App State has put themselves in position for a Sun Belt Championship

See Adam Gold's show, I'm Adam Gold. Graham Hill producing the program. He's on the ones and twos. Trying to impress the host with Grateful Dead music.

That's fine. I found out that there are Grateful Dead songs that my wife likes. And also Fire on the Mountain for App State. Oh, very good. On the Mountain.

Very, very good. And we're all set for the Sunbelt Championship game. App heading to Troy to take on the Trojans there.

Before we welcome in our guest, shouts to all of our friends up on the hill, up on the mountain at The Rock, those friends at App. And if you're listening in Asheville, ESPN Asheville, shouts to all you. Appreciate Brian Hall keeping us on the air there. All right, Kirk Morrison is the analyst who will be on the game.

Eight-year NFL veteran linebacker with the Raiders and Jaguars and Bills and now a college football analyst at ESPN. I know App didn't win their division, but what impressed you about going to JMU and knocking off the Dukes? Well, they knocked off one of the most successful teams in all of college football over the last couple seasons, not just the Sunbelts. That's what impressed me that they went into an environment and did not flinch, even had to go to overtime to get it done.

And that's what really impressed me, especially when you talk to Coach Signetti, formerly of JMU, now with Indiana of recent. But they didn't handle, obviously, the game day experience well. They didn't handle having college game day, sort of the eyeballs of college football on that game, that particular matchup, that particular setting as they've been there before, right? They had it against Troy and they ended up winning the game on one of the craziest plays that we've seen at the end, but they know what that environment was like. They won the football game against James Madison. So to me, when there's this conversation about, hey, James Madison should be in the conference championship. I think App State and coach Sean Clark, they've got a real, I think they have the right to say, you know what? We actually beat the actual conference leader or the king of the East. So it gives, give them some a homage and playing in this game.

Oh, there's, there's no question. I mean, look, I mean, I, I said, it's, it's so easy to like poke fun at the NCAA cause it seems pretty logical that if you're, if you're like transitioning up a level, it's silly to make you also wait. When you train, when you transition up, I could get, if you were dropping from FBS to FCS, I can, I could certainly understand, you know, saying you guys need to pump the breaks for a little bit. So I think JMU should have been eligible for everything as they transition up. But with that said, I can also throw in talking to Sean Clark this morning, actually was like, it's not like app state didn't have to go through that same process eligible too. So he understood, Hey, this is also, this actual rule held us back when we first came from the FCS to the FBS. So I think that was also to a lot of other eyeballs that were looking and say, Hey, you did this to us.

Make sure you do it to them as well. What's interesting is that, um, because there's a, there's a, where we are in Raleigh, there's actually a ton of app state fans and they were mad when I'm friends with, I'm actually fairly good friends with the AD who made, helped to make the decision and transition them from FCS to FBS. And they had a lot of things in place. They had to do very little in the way of, uh, you know, facilities improvements. They were just, there was some structural things, but really not that much to get themselves, uh, ready for FBS level athletics to, to get the trans the athletic department up there. Um, and, but the fans were upset because they were winning championships at that level.

And it took them like all of one year to start, to start winning 10 games. So I guess my roundabout question is to you, Kirk Morrison of ESPN about culture and how you, how would you describe the culture of app state football? Uh, it's one it's unique. Yeah.

And then why I say it's unique is because the culture is winning. When you hear app state, no matter what you think of some of the more monumental victories that they've had thrown in Texas A&M, obviously Michigan, those big games, but you know that when you play against them, you've got to bring your a game. This is not a game in which you can kind of mess around and hope to get it to the fourth quarter. No, you're going to play a 60 minute football game and then some right.

They'll take you to overtime. And so that's the culture that they have had for a very long time. And then now I look at, you know, just the way that the Sunbelt conference has been, you still got to deal with app state. Now there have now there have been the Louisiana has come up in coastal Carolina of recent James Madison over the last couple of years, but the one team that ain't going nowhere, it has been there is app state. They've won this conference.

What is it now? Four times or six times? How many conference championship games they've been in? If you don't, you can't start with the Sunbelt unless you start talking about app state. So as much as all this fun stuff has been going on and you've got new teams and who joined the conference, it's still been about app state and they win this game on Saturday versus Troy.

I don't think that I'm definitely wouldn't be shocked. I give them a strong chance together with the people in Vegas say I give them a big shot at winning because of what we just talked about the culture and the brand of app state. Kirk Morrison from ESPN will be on the call of the game at four o'clock on ESPN Saturday when app state takes on Troy on the road. The road has been unkind to app state. Obviously, they won in was Harrisonburg when they beat JMU there. And the the truth is is that their offense has other than that game, their offense is really cranked up over the last several. The defense might not be vintage app state defense, but their offense is cranked up. Yeah, their offense has been great. Remember they've had with Noel being banged up a little bit at running back there. They've had to go to different guys and running back by committee.

And remember, Joey Aguilar just got there. It's like the quarterback has been there multiple years. He wasn't even the day one starter, right? You know, you go into week one, you're like, okay, we got a quarterback. He, he gets, you know, injured, enter Aguilar. And that's what the process of this season has been is a quarterback who transferred from junior college from Northern California comes all the way to Boone, North Carolina.

So you already know the adjustment he had to make, but then he had to learn a system. He had to learn, you know, just what he can be in this offense. And I think it took them for the latter part of the first half of the season. And now you start to see that consistent play. And this is a team that was tied up.

I think I have last week versus Georgia Southern, and then end up winning that game, you know, by 30 points. Like it's just, that's where this team is. They are explosive.

They are one of the best. So when you look at the conference in terms of scoring, but you can't talk enough about Joey Aguilar, like I've been really impressed and I've watched him throughout the season. And if I told you that you had boat nicks and Jayden Daniels, and then, Oh, Joey Aguilar terms of touchdowns thrown this year in college football, you would, you would blink your eye.

You would be shocked, but that is the case. He's the third leading thrower of touchdowns this season in college football. That's how well he's played. I think the offense is reflecting that over the last couple of weeks. Yeah. Over 3000 yards passing 33 touchdowns, nine interceptions, not going to make a lot of Heisman lists.

Obviously. Bo Nix is probably going to make a lot of Heisman list. Jay, you know, Daniels from LSU is going to make a lot of lists for the Heisman trophy, but you know, the, these types of games, the Sunbelt championship or just Sunbelt games in general, they provide some fireworks.

And I mean, I'm sure you've, you've spent a lot of time watching tape on app and Troy and watching a lot of games. I mean, what kind of game are you anticipating here? Well, you got to think it's often versus defense, right? The one, the best offense in the Sunbelt versus the best defense in the Sunbelt.

Right. And we love those matchups. And then you hope to get something on the opposite sides too, from both teams that really make this a close game.

And that's what I'm really envisioning right now. This is going to be a close game that goes down to the wire. And then you have, look, you have the defending champion in Troy, who's trying to hold onto the trophy they're playing at home, but then you have app state who's run the conference for the better part of when they said they've had championship games. That's what excites me about the matchup too. And it's funny that we've got some superstars now to write commodity Vidal, who just was named player of the year in the conference.

Well, I mentioned Aguilar he's, you know, the newcomer of the year. So you've got star power and you got some outstanding coaches too, right? John summer all over at Troy and obviously shark Clark and what he's been able to maintain while at app it, this has been, to me, it has a ton of star power. This is, you know, one of my things that I loved about championship weekend is that the program is on full display, right? You've made it to the championship weekend.

It's a great infomercial for the university. And as we get ready to start the recruiting process, if I'm a lot of schools, I'm going to continue to look at where can I go to play on these platforms, play these types of games and get the recognition. I think a lot of these players are going to get this weekend. Should be a blast, an absolute blast.

Four o'clock on ESPN. Kirk Morrison will be there. We look forward to checking you out. I appreciate your time, Kirk. Not any time. I appreciate the time, fellas. Thank you. You got it.

Kirk Morrison here from ESPN. Cash prizes every day ads up when you play at pulse casino, pulse.com over 700 casino style games and counting and no terrible lounge singer promise. Hey, that's pretty mean. There's always a new reason to play cash prices every day of the week. P u l s z.com pulse in your pocket. You can play anywhere. P u l s z.com.