ASU reminds all that Michigan was last year

Winning three straight national championships is a sure way to elevate expectations, but Appalachian State's victory over Michigan last season raised the bar to unprecedented heights.

The Mountaineers have a lot to live up to, and they'll be tested with perhaps the toughest season opener in program history. They'll face LSU, fresh off a national championship itself, on Saturday in Baton Rouge, La.

How much is too much?

"With the national championship and beating Michigan, that bar is set very high," said Brad Coley, an offensive tackle for the Mountaineers. "People expect more out of you every year. You feel that and sense that.

"Michigan was a great team. LSU is a great team. We do want to follow up and go play our best. At the end of the day, if we go in and play our game and do what we need to do we'll compete with LSU. That's all we're after."

That in itself is a tall order. Whether last year's upset against Michigan was in part brought about by a sufficient match-up with Big Ten speed, or the possibility of an overconfident opponent, a big and fast LSU team has no reason to overlook the Mountaineers on Saturday.

"We're not sleeping on them," said Kirston Pittman, a defensive end for the Tigers.

Jacque Roman, an Appalachian linebacker, said that follow-up to past successes is a growing challenge.

"People do expect more out of us," Roman said. "We expect more out of ourselves, too."

"But," receiver T.J. Courman said, "We try not to put any pressure on ourselves. We'll just go out and play football."

Armanti Edwards, the Mountaineers' prolific dual-threat quarterback who has gained recognition along with top quarterbacks at the higher bowl-division level, knows that his role will be magnified Saturday. He'll be on a national stage, against a renowned program and in a game televised by ESPN.

"Basically the whole world is going to be watching us," Edwards said.

Edwards, who has rushed for 2,741 yards and passed for 4,199 in 26 games, certainly has LSU's attention.

"He's quite an athlete," said Tyson Jackson, a defensive end for the Tigers. "It's special what he can do.

"Me personally, I think he could be anywhere in Division I football playing at any college right now."

Pittman said: "He's a guy we're really going to have to key on and we've been keying on him the last few practices…. Their offense is amazing.

"The Spread offense is really hard to contain, really hard to stop. We have to be fundamentally sound and everybody has to be accountable and know where No. 14 (Edwards) is at all times."

Jerry Moore, Appalachian's coach, said that last year's Michigan upset keeps coming up in conversations, but that his team has tried to ignore the clamor and focus on the significant task at hand.

"It's strange how everything gets compared to Michigan," Moore said. "We're always trying to tune it out and put it behind us."

Appalachian players said that, while confidence was gained from last year's victory against Michigan, Saturday's game against LSU will stand on its own.

"There's not a play we made against Michigan that will help us against LSU," Courman said. "That was last year. This is a whole different game."

Coley said: "The Michigan game was a great win. But I think it's one of those things you've got to put behind you. It's a new year. We don't have exactly the same team that went up to Michigan last year. You can use it as motivation a little bit, but you really can't play off that too much. It still comes down to us having to go in and playing really good. LSU is a great team."

The Mountaineers do try to keep things in perspective, linebacker Pierre Banks said.

"The thing we won't lose sight of is, while, yeah, it is a big game on a national level and there is a lot of talk and interest in it, for us it's not a game that factors in our conference or even at our level (championship subdivision)," Banks said. "Our goal is to win the Southern Conference and this game won't factor in that.

"That said, it doesn't mean we're not going to go try to win it. We are a different team, but what last year showed is that if you play hard and to the best of your ability anything can happen."

■ Tommy Bowman can be reached at 727-7320 or at tbowman@wsjournal.com.