Appalachian State University Mountaineers Celebrate After Their Div. I-AA National Championship Win in Chattanooga, Tennessee Against UMass
(Image by Mike Rominger, an Alum of Appy State - from ASU's Road to a Repeat site - a must see)
College football is, until the latter half of the eighth month of this year, over. The Byzantine bowl system has concluded, the rank-calculating cyborgs have returned to their cyborg-nests, and the college fans have either begun settling for professional violence or started dreaming of future collegiate battles. Before I joined the ranks of these good folks, though, I wanted to reflect on college football in Appalachia this year, cause frankly, it was a doozy. There are a whole lot of good things to say – Washington & Lee’s program is way up (not to mention the gradual return to the old winning ways of my alma mater, Emory & Henry), Bridgewater has posted a tremendous record over the last several years (72-13!). East Tennessee University decided to restart their squad and Marshall became the focus of a feature film. In Division I football Kentucky, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Wake Forest all made bowls, with Kentucky and West Virginia pulling out W’s. And Wake? Hell, their coach, Grope, won D-I coach of the year after leading WFU to their best football season ever in their 105, that’s one-oh-five, seasons.
But the biggie, the super biggie, maybe the ultra biggie, was that Appalachian State University won the D-I-AA national championship for the second year in a row – and, on top of that, the Mountaineers’ coach, Jerry Moore, won his division’s Coach of the Year Award as well.
Well, all that said, I want to throw out some ASU links to ya’ll. Am I inspired by their victory? Nah, that isn’t it, really. Rather, it’s the level of support that has poured out of every corner of the hills for this unsung university, words and images that have really moved me, frankly. I dunno’. I just felt like sharing.
From Appalachian Sports Information
From the Battlefield to the Ball Field
Moore Wins Second-Straight AFCA National Coach of the Year Award
National Champs Place Six on The Sports Network’s All-America Teams
From the Appalachian State Alumni Association
Coaching Moves
The Day After 2
Into the Congressional Record
More Appalachian News
One Day Until Chattanooga
Road to a Repeat: Appalachian State University
From the Blue Ridge Blog
Appalachian State v. UMass Index
Appalachian Fan Photo Album
File This Post Under: The Little Things I Don’t Want to Forget . . .
Just a Few Images From Last Night
Words Can’t Describe. . . Or Maybe They Can
Sports Illustrated
Superfans 1, 2, & 3
This Old State
Economist: How ‘bout Those Apps!
Congrats, sons and daughters of Yosef.
1 comment:
Cool post. The whole Appalachian State story has been fun to watch this year. I have to say that this year was the first time that I made an appointment to sit down and watch an entire 1-AA game on television. And it was great.
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