No football team in the Sun Belt Conference has experienced more recent success than No. 20 Appalachian State. The 48 wins over the last four seasons include a perfect 4-0 record in bowl games and a victory in the inaugural conference championship game played last season.
 
But, the game for which Appalachian State is best known for came in the opening week of the 2007 season. Back then, the Mountaineers played in the Football Championship Subdivision and had won the last two national championships at that level. They began the season with a game at Michigan, which had the No. 5 ranking in the national Associated Press Top 25 poll.
 
That set the stage for one of the more memorable and stunning upsets in college football history.
With college football celebrating 150 years of history in 2019, the Sun Belt is taking a look back at the history of the conference’s 10 football-playing schools.
 
With a football history that dates to 1928, Appalachian State has won 623 games and 21 conference championships, giving the school a conference title in roughly one of every four seasons it has played. That’s a rate of success new head coach Eliah Drinkwitz would like to continue in his first season at Appalachian State.
 
“Whether it’s the Southern Conference or whether it’s the Sun Belt, it’s been a program that will compete for championships year in and year out,” Drinkwitz said at Sun Belt Football Media Day. “That’s something that needs to continue.”
 
Some recent successes for Appalachian State include the three Sun Belt titles won in the five seasons since the school moved up to the Football Bowl Subdivision level and joined the Sun Belt for the 2014 season. The Mountaineers hold a 55-16 overall record since then, and a 21-2 mark in league games played at home in Kidd Brewer Stadium, which seats 30,000 and is tucked between the Blue Ridge Mountain peaks rising all around it.
 
Before then, the school’s greatest run of success came in the mid-2000s, when the football team won three consecutive FCS national championships from 2005- 07. College Football Hall of Fame inductee Jerry Moore coached those championship teams. In his 24 seasons at the school, Appalachian State also won 10 conference championships as his teams compiled a record of 215-87.
 
Most memorable among those wins is the 34-32 upset at fifth-ranked Michigan, which marked the first time an FCS-level school won against a Top-25 ranked FBS school.
 
The Mountaineers held a 24-14 lead late in the first half, but after a Michigan rally, Appalachian State regained the lead when Julian Rauch made a 24-yard field goal with 26 seconds remaining. Then, with Michigan quickly in field goal range after a 46-yard pass, Appalachian State’s Corey Lynch came around the right end for the block of a 37-yard attempt as time expired for the unexpected win.
 
That victory gave Appalachian State much of the recognition it still has to this day.
“Everyone you come in contact with and you say, ‘App State,’ they say, ‘Oh, that’s the team that beat Michigan,’” redshirt junior quarterback Zac Thomas said. “That will be something that always goes down in history. Everybody remembers App State beating Michigan that year.”
 
It is something the program continues to embrace. Inside a trophy case at the school are photos of Coach Moore and quarterback Armanti Edwards from that season. Also in the trophy case is a Sports Illustrated with Dexter Jackson of Appalachian State on the cover after his two touchdowns in that game.
 
Recently, Drinkwitz had Lynch talk with his team about that famous field goal block. Lynch also spoke about his experience playing six seasons in the National Football League.
 
“He told us about how hard they worked,” senior defensive back Josh Thomas said. “Even though they won the National Championship, it didn’t matter. They had to keep working, to keep getting better. Practice how you want to play.
 
“As he told us, he blocked that kick a thousand times already in practice, so when it came to the game, it was easy.”
 
Former Appalachian State offensive line coach Shawn Elliott said at Media Day how the team put a focus that offseason on beating Michigan.
 
“We just told our guys, ‘Let’s do something that’s never been done before,’” said Elliott, now the head coach at Georgia State. “We billed it almost like a championship game.”
 
That victory and the subsequent FCS National Championship that season helped make Appalachian State an attractive option for when the Sun Belt sought other schools to join its ranks.
 
Since joining the Sun Belt, Appalachian State became the first school in college football history to immediately earn four consecutive bowl berths and win all four. Also, the school’s 48 wins and counting over the last five seasons are the most among all Group of Five conference teams.
 
Appalachian State has drawn more notice this season by defeating North Carolina 34-31, on a blocked field goal, no less, and by receiving current rankings of 20^th in both the Associated Press and Amway Coaches Top 25 polls – the highest NCAA FBS rankings in school and Sun Belt history.
 
“I feel like we’re trying to write our own history,” Josh Thomas said. “We have a lot to prove for this team and this season. We’re going to keep building on that history.”