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Championship Central | Championship Game Tickets
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— App State (8-4, 6-2 SBC) will play for the fifth time overall in the Hercules Tire Sunbelt Football Championship Game on Saturday at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Troy, Alabama. They are aiming for the Sun Belt Football Championship. The game is scheduled for 4:00 PM ET/3:00 PM CT and will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.
The Mountaineers, who have qualified for the championship game four times since the event’s inception in 2018, will seek to become the first road champion in this contest. Home teams are 4-0 overall in championship games, but App State has won 35 games on the road since joining the FBS in 2014, followed by Ohio State (40). Only Boise State (39 wins), Alabama State (37) and Clemson State (37) have won. ).
Also, if App State defeats Troy (10-2, 7-1 SBC), the Mountaineers will become the first team in the championship game era to win their third consecutive Sun Belt title and the Mountaineers’ sixth since joining the team. They will be competing for a 10-win season. 2014 FBS.
Since the move, App State has a 94-34 record, with more wins over Alabama (126), Clemson (118), Ohio State (115) and Georgia in that span. State (113 wins) and only Oklahoma State (102 wins). The Mountaineers also bowled for the eighth time in nine chances and have an overall record of 6-1 in bowl season.
App State opened the season with a 45-24 victory over in-state foe Gardner-Webb in front of 36,075 fans at Kidd Brewer Stadium. Junior quarterback Joey Aguilar had a come-out party in relief of the injured starter, a redshirt freshman. Ryan Berger. Aguilar completed 11 of 13 passes for 174 yards and four touchdowns in the win.
The Mountaineers then nearly defeated 17th/16th-ranked North Carolina in Chapel Hill, but lost 40-34 in double overtime. This game was the eighth consecutive game against five Autonomy opponents that was decided by seven points or less, including last year’s 17-14 victory over No. 6 Texas A&M.
App State enjoyed a commanding 43-28 home victory over in-state rival East Carolina to the delight of a record-tying crowd of 40,168 at Kidd Brewer Stadium. , they lost 22-19 against Wyoming, ending the non-conference game. slate.
Head coach Sean Clark’s team started 1-2 in Sun Belt Conference play until junior kicker Michael Hughes hit the longest field goal of his career, a 54-yard field goal, to make it 41-40 as time expired. I escaped ULM. Coastal Carolina turned it around a week later against Boone, winning 27-24 on a 24-yard walk-off field goal. Old Dominion then lost one consecutive possession and scored the game-winning touchdown on 28. -21 win with 48 seconds left.
In fact, all four of App State’s losses in 2023 were one-possession games in the final minutes, by a total of 19 points.
After starting 3-4, the Mountaineers have won five straight games to climb up the Sun Belt East standings and earn a matchup with Sun Belt West champion Troy on Saturday. Four of those games (48-38 vs. Southern Miss, 31-9 vs. Marshall, 42-14 vs. Georgia State, and 44-27 vs. Georgia Southern) were convincing wins.
The fifth was probably what declared App State the winner of the season. The Mountaineers ousted No. 18/21 James Madison from the undefeated team after a record-setting ESPN College GameDay crowd of 26,000 in Harrisonburg.
App State’s defense held James Madison to a field goal after the Dukes erased a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter to force overtime. On offense, Aguilar led redshirt junior wide receiver Kadin Robinson to an 8-yard touchdown that clinched a 26-23 overtime victory. After making a third-down catch at the 5-yard line, Robinson broke multiple tackles and stretched the ball into the end zone, signaling a celebration for the Mountaineers. App State’s win ended the Dukes’ winning streak at 13.
Aguilar needs 67 yards to break App State’s single-season record for touchdown passes in the regular season finale and become the Mountaineers’ single-season passing yards leader. The junior completed 247 of 389 passes for 3,271 yards and 33 touchdowns this season. The only quarterbacks entering this weekend’s title game with more touchdown passes are LSU’s Jaden Daniels (40) and Oregon State’s Bo Nix (37). Aguilar also ranks in the top 25 nationally in scoring (9th, 210), total offense (14th, 295.1), passing yards (17th, 3,271) and passing efficiency (21st, 157.50).
Aguilar’s top target was Robinson, who had 53 catches for 717 yards and 10 touchdowns. Junior wide receiver Kristan Horn – 29 catches, 502 yards, six touchdowns. And junior tight end Eli Wilson had 29 catches for 306 yards and five touchdowns. The running back tandem of junior Nate Noel (787 yards, five touchdowns) and redshirt freshman Kanye Roberts (595 yards, five touchdowns) gives App State a balanced attack.
Defensively, redshirt senior linebacker Andrew Parker Jr. had a team-high 103 tackles, and freshman linebacker Nate Johnson had a team-high 8.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks. Redshirt senior cornerback Tyreke Funderburk and redshirt sophomore safety Jordan Favors each boast four interceptions on the year.
A win on Saturday would clinch a fifth Sun Belt title for the Mountaineers, who won four straight from 2016 to 2019, and the first win by a road team in the conference’s six-year history. App State holds an 8-3 lead in the all-time series against Troy, including 7-1 at the FBS level and 4-2 at Troy.