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Looking Ahead
Moore says that his Appalachian State team will put its season-opening loss to LSU behind it
AP Photo
Charles Scott (32) ran for a 56-yard gain on LSU’s first play from scrimmage against Appalachian State.
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Published: September 1, 2008
BATON ROUGE, La. - Appalachian State kicked off its season six hours earlier than expected on Saturday and, going against a ready-to-go LSU team, saw chances of another big-time upset take an early exit.
LSU, ensuring that it wouldn't follow Michigan as a victim, rolled to a 31-0 halftime lead against the Mountaineers and went on to a 41-13 victory.
Coach Jerry Moore, whose Mountaineers knocked off Michigan in last season's opener, was disappointed in his team's first-half performance but chalked it up as a learning experience and said that it will move on.
"We would have gotten a lot of notoriety and stuff (with a win), but it wouldn't have meant a thing in our conference," Moore said. "Our goal is to prepare and win the Southern Conference championship. That is our goal. I think we wasted four hours if we didn't leave here thinking we can be a better football team."
The game was moved from a scheduled 4 p.m. start (central time) to 10 a.m. to allow for evacuation plans in preparation for Hurricane Gustav.
The Mountaineers had an early wake-up call and arrived at Tiger Stadium at 7:45 a.m., but receiver CoCo Hillary said that there were no major issues with starting early.
"It was nothing for us, getting up at 6 o'clock in the morning," Hillary said. "We do that all the time. It was actually better for us. We didn't have to sit around the hotel waiting all day and thinking about it too much."
The Mountaineers were looking forward to the added exposure of being on ESPN, but, with the starting time changed, the game was moved to ESPN Classic. ESPN is available in more than 94 million households, about 30 million more than ESPN Classic.
Charlie Cobb, Appalachian's athletics director, said that didn't have significant impact for the first season-opening meeting between a defending BCS champion (LSU) and defending NCAA FCS champion (ASU) .
"I think we got most of the publicity before the game," Cobb said. "We got so much exposure all week long because of this game."
It was more of an issue for some fans, some of whom planned to arrive in Baton Rouge Saturday morning, anticipating an evening game. But many arrived Friday, and they adjusted well. Mark Boyd, an ASU fan from Raleigh, already was thinking menu change for an early tailgating. "Jambalaya omelets," he said.
The Louisiana heat was another issue. The temperature was 87 degrees at kickoff, and soared well into the 90s by game's end.
Malcolm Bennett, a defensive tackle for the Mountaineers, said that he felt the heat. And LSU kept the heat on, rushing for 266 yards.
"I have to give credit to the heat," Bennett said. "It was tough out there."
LSU's speed presented more of a problem.
"Those guys run so well," Moore said. "Where normally you have a good play, maybe a big play, it's a 2-yard gain. It wasn't like they had three guys that could run. They had 11 guys on the field that could run."
There were a few bright spots for the Mountaineers. Moore said that he was pleased with the kicking game, including punter Neil Young and new place-kicker Jason Vitaris, who made both of his field-goal attempts.
And the Mountaineers apparently escaped with no serious injuries, other than perhaps wounded pride. DeAndre Presley, a freshman who made his debut as backup quarterback, did hurt a shoulder and will be evaluated.
Eight players made their first start for the Mountaineers, including Bennett; wide receivers Hillary, Blake Elder, B.J. Frazier and Brian Quick; defensive backs Mark LeGree and Dominique McDuffie; and defensive end Quavian Lewis.
Moore said that he was pleased with his team's response from the 31-0 deficit. The Mountaineers outscored the Tigers 13-10 in the second half.
But too many early mistakes resulted in an insurmountable deficit against the No. 7 Tigers.
"The defense had a little problem getting in the right alignment and with assignments in the first half," Moore said. "I heard coaches on the sideline or on the headset say, ‘It makes a lot of difference when you line up right.' We did a lot better job of that in the second half."
Offensive tackle Brad Coley said: "There were probably 10 to 15 mental mistakes that we made across the board. And you can't do stuff like that when you're playing a team like LSU."
Moore said he thinks his team, which will play its home opener against Jacksonville on Saturday, will bounce back.
"If we go back and work -- I mean really work -- and we don't all get our feelings on our cuffs and just work then we can become a good football team," he said. "If we don't, we'll be just another football team."
■ Tommy Bowman can be reached at 727-7320 or at tbowman@wsjournal.com.
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