FanHouse Appalachian State

For three seasons, Appalachian State has controlled the FCS (formerly I-AA), winning three straight national titles and, of course, pulling off the spectacular upset of Michigan. But the Mountaineers reign as FCS kings ended on Saturday, as Richmond headed into Boone, N.C. and notched a stunning rout, 33-13, in the playoff quarterfinals.

The biggest culprit in today's Mountaineers' loss was quarterback Armanti Edwards -- App. State's hero in that Big House win. The Spiders picked Edwards off five times in the game, using two of those picks to extend a 9-7 lead to an insurmountable 23-7 cushion.

Richmond also rolled up 238 rushing yards, with Josh Vaughan scoring three times and grabbing 132 on the ground.

Start your work week off right with Monday Morning Coffee, where Fanhouse scours YouTube for the finest college football footage available. Either that or we give up after a couple minutes and just post the "I Like Turtles" kid.

Our long national nightmare is almost over, friends. Football begins this week. And yes, Week 1 is usually full of cupcakes, MACrifices, and the dreaded I-A/I-AA matchups. Either you win by 50 and the status quo remains the same, you only win by a handful and the panic sets in early, or ALL LIVING HELL BREAKS LOOSE.



When Appalachian State isn't saving boaters' lives or dropping incredible Gladiator references on a stunned Ann Arbor Crowd, they're out there taking on the college football universe with a limitless, unwavering drive. And really, after taking out Michigan, they had almost no choice but to bring on LSU; after all, what else are they going to say? "Today, Michigan! Tomorrow... North Texas!"? It doesn't really fly.

Cheers to you, Mountaineers. If you bring in 2008 at all like you did 2007, we are all in for another year of sweet, glorious anarchy.

Yes, that Appalachian State.

LSU will open the 2008 football season at home Aug. 30 against Appalachian State, which shocked Michigan last season.

The game between LSU and Appalachian State will mark the first time that a defending champion from the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly I-A) will meet the defending champion from the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) in the season-opener the following year.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is how the supposedly mighty SEC does business. Thing is, the boys from Boone are still a cupcake. And now they've lost that ace in the hole of being able to sneak up on people. In other words, you'll see this in about seven months:

LSU 52 Appalachian State 3

We award LSU no points for arranging this game, and may God have mercy on their soul.

Trendspotting: are you the coach of a team that's just squeezed out an ugly victory over a I-AA team? Are you on the hotseat after years of middling to mediocre performances? Worried you might lose your job? Generally testy? Make sure you let 'em know things could be worse:

Offensive coordinator David Lee was just happy to get a victory.

"At least this one didn't turn out to be an Appalachian State deal, a loss," he said. "We weren't there. I had a bunch of things scripted as far as plays to start the game and after that first snap, we dumped it."

Lee is Arkansas' offensive coordinator; the quote came in the immediate aftermath of the Razorbacks' ugly, close-ish 34-15 victory over Tennessee-Chattanooga. Tommy Bowden made similarly themed comments after an ugly Clemson win earlier this year, though he later called Lloyd Carr an offered a clarification on the matter.*
SMQB has been on this from the moment it happened: one unfortunate side effect of the Appalachian State game other than the complete destruction of hope, innocence, and faith amongst Michigan alumni nationwide has been the quasi-legitimation the upset has brought these shameful cupcake walkovers. Yes, coaches coming off a narrow win against a I-AA opponent, once in the history of these matchups has an actually good (and by "good" I mean "not good, but probably bowl-eligible") BCS team lost. That does not make your escape nobler in any way.

*(Wonder how that went: "Hey, Lloyd, you know that thing where I brought up Appalachian State and implied that at least we weren't you guys? Yeah. Well, uh... thanks!")

(HT: The RazorBlogger Network.)

Marvin, the Duck of Infinite Inexplicability, on the scene for this bizarre little note.

Michigan's loss to Appalachian State just got a little more inexplicable, as a little-discussed change to the Big Ten's rules for determining the conference's automatic BCS representative has just been brought to light thanks to the Ann Arbor News' Jim Carty and MVictors, a Michigan blog. Apparently before the 2006 season the Big Ten slipped in a small change to the selection process designed to discourage games against I-AA teams. The relevant portion of the new bylaws:

2) If there is a tie for the championship, the winner of the game between these two teams shall represent the conference.
3) If there is still a tie for the championship, or if the tied teams did not play each other, the team that played more games against Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) teams shall be eliminated.
4) If there is still a tie, or if the tied teams did not play each other, or if both teams played the same number of games against an FCS team(s), the representative shall be determined on the percentage basis of all games played.

The same rules apply in the case of a three-way tie that can't be broken by head-to-head; this is a tiebreaker that figures to get used every three or four years or so if past history is any indication. Kudos to the league office for doing what it can to prevent the shameful spread of interdivisional sacrifices.

A question: are Big Ten athletic directors even aware of the change? The prospect of losing out on a BCS bid because you decided to feast on Youngstown State or Appalachian State some other I-AA team instead of Temple, Buffalo, and Florida International like Penn State should be a huge discouragement to any Big Ten team with eyes on a BCS bid. Which begs the question: why the hell did Michigan, Ohio State, and Wisconsin all schedule I-AA teams? There's no functional difference between grabbing a I-AA team and the bottom of I-A, and doing the former puts you at a severe disadvantage should one of the Big Ten's many co-championships get issued in the year you put the spurs to Samford. (Or, yes, they year Appalachian State puts the spurs to you.)

Mike Hart's been a lion during Michigan's tough start, and as a result has received some notice as a Heisman candidate despite playing opposite the suckiest bunch of sucks who ever went up against a shotgun running attack. In ESPN's latest Heisman experts' poll he received a single third place vote... but someone at ESPN is making with the funny stuff. Each guy has his name linked to his player profile page at ESPN. Here is Hart's link. Please note the player ID:


Click, and be whisked away to a world of six yards runs that should be two? No, not so much. After the jump, the horrible/awesome conclusion, depending on if you're a Michigan fan or not.

While we here at FanHouse worry about the mental state of our friend and colleague Brian Cook, who was last seen naked in a forest mumbling to himself, I feel it's important to remind the Wolverines and their fans that this season isn't over yet. Sure, there's absolutely no shot in hell of the Wolverines winning a national title this season, but there's still the Big Ten.

That's why as tough a loss as the Appalachian State game was to take, it's important that the Wolverines try and get past it. They have to face an Oregon team this weekend, that may not be as talented as Appalachian State, but they're just as dangerous.

How the Wolverines respond on Saturday will tell us all a lot about this team, and how seriously we should take them the rest of this season. After all, they're still undefeated within the conference, so a successful season is still a possibility in Ann Arbor.

The problem Michigan faces right now is this, if they can't beat Appalachian State at home, why the hell should we expect them to beat Wisconsin or Ohio State? Hell, how do we know they can beat Northwestern?

Truth is, at the moment, we don't know that they can. I'm of the opinion that last weekend's loss was exactly what it was. A shocking loss. It doesn't mean Appalachian State is the fifth best team in the country, and it doesn't mean that Michigan is a Division-II, or whatever subdivision they're now in, school.

It's hard to believe at the moment, but before this season is over I fully expect the Wolverines to be back in the rankings. They may not have a defense strong enough to win the Big Ten, but they're still a good enough team, and they still have plenty of time to improve. This loss is going to loom over these players heads the rest of the season, if not their lives, but it's not going to keep the Wolverines out of the picture all season long.

I'm sure this is nothing more than a reaction to the stress that surrounds devising a gameplan to counter the attack of the mighty Appalachian State, but it's become apparent that Michigan coach Lloyd Carr may be starting his final season as coach of the Wolverines on Saturday.

Carr sat down with Bob Wojnowski earlier this week, and the topic came up. Carr's answer leads you to believe he's thought about it quite a bit.

"Bo [Schembechler] and I had a lot of long talks about this job, about the good and the bad, the hard parts and the fun parts," Carr said during a frank, 45-minute conversation in his Schembechler Hall office. "I know for sure what it takes to do the job. And I think one of the most important things a leader can do is know when it's time to let somebody else lead. That's the right thing to do. Because it's a hard job.

"I think you have to be honest with yourself," he said. "I know I'm gonna miss the game, the players, the coaches and the relationships. There's nothing that could ever replace that.

"But when I look at the measure of a program, I look at how it is when you leave. Here we are 17 years after Bo quit, and I think anybody who's fair would say this is a great program. I want to be satisfied that when I leave, I know I worked as hard as I could 'til the very last day. If I can do that, this program will be in great shape, and the transition will be smooth."

This will be Carr's 13th season as head coach in Ann Arbor, and his 28th season at the school. He's 62 years old, and he's had issues with his health the last few seasons. It's not crazy to think that he may hand in his whistle at the end of this season.

Of course, if he loses to Ohio State again, and the Wolverines fall short of their goal to win a national championship, that may be enough motivation to get him back on the sidelines in 2008. Of course, if he loses to Ohio State again, the University of Michigan might make Carr's decision on when to retire a lot easier by making it for him.