By Sam Smith

28-26, the Troy University Trojans are up by two on the Appalachian State Mountaineers. Two seconds left in the game, fourth down and ten. A hush falls over the forest of black and gold surrounding the field as the offense lines up for their last play. Their last chance. Quarterback Chase Brice visibly takes a calming breath before motioning number two, wide receiver Kaedin Robinson, across the formation, beginning the play. A clap, and the players spur into motion. 

App State’s Dalton Stroma (#22) and Troy’s Carloss Crawford (#17) contest each other for the ball. Photo courtesy of @appstate_fb via Instagram.

Brice drops back in the pocket, taking three shuffle steps back before shifting his weight forward and getting set to throw. He takes a sidestep to his left before heaving the ball downfield. A Hail Mary. The ball sails 53 yards before beginning to fall. Six players in white surround four players in black. Two players go up for the ball. Neither comes down with it. The ball gets tipped, falling right into the hands of wide receiver Christian Horn, who spins on a dime, sprinting through the back of the end zone and jumping into the arms of jubilant fans. 

This one-in-a-thousand kind of occurrence has become somewhat of an expectation for the fans of Appalachian State University football. Located in Boone, North Carolina, Appalachian State is a college consisting of roughly 18,000 students and 17 NCAA Division 1 sports. Their football program has been in the spotlight with several unlikely wins recently, but App State is no stranger to beating the odds.

Appalachian State at Michigan in 2007. Photo credit: User allygirl520 in Flickr via Wikimedia Commons.

App State first became a college football sweetheart in 2007, when they traveled to Ann Arbor to play the Michigan Wolverines in the season opener. On September 1 that year, 109,000 fans watched as Mountaineers kicker Julian Rauch chipped a 26-yard field goal to seal what many consider the biggest upset in CFB history.

Now in 2022, App State has won sixteen conference titles (Sun Belt) and three division titles (Div. I FCS) since that fateful day in Ann Arbor, making them one of the more successful college programs that tends to fly under the radar in terms of publicity. This year, however, the Mountaineers have been in the back of the mind of nearly every college football fan.

App State’s unlikely year started at home, in Kidd Brewer Stadium, with a tough game against an in-state foe, the University of North Carolina on Sept. 3. With a large ACC school coming to play a Sun Belt team, App State was expected to lose from the start. Although already assigned with the status of an underdog, the Mountaineers took the field with swagger and played as aggressively as ever.

Defense was scarce, if even present, for both teams. The combination of defensive miscues and offensive brilliance led to the highest-scoring game in both schools’ histories. Score after score, the game quickly became a shootout, ending with a UNC touchdown with nine seconds on the clock to push the score to 63-61 and secure the game for the Tar Heels. An unfortunate start for the Mountaineers’ season, landing them at a 0-1 record.

However, despite the loss, the game produced some astonishing statistics, and the spirited play from App State caught the attention of the country. The teams combined for a staggering 124 total points and 1,231 offensive yards. Both teams also combined for ten touchdowns in the fourth quarter, with three of them coming in the final minute of play. Finally, App State put up 61 points in a loss, tying them for the sixth-most points scored in a regulation loss since 1936.

A week later, on September 10, the Mountaineers traveled to College Station, Texas to play the sixth-ranked team in the country, the Texas A&M Aggies. In spite of the incredible fight App State gave UNC, the Aggies were expected to walk all over the Mountaineers. This did not happen. The game was back and forth; whenever one team scored, the other was quick to put up points of their own. In the fourth quarter, App State kicker Michael Hughes lasered a 29-yard field goal to take the lead. The Aggies quickly drove down the field, giving their own kicker, Caden Davis, a chance to tie the game. The 47-yarder was shanked, and the Mountaineers pulled off their second upset against a top-10-ranked team, an incredible feat for the undersung Sun Belt team.

The shocking upset becomes even more eye-opening when the circumstances of the game are further investigated. Texas A&M has a rich history of college football, and although they have had some program troubles in recent years, 2022 was supposed to be the return to elite CFB standards for the Aggies. This can primarily be attributed to their funding.  

A&M has recruited some of the best players the country has to offer over the past few years, and their 2022 recruitment class was regarded as one of, if not the best of the year. Their incoming recruits were so talented that there were suspicions as to whether the Aggies illegally paid the high schoolers to commit to Texas A&M. Nick Saban, Alabama’s head coach, went so far as to accuse A&M of violating SEC recruiting laws and jabbing at their operations, saying: “We were second in recruiting last year, A&M was first. A&M bought every player on their team… we didn’t buy one.” Saban isn’t the only skeptic of A&M, and it is rumored that the Aggies spent upwards of 30 million dollars on NIL deals to recruit their 2022 class, although head coach Jimbo Fisher has denied these claims.

A sign made by an App State fan mocking Texas A&M. Photo courtesy of @appstatesports via Instagram.

College football has always been rich with storylines, many involving money. Another one that certainly boosts the publicity of App State’s upset over Texas A&M is the fact that Texas paid the Mountaineers 1.5 million dollars for them to come play in College Station. The idea is that the more competitive school gets a free “W,” and the smaller, less ardent school gets money for funding. A win-win. Except not so much when the team coughing up the money doesn’t actually win the game. Thus is the case of App State’s victory over Texas A&M, making this game one of the most significant in recent history.

With these two games and the last-minute heave to beat Troy, Appalachian State has most certainly begun one of the most unlikely college football seasons in history. Now sitting at a meager 4-3 record and just 4th place in the Sun Belt conference, App State seems to prosper as an underdog, yet perhaps stutter once expectations are assigned. Despite the three losses, Appalachian State remains one of the most interesting teams in the CFB, and fans will undoubtedly be watching out for the next miracle to come out of Boone, North Carolina.