The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Appalachian State Edition

Be careful what you wish for.

All week long App State faithful brought their A game on Social Media, in anticipation of the biggest event in the history of Boone, N.C.

But their team failed to bring it on the field, and the Miami Hurricanes improved to 3-0 with a surprisingly (to some) lopsided 45-10 thrashing of the Mountaineers.

The Appalachian fans wanted the ‘Canes bad.

Well they got em....

Brad Kaaya (21/27 for 367 yards 3 TD’s 1 INT) was back to being his marvelous self, the D continued to be dominating, and this was never really a close contest.

The particulars below.

The Good:

• Mark Walton’s 80 yard 1st Q run was an absolute statement. Walton went over the century mark yet again today.

• Exactly! Lots of swag today. This is how you do it on the road.

• Very reminiscent of Dorsey to Winslow.....

• Brax is really coming into his own. The play stood obviously!

• Corn Elder is a future NFL CB. He’d later add a sack.

• David Nkoju’s stiff arm.. Did Duke Johnson teach him that?
• Great response by the team, especially Kaaya to Richards on a deep ball. This was key, when App State thought they had something going.

• Stacy Coley was a big time factor today as well.
• When announcers say your team only has 7 tackles for loss (in the first half) thus far on the day, and you think to yourself, “yeah that seems low for them.”

The Bad:

• Just when everything is rolling, you give up an 80 yard TD from Marcus Cox. Not sure what happened to the left side of the D on that one. Good thing it was called back.
• The 2nd Q defensive pass interference call against Sheldrick Redwine that wiped out what would have been his first INT was an awful call.
• Hardly matters now, but yeah.. Vegas dropped the ball here.

The Ugly:

• You never want to see a good player hurt.... even on the opposition.

Not a whole lot else to complain about.

Team Grades:

Offense - Kaaya was sharp from the onset, especially on third down. His 4th down INT in the second half was a bad read though. Njoku was wide open in the corner of the end zone. The O line still made a few mistakes, but was very good for the most part in pass protection. Dayall Harris got involved in the game plan, and that was nice to see. Richards, Coley, and Njoku were unstoppable. Joe Yearby made a special cut on his third Q TD run.

A-

Defense - Lots of early aggression seems to be this group’s calling card. Mike Smith got some burn at LB and looked pretty good, even recording his first career INT. Chad Thomas was in full fledged beast mode today. They did let up a second Q drive where the gap control was MIA, but for the most part this unit was once again stellar.

A

Special Teams - Michael Badgley drilled a 44 yarder. The coverage units were solid when needed.

B+

Coaching - I love the early tempo by the offense. Clearly the Mountaineers were caught a bit off guard, and the O took what was given. The ‘Canes came into a hostile environment and took the crowd out of it early. That’s how it was done by the Ol’ School Miami teams. Kudos to the staff for having these guys more than ready. Nice game planning as well. This team is more mature than what I expected at this point of the season. Coach Richt and his guys deserve a ton of credit for that as well.

A