Troy or stAte?

[chiefsfan]

Had a feeling stAte would win. Shocked by the margin. Honestly had forgotten this game was on, so I haven't seen a second of it, but you'll never convince me our game with Troy didn't have an effect on this one.

it was a carbon copy of the game we played in Boone last year. Ugly first half. Neither team could move the ball much. Troy kicked a FG after they got the ball off a shanked punt. We scored right before half after a fake punt to take the lead, got a strip sack defensive touchdown to go up 11, and then spent the entire 2nd half running the ball because we knew they couldn't stop it.

Forced 5 turnovers sacked Silvers Twice, and had him under pressure basically the entire game.

[Rekdiver]

Can't believe Troy laid an egg".........

[hapapp]

It was only 10-3 at the half. But Troy imploded to start the 2nd half. Their dream ended quickly.

As I said in a previous post, the big difference for me was the defensive approach that StAte employed. They did a much better job of pressuring Silvers than we did. Whether we like it or not, they are likely going to take the title again. They did what we couldn't do. Of course, this just reinforces the need for a championship game.

[bigdaddyg]

Wow. Not much else to say

[AppDawg]

Absolute worst result for the conference.

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

It was only 10-3 at the half. But Troy imploded to start the 2nd half. Their dream ended quickly.

As I said in a previous post, the big difference for me was the defensive approach that StAte employed. They did a much better job of pressuring Silvers than we did. Whether we like it or not, they are likely going to take the title again. They did what we couldn't do. Of course, this just reinforces the need for a championship game.

Soon. Very soon.

[Rick83]

Nobody from SB will play in a major bowl this year.

Other than the off hand cotton bowl comment about Troy has anyone ever advanced that notion here? Im not sure what this post is intended to accomplish?

"hey come play for us because we're in a conference that had a team go 11-1 and played in a major bowl...

Did not want to quote the long post this came from. Are you offended by this notion?

I don't understand your post but I'm really not offended by anything anyone posts on this board, everyone is entitled to their opinion as long as they're respectful in how they voice it. It's just totally beyond me that the tone of some of the posts indicated that some App fans had a preference for Troy winning out as opposed to our team "sharing" a conference championship. I'm for our guys winning a share if that's where we land, I believe it's better to recruit based on your program's ability to challenge for and win championships, that was the point I was trying to make, it's better from a recruiting standpoint for us to win a share of the championship as compared to having a team in the conference that has a strong record and wins the NO bowl...that's all.

[S.Lewis15]

Absolute worst result for the conference.

To fans of the conference teams, yes, but to the average college football fan the Champion of the Sun Belt doesn't matter a single bit. Most people couldn't even name 5 Sun Belt teams, think we are still FCS, and think Ga Southern and Ga State are the same team. This season wasn't going to change any of that.

The only thing that will improve the perception of the Sun Belt Conference is the consistent competition with, and beating, P-5 and ranked opponents.

[MtnMan09]

Putting conference champion talk aside what I worry about is whether this type of beatdown makes the pollsters hesitant to rank a Sunbelt team in the future.

[appbio91]

Nobody from SB will play in a major bowl this year.

Other than the off hand cotton bowl comment about Troy has anyone ever advanced that notion here? Im not sure what this post is intended to accomplish?

"hey come play for us because we're in a conference that had a team go 11-1 and played in a major bowl...

Did not want to quote the long post this came from. Are you offended by this notion?

I don't understand your post but I'm really not offended by anything anyone posts on this board, everyone is entitled to their opinion as long as they're respectful in how they voice it. It's just totally beyond me that the tone of some of the posts indicated that some App fans had a preference for Troy winning out as opposed to our team "sharing" a conference championship. I'm for our guys winning a share if that's where we land, I believe it's better to recruit based on your program's ability to challenge for and win championships, that was the point I was trying to make, it's better from a recruiting standpoint for us to win a share of the championship as compared to having a team in the conference that has a strong record and wins the NO bowl...that's all.

We are different pages here as far as the post, I did not mean to sound so negative. I apologize for the confusion and I agree with you, fight to the finish and hope for some help. My point was just that the SB performance out of conference suggests a weak strength of schedule for it's members. Difficult to justify anything other than our tie ins currently. Still not negative I'll be at the bowl game and expect to have a blast.

[chiefsfan]

Putting conference champion talk aside what I worry about is whether this type of beatdown makes the pollsters hesitant to rank a Sunbelt team in the future.

That's on Troy if so though. They spent so much time running this #RankTroy nonsense that when they finally got ranked, the players acted as if they had accomplished their primary goal for a season.

You have to push league championship...and let the polls fall where they may. A Ranking is just a number anyway. It's very arbitrary in nature.

[MtnMan09]

Putting conference champion talk aside what I worry about is whether this type of beatdown makes the pollsters hesitant to rank a Sunbelt team in the future.

That's on Troy if so though. They spent so much time running this #RankTroy nonsense that when they finally got ranked, the players acted as if they had accomplished their primary goal for a season.

You have to push league championship...and let the polls fall where they may. A Ranking is just a number anyway. It's very arbitrary in nature.

Its not "just on Troy." One of our stated goals as a program is to work towards being ranked in the top 25. Ranking Troy was the first time an SBC team had cracked the polls in the conference's history. It was a big deal. To turn around the next week and get BLOWN OUT by a team that previously lost to an FCS damages the conferences brand and will make pollsters hesitant about counting what we believe to be "big conference wins" in any future argument that an App team should be ranked. You're exactly right that polls are arbitrary in nature and that's why stuff like this matters. Perception is just as important as reality if being ranked and receiving national recognition for that is something we are interested in going forward.

[JTApps1]

Last week I felt this way and last night reinforced it, but I wasn't impressed with Troy watching them live. A truly good team would have blown us away as poorly as we started last week, and with all of the mistakes we made throughout the entire game. Had we played a crisp game we would have beaten Troy easily.

Add in the ranking, coming off an emotional and physical game, and they were ripe for the picking. Arkansas State took advantage and is now in control of the league.

[Rick83]

Nobody from SB will play in a major bowl this year.

Other than the off hand cotton bowl comment about Troy has anyone ever advanced that notion here? Im not sure what this post is intended to accomplish?

"hey come play for us because we're in a conference that had a team go 11-1 and played in a major bowl...

Did not want to quote the long post this came from. Are you offended by this notion?

I don't understand your post but I'm really not offended by anything anyone posts on this board, everyone is entitled to their opinion as long as they're respectful in how they voice it. It's just totally beyond me that the tone of some of the posts indicated that some App fans had a preference for Troy winning out as opposed to our team "sharing" a conference championship. I'm for our guys winning a share if that's where we land, I believe it's better to recruit based on your program's ability to challenge for and win championships, that was the point I was trying to make, it's better from a recruiting standpoint for us to win a share of the championship as compared to having a team in the conference that has a strong record and wins the NO bowl...that's all.

We are different pages here as far as the post, I did not mean to sound so negative. I apologize for the confusion and I agree with you, fight to the finish and hope for some help. My point was just that the SB performance out of conference suggests a weak strength of schedule for it's members. Difficult to justify anything other than our tie ins currently. Still not negative I'll be at the bowl game and expect to have a blast.

Gotcha, sorry too if I mis-read something into your post. My sensitivities are a bit hightened with some of the negativity (which is really only a handful of posters) surrounding "sharing a championship" and also the negativity posted by some on the Lamb? thread. Lamb is going into the record books beating out Armanti and Richie in some categories, so it baffles me. To me, this current Mountaineer team has had to deal with something relatively few teams have to deal with, the step up to FBS, and they've done an amazing job. I also tire of the negativity surrounding the Sun Belt. The Sun Belt was a perfect move for us because it allows us to keep winning while making the transition. I'm guessing everyone would be happier with like the AAC but we wouldn't be winning as much through the transition and it wouldn't be as much fun. We can't expect to go from beating up on the Elons and Citadels of the world to being Houston, Boise State, or San Diego State overnight...it will happen but requires patience that is sometimes hard to muster up. Anyway, that's my rant for the day and I get that, except for the trolls popping in from other schools, we all want the same thing and that's for our Mountaineers to dominate.

[biggie]

I'd say less than 1% chance AS gets beat by either of their last 2 opponents.

[Rick83]

I'd say less than 1% chance AS gets beat by either of their last 2 opponents.

I hope stAte feels that way too...hubris has been the downfall of many great teams...who would thought that Houston would totally embarrass Louisville and their Heisman phenom last night?

[EastHallApp]

I think Sun Belt teams will have to beat, or at least scare, good P5 teams in order to be ranked, which is already the case now. I suspect Troy's close loss to Clemson has as much to do with them being ranked as anything they did in the Sun Belt. Our game at Tennessee put us in a similar position until we fell on our face against Miami.