Appalachian St. created the football transition blueprint, Coastal wants to follow it

Appalachian State created the blueprint, and Coastal Carolina would love to follow a similar plan.

The Mountaineers made the jump from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Sun Belt Conference just four seasons ago in 2014, and started that season with a 1-5 record.

That’s identical to Coastal’s record through six games while playing in the same Football Bowl Subdivision conference after moving up from FCS.

ASU won its final six games of the 2014 season from that point to go 7-5 overall and finish third in the conference with a 6-2 mark.

Since it’s 1-5 start, Appalachian State has gone 31-7 overall and an impressive 23-2 in the league. That includes marks of 4-2 overall and 3-0 in the conference this season entering ASU’s home game with the Chanticleers at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Kidd Brewer Stadium in Boone, N.C.

The Mountaineers were also 4-8 in 2013 in their first transition year to FBS.

So how did they become so successful so quickly after the transition?

“Really we didn’t start out too good, but we just kept with the plan and we just kept believing in what we were doing,” said fifth-year ASU coach Scott Satterfield, a 1996 ASU graduate. “Obviously you’ve got to recruit the type of player that fits the system that you’re in and we had a lot of young players fitting in and we just kept going with it.

Then we got some confidence about midway through the season at Troy and really just kind of built off that. We continued to play hard and won some games, won some close games, then the following year we were able to win 11 games. So it’s just sticking with the process and believing in it and the whole program.”

The Mountaineers have 12 starting seniors this year that were on the team that made the transition to FBS, including quarterback Taylor Lamb, who has played in 44 games, the most of any active FBS quarterback. He is eighth in career passing yards among active QBs with 8,246 yards.

“They were the ones playing as freshmen and sophomores back then and they were good players,” Satterfield said. “So we had a really good, solid team that was young and we just continued to build and build.”

ASU had much more sustained success at the FCS level than Coastal. It began playing football in 1928 and has amassed a 600-333-28 overall record, and it won three consecutive FCS national titles from 2005-07 under head coach Jerry Moore.

Coastal, which began playing in 2003, did manage to be ranked No. 1 in FCS for 10 combined weeks in 2014 and 2015 and became a perennial FCS playoff team with four consecutive playoff appearances from 2012-15. CCU went 45-5 in its final 50 regular-season games against FCS competition through last season.

ASU’s level of FBS success is unrealistic for most programs, but how will Coastal do following its shaky start to FBS life?

CCU interim head coach Jamey Chadwell doesn’t know how soon CCU will be able to emulate the success of ASU, but he believes the program is capable of soon becoming a consistent contender for Sun Belt titles.

“It will come, and when it does it will be something that will be sustainable where we have an opportunity to be Sun Belt champions every year. It will get there,” Chadwell said. “We’re making progress. It’s frustrating right now and I think it’s frustrating for everybody. We continue to make progress. It’s not showing where we’d like for it to show but we are making progress, and when it comes the hammer is coming with it.”

Some history

Appalachian State is one of just two Sun Belt schools, along with Georgia Southern, that Coastal Carolina has played prior to this season.

CCU went 0-3 against Appalachian State when both were FCS members, falling by at least 17 points in each contest, including a 55-14 defeat in the most recent meeting early in CCU head coach Joe Moglia’s first season of 2012. All three meetings were in Boone.

Two of Coastal’s games against ASU have ended long streaks, as a 30-3 loss in 2005 ended a 10-game CCU winning streak, and 45-28 loss in 2006 ended an eight-game winning streak.

The Chants (1-5) hope to end another streak against ASU (4-2) on Saturday, as they enter the game with a program-record five-game losing skid.

“We know the challenge that we’re facing,” Chadwell said. “App is the class of the league. Arkansas State and them have shared titles. App is a really good football team. It’s a great environment to play in going up there. They obviously have a wonderful tradition from FCS national championship to now FBS. We strive to make the jump the way they have and I think our program is in that direction.”

ASU’s losses this season are to No. 3 Georgia 31-10 in the season-opener and ACC foe Wake Forest 20-19 on Sept. 23. The team’s 31-7 record over its last 38 games is tied for the fourth-best mark in FBS behind Clemson, Alabama and Ohio State.

Tough venue

Appalachian State is 20th among FBS programs in winning percentage in their current home stadiums, going 237-75-5 for a .756 winning percentage at Kidd Brewer Stadium, which opened in 1962.

Chadwell has been part of two of those ASU losses. He recalls winning 51-28 on ASU’s homecoming as a quarterback at East Tennessee State in 1997. “Worst loss they’ve ever had,” he said Wednesday.

And as a head coach, his first Charleston Southern team in 2013 got a 27-24 win during the Mountaineers’ first transition season to the FBS level, in which they went 4-8. “That provided momentum, getting that program built and that was a big deal sort of establishing what we were trying to get done, so hopefully you’ll see that this week,” Chadwell said.

“It’s always a great game-day tradition. Their fans are going to be loud, it’s going to be packed. They love football and they’re very knowledgeable. But they’re not unbeatable. I think that’s what I would take into it. Sometimes certain teams get this air that nobody can beat them in a certain place. When you’ve been able to do that I think it does give you confidence you know how to get that done.”

Injury bug

Coastal went into last week’s game at Arkansas State without quarterback Chance Thrasher, who is expected to be out at least another three weeks with an ankle injury, and had four players incur injuries during the game.

Quarterback Dalton Demos is in concussion protocol and will miss Saturday’s game, while Tyler Keane is probable with an injury to his non-throwing right shoulder and is expected to start Saturday.

Junior left guard Adam Lawhorn, who has a team-high 18 consecutive starts and has played in 38 of CCU’s past 40 games, is questionable and may be replaced by freshman Jack Franklin. The Chants will be without junior long snapper Connor Kubala because of knee surgery. Kubala has snapped for every punt, extra point and field goal since the 2015 season opener and has never been graded with a poor snap. Freshman Ryan Culbertson, who was potentially going to redshirt this season, is expected to start as long snapper.

Game time set

Coastal’s next game at Brooks Stadium next Saturday against Texas State will be homecoming, and game time has been set at 6 p.m.

CCU has won its last five homecoming games and is 10-4 all-time on homecoming.

The game will be broadcast on ESPN3. To purchase tickets, visit www.GoCCUsports.com or call 843-347-8499.

This story was originally published October 18, 2017 at 8:48 PM with the headline "Appalachian St. created the football transition blueprint, Coastal wants to follow it."