards on only seven catches. Hansen also ran for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to provide a 38-7 lead.
A-State led only 14-7 at halftime and dodged a bullet when a Jaguar kickoff return for a touchdown was negated by a holding penalty.
“We had a chance to tie it up at halftime with that big kickoff return,” said USA coach Steve Campbell. “That would have given us a lot of momentum. In the second half, we couldn’t get it going offensively. Our defense gave us some extra chances, but we couldn’t muster enough on offense.
“Third downs really hurt us. We wound up three of 15 or something like that. We’ve got to be able to manufacture some kind of passing game.”
The Jaguars will be trying to break that streak when they host West leader ULM Saturday.
“That’s a very explosive offensive team we’re facing,” Campbell said. “The last couple of weeks they’ve played well defensively. They may be the hottest team in the league right now.”