Here's my rose-colored take

[Black Saturday]

Look up the scores of the Southern Conference versus other conferences when the rubber meets the road, it is very poor. The SmallCon includes 6 others, it's not just APP and The Gnat Swarm versus other conferences. For example, you will not find a marqee OOC win for Elon's program since joining the SmallCon. When has Wofford had one, when given the chance. Ok, Montana, but how long ago was that?

Keep believing that dude. The SoCon is doing just fine. Truth is, you don't understand how competitive college football is at all levels. We have one SoCon loss - what the future holds we don't know. Keep thinking we are so much better than everyone we play if it helps you sleep. BEAT UTC!

I think you totally misunderstand where I'm coming from, I think quite the opposite, but have hoped for better for APP. Read my post the last three years. I don't fall into the cheerleading category. Truth is you don't understand the talent that has been misused here. If you think that it is fine to lose to who we've lost to the last 3 seasons, considering the talent disparity defined by the NFL, that is ok by me. Makes me know you don't know football, dude.

[HappyHippie]

Look up the scores of the Southern Conference versus other conferences when the rubber meets the road, it is very poor. The SmallCon includes 6 others, it's not just APP and The Gnat Swarm versus other conferences. For example, you will not find a marqee OOC win for Elon's program since joining the SmallCon. When has Wofford had one, when given the chance. Ok, Montana, but how long ago was that?

Keep believing that dude. The SoCon is doing just fine. Truth is, you don't understand how competitive college football is at all levels. We have one SoCon loss - what the future holds we don't know. Keep thinking we are so much better than everyone we play if it helps you sleep. BEAT UTC!

I think you totally misunderstand where I'm coming from, I think quite the opposite, but have hoped for better for APP. Read my post the last three years. I don't fall into the cheerleading category. Truth is you don't understand the talent that has been misused here. If you think that it is fine to lose to who we've lost to the last 3 seasons, considering the talent disparity defined by the NFL, that is ok by me. Makes me know you don't know football, dude.

All proud programs:

2009 - East Carolina, McNeese State, Montana
2010 - Georgia Southern, Florida, Villanova
2011 - VT, Wofford, Furman, Maine

[WVAPPeer]

Hey View Crew and 74 - here's hoping you had time to digest the Q before you went into the stadium - I think I can speak for Black Saturday when I say, "I'm not sorry I missed that one!"

[SpeedkingATL]

On to Chatty. Go Apps!

I would add Tony Washington to the short list of players that showed up on Saturday. He was fearless on kick returns and made some plays on offense as well.

[HappyHippie]

On to Chatty. Go Apps!

I would add Tony Washington to the short list of players that showed up on Saturday. He was fearless on kick returns and made some plays on offense as well.

He dropped some easy balls too. We got our asses kicked. Beat UTC!

[ASUMountaineer]

I will tell you another thing [3dgrin] - and I firmly believe this - Many times getting your ass kicked like we did on Saturday is quite beneficial, that is, if you know you have quality talent and you know you are competitive - My reasons --- if we lose a game like we did against ECU, there are built in reasons we look at and say something like - "Well take away that KO return and ........." or "take away the heat and ........." or "look at the inequity in the refs calls ........." --- When you get beaten like we did Sat these kind of answers don't exist !!! --- What is said then or should be is "Guys we have problems that we must address immediately" or "We must make changes here or there", etc.

I honestly find it very hard to believe that after one game several are ready to write this coaching staff off - to write the players off and to write the team off ???

Tired of hearing that this was one loss yes it was your right . It was an a$$ whippin loss of epic proportions that is imo is not acceptable from a coaching standpoint and needs to be addressed.

Wow. We lost to GSU once 54-7. The world didn't end and we eventually went on to dominate the SoCon and FCS. Seasons are long, I sure hope the team isn't ready to throw in the towel like you are.

[JCline0429]

Look up the scores of the Southern Conference versus other conferences when the rubber meets the road, it is very poor. The SmallCon includes 6 others, it's not just APP and The Gnat Swarm versus other conferences. For example, you will not find a marqee OOC win for Elon's program since joining the SmallCon. When has Wofford had one, when given the chance. Ok, Montana, but how long ago was that?

When it comes to quality OOC games, the SoCon consistently plays at the home of the FBS teams. Furman gave Butch's UNC team all they could handle. Wofford gave Clemson a tough gamelosing by TD in Death Valley. They lost to SEC member USC by 7 and 10. I just don't see why you singled out Wofford.

[bcoach]

We simply do not have the players we used to have. There is no mystery to what is happening. Look at the offense. Did Satterfield suddenly lose his ability or does he not have the talent to pull it off? Special teams? The better question is what special teams. Defense is busy pounding their chests for making ONE tackle when we are down by 31. I hear that the offense is fine. It is said that 28 points should win a game. That is only true if the other team scores 27 or less. We used to be able to make up for our weaknes here and there. We no longer have enough guns to figh that fight. We need to learn to recruit like we did in the past.
No excusses to the coaches as they did a miserable job but we just don't have the quantity of quality players we used to have. I will say one more time that when we have lost two games by a total of 46 points, there is no excuse for not having a backup QB who has ever taken a college snap.

[Black Saturday]

Look up the scores of the Southern Conference versus other conferences when the rubber meets the road, it is very poor. The SmallCon includes 6 others, it's not just APP and The Gnat Swarm versus other conferences. For example, you will not find a marqee OOC win for Elon's program since joining the SmallCon. When has Wofford had one, when given the chance. Ok, Montana, but how long ago was that?

When it comes to quality OOC games, the SoCon consistently plays at the home of the FBS teams. Furman gave Butch's UNC team all they could handle. Wofford gave Clemson a tough gamelosing by TD in Death Valley. They lost to SEC member USC by 7 and 10. I just don't see why you singled out Wofford.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant OOC as OOC FCS. You'll be hard pressed to find any quality wins recently by the SoCon.

[HappyHippie]

Western beat EKU a few years ago

[asumike83]

The SoCon has had some bad OOC losses but there have been some good wins as well recently:

2012: Appalachian over Montana
2011: Chattanooga over Jax State, GSU over Maine, GSU over Old Dominion
2010: GSU over WIlliam & Mary, Wofford over Jacksonville State

Had GSU and Wofford not played each other in the 2010 quarterfinals, I think both squads would have advanced to the semis. We are behind the CAA and MVFC at this point but the SoCon is still a solid football conference.

[asug8]

I recall a similar chicken little turn to the fanbase with the last ECU and McNeese 0-2 start when we rattled off a pretty impressive turnaround. Should we be concerned with our performance vs. TO teams? Absolutely, since we THOUGHT we were facing the least of the three last week. I'm not ready to start calling for heads yet, and I'm not giving up faith in what this new coaching staff and group of kids are capable of doing this season. UTC will give us a game to be sure, but we as a fanbase have to stop this whole "sky is falling" mentality when we hit a rough patch.

Beat UTC. Focus on the week ahead, prepare adequately, accomplish the goal, and move forward. That's what our championship teams did.

[Black Saturday]

The SoCon has had some bad OOC losses but there have been some good wins as well recently:

2012: Appalachian over Montana
2011: Chattanooga over Jax State, GSU over Maine, GSU over Old Dominion
2010: GSU over WIlliam & Mary, Wofford over Jacksonville State

Had GSU and Wofford not played each other in the 2010 quarterfinals, I think both squads would have advanced to the semis. We are behind the CAA and MVFC at this point but the SoCon is still a solid football conference.

Seems like the last conference ranking a year or so ago the SoCon was behind the Big Sky as well according to Sagarin, of course it's different each year.

2012: Based on Montana's history, Montana was a good win, so I thought? Then APP proceeded to have one of the worst beatdowns the following week so we'll see how that actually plays out with each team this season.

2011: Jax St and ODU aren't and haven't been FCS top 10, if they were, it was a short blip on the radar and didn't belong anyway, so I'm not certain of their quality. ODU benefitted from not playing the toughest CAA schedule, iirc?

2010: W&M was a quality win, because they were a weekly top 5. Again Jax St was a paper tiger, imo.

The SoCon has usually gotten wacked when playing in the regular season over the past few years, and we know APPs record in the last 2 playoffs at home recently, even though I really thought we had the better overall talent. jmho

[HappyHippie]

Sleeping through the night I see

[Black Saturday]

Crawl back under your rock, dude.

Click, you are officially on ignore.

[HappyHippie]

Easy dude, just a little joke. You are correct about one thing - the truth hurts. Don't let the bed bugs bite

[StorminASU]

Sleeping through the night I see

What does this even mean?

(No double rainbow joke intended)

[Black Saturday]

Sleeping through the night I see

What does this even mean?

(No double rainbow joke intended)

Dude doesn't like my stance on the topic or my responses, so dude has to resort to being a smarty instead of supporting his thoughts with facts. He's on ignore, now I don't have read dude again.

Dude changed his moniker from MMB.

[HappyHippie]

Dude has stated nothing but facts. Dude hates getting whipped by a conference foe. Dude knows that college football is extremely competitive. Dude knows the SoCon is gonna be very very tough. Dude knows how fortunate we have been. Dude supports the young 2012 MOUNTAINEERS 100%.
Beat UTC!

[midlandchip]

Unfortunately, I picked this game as the one I would travel down to Boone to watch this year. The loss really surprised me - I had predicted a comfortable win. It was a disappointing game to watch and it almost spoiled my weekend. But a few days have passed, I'm back in Michigan now and I feel a little better this evening. Tonight my thought is it was only one game and it's still a long way to go to the end of the season. App State can still have another great season but the team has to turn the corner this weekend. This game in Chattanooga is a must win if I ever saw one.

And I would like to make one final comment. I am slowly gaining some respect for the triple option. I watched my team, Central Michigan, play SE Missouri State (FCS) two weeks ago. SE Missouri State also runs the triple option and in the first half CMU looked like they had no clue how to cover that offense. At one point we were down by quite a bit. However, we apparently did figure it out to some extend in the second half because SE Missouri State only scored three points after the break. CMU ended up winning the game but it was not easy.

The thing that bothers me is CMU hardly ever sees the triple option so to some extent I am not surprised we had trouble defending it. I told one of my friends I would like to see CMU play one of the teams in the SoCon that has been running this offense for some time. I really don't think CMU could win a matchup like that. But App State sees it every year from The Citadel, Wolford and Georgia Southern. Unfortunately, in this game App State's defense looked like it was facing the triple option for the first time and that I just don't understand.