I can't help but think about how great this season was AND HOW SPECIAL next season could be. Top 25? 2nd Sunbelt Championship in Boone repeat? Bowl game after Christmas?

Loved the plays called and the heart I saw on and off the field tonight.

Its GREAT TO BE A MOUNTAINEER!

Go App!

No reason why we cant be ranked at the conclusion of this season.

For real, lots of pressure on next season. Let's hope the team can deliver an extra special season of App State football!

appstatealum wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 16, 2018 1:09 am

No reason why we cant be ranked at the conclusion of this season.

Was thinking if a few lose maybe we can sneak back in. Fresno won today so that’s one chance down.

Yeah all of this and .... I’m hiring Ivey!!! Lots of 3rd and long and we got plenty! Love it. MTSU did not belong on the field with us. Lots of dirty hits.

I definitely agree on the dirty hits. I think MTSU was frustrated most of the game, expecting to win early and keep on chugging. App was better prepared and, settled into an aggressive game plan that leveraged MTSUs weaknesses.

Great gameplan and I agree Ivey is worthy!

The team was amazing to play so well with so much noise around them this past week

Drink should only keep Ivey if the two can coexist. Ivey and crew kept the team together for the biggest game in schools history. We had to win this one and we had to win it convincingly. I will say that one game doesn't mean you can sustain that for a whole season. If Drink feels threatened by Ivey or Ivey doesn't like how Drink does things then there will be major issues. I think keeping Ivey is worthy of a look and heck I think if he stays he needs a raise.....but only if they two can coexist. If they can't, Ivey has to go as he isn't the headcoach. I personally think Ivey would have been the better option than Drink but what do I know. I also think Shawn Clark had just as much to do with this win as Ivey. It's obvious the players respond well to both of them

It’s easy to second guess any decision and I suspect that DG knows way more than we do in regards to personnel decisions. It would also be too easy to let the emotions of a huge win govern hiring decisions. We aren’t the only successful program with several talented coaches. I’m sure if Saban left today there are guys on that staff who could lead Alabama to playoff wins. We just have to trust a guy who has pushed the right buttons so far.

Handing MTSU their asses in spite of having our HC leave and take a few of our top staffers with him hopefully gets some consideration. Even if it's #25 it would make for a nice cherry on top for this season.

That was the most well coached game I have seen in a long time on both sides of the ball. Nothing against the new coach or the ones that left but I would love to see what these guys could do for a season. They left MT dazed and confused. We also did it without a bunch of stupid penalties. Next time we do one of those favorite game deals on here mark me down for this one.

I saw zero coast last night. We kept after it. That may have been the only criticism I had of Satt.

Regardless of what the final poll says, that was a top 25 performance, without question. Best performance since Penn St. In a lot of ways it was like we took the bridle off these awesome athletes.

Rekdiver wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 16, 2018 10:41 am

I saw zero coast last night. We kept after it. That may have been the only criticism I had of Satt.

That was my big beef as well. I felt like he was weakest on play calls. He also did not manage the clock very well and he did not get the ball to Sutton or our tight ends enough at times. I have always thought that Scott was not great calling plays because he was just too conservative. It was nice to see us still throw the ball and not start the half with 3-5 straight runs when we were up by 20 or so. I think Scott being a little too nice is what kept some of our scores closer.

Just think, had Thomas not got hurt vs GSU, we may be 12-1 and ranked in the top 15 after a win like this.

appstatealum wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 16, 2018 1:09 am

No reason why we cant be ranked at the conclusion of this season.

We have done all we can to get ranked but now we need help. Fresno State and Utah State winning hurts that a little bit but we just need 5 of the following teams to lose their bowl and it should happen, but we do need at least 5 of these: Missouri, Army, Iowa State, Boise State, Northwestern, UAB, NC State, Cincinnati, and Iowa. A couple of those are behind us but I feel like a loss to them helps give us a boost in votes.

The two games where I'm torn on who to pull for though is Boise State vs BC and Houston vs Army. If Houston and BC both win they could pick up votes that we want.

For us, the games where the team we should pull for is clear is Wash St vs Iowa St (we need WSU), Utah vs NW (we need Utah), UAB vs NIU (we need Northern Illinois), NC St vs Tex A&M (we need A&M), Miss St vs Iowa (we need MSU), and Cincinnati vs VT (we need VT). Those 6 games provide the clearest path for us to be ranked.

Playbook was wide open last night. Typical for most bowl games, but our execution was top notch. Players seemed very into it, and the loss of coaches didn't seem to show on the field. This Bowl Game felt different than the previous three. I think it's because we actually played to reach this game, as opposed to the pecking order which would have landed Louisiana in New Orleans in the past. Very optimistic outlook from me for next year. I love where we're at with the football program.

ASUTodd wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 16, 2018 8:53 am

Drink should only keep Ivey if the two can coexist. Ivey and crew kept the team together for the biggest game in schools history. We had to win this one and we had to win it convincingly. I will say that one game doesn't mean you can sustain that for a whole season. If Drink feels threatened by Ivey or Ivey doesn't like how Drink does things then there will be major issues. I think keeping Ivey is worthy of a look and heck I think if he stays he needs a raise.....but only if they two can coexist. If they can't, Ivey has to go as he isn't the headcoach. I personally think Ivey would have been the better option than Drink but what do I know. I also think Shawn Clark had just as much to do with this win as Ivey. It's obvious the players respond well to both of them

Agree but they should be able to. Ivey does not have a mega ego so the only way he goes is if Drink has a problem on his end or if Louisville offers big money and he decides he can't turn it down. I really want to keep Ivey.

We had a very special group of mature young upperclassmen. Chemistry is never overrated.

I don't care about the results of these other teams. I hope they use the "eye test" and see how much we dominated teams ALL Year long. GS was a fluke that has been over analyzed to death on here.... We lost our QB and a topline LB who excels in contain against an Option team. Add in all of the absurd calls, it was a perfect storm and is an outlier as far as I'm concerned.

Other teams ain't $hhhh compared to this squad. Take you 4 losses and get lost.

appstatealum wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 16, 2018 6:58 pm

I don't care about the results of these other teams. I hope they use the "eye test" and see how much we dominated teams ALL Year long. GS was a fluke that has been over analyzed to death on here.... We lost our QB and a topline LB who excels in contain against an Option team. Add in all of the absurd calls, it was a perfect storm and is an outlier as far as I'm concerned.

Other teams ain't $hhhh compared to this squad. Take you 4 losses and get lost.

I agree in theory but a few things to keep in mind.

1. What we think does not matter and these voters have been harder on ranking G5 teams. It is not hard to receive votes but it is hard to get ranked and stay there when you come from a G5 league.

2. Based on the eye test this is 100% a top 25 team in the country but many of these AP voters and even many coaches just slot teams up and down and thus we need teams around us to lose in order to help with that.

3. MTSU is not a good team. Coming in the only reason I thought we may win by just 10-14 is because of our situation and you never know. I actually think we were helped big time with the offensive change because I don't believe we would have won by more 21 with Satt and Ponce but we blew that wide open. Satt believes in being conservative and won't throw the ball once we go up by 17-20 it seems like.

The fact we won by such a convincing margin tells me that we should be ranked but Utah State also put a whooping on a good G5 team and they were ranked previously so they will get the benefit ahead of us. The bottom line is that we need some losses by teams receiving votes and some teams in the 20-25 range for us to finish ranked.

Not sure we make it. We moved up in Sagarin from 44th to 38th with the bowl win. We moved up in Massey from 39th to 30th. We will possibly receive votes, but will more than likely end up between 25th and 35th. Still not too bad considering our strength of schedule...