After surviving in Monroe, the Apps return home for a statement game

Photo: App State Athletics/Matthew Barnes

Four turnovers, 471 yards allowed to a generally anemic Warhawks' offense and an early 14-0 hole made things a lot more interesting than they needed to be for the Mountaineers last weekend against ULM.

It was ugly. Top to bottom, the shakiest performance of the season but the Apps found a way to sneak out of Monroe with a 41-40 victory on the right foot of Michael Hughes, who walked it off with a 54-yard field goal.

One week after a 2,000-mile road trip that ended in heartbreaking fashion, it was another long trip for the Mountaineers, who looked sluggish from the onset. Coming off a bye week, ULM came out with a much different offensive gameplan than in their first three games, aggressively throwing the deep ball with great success as the App defense struggled to adjust.

It leaves the Appalachian coaches and players with a lot to correct as they prepare to face a Coastal Carolina offense led by Grayson McCall. Despite a pedestrian start to the season by his standards, he will have a field day if the defense is not significantly sharper on Tuesday.

In their first East division match-up of the season, this is where the rubber meets the road for the black and gold. After a frantic first five games of the season, we will learn a lot about the 2023 Mountaineers when they return home to The Rock.

Can the Apps start fast at home?

In their first two home games of the season, Appalachian trailed into the third quarter against heavy underdogs Gardner-Webb and East Carolina. While they were able to pull away late for relatively comfortable wins, Coastal figures to present a tougher challenge, particularly the veteran combination of McCall and wide receiver Sam Pinckney, who will surely be looking to take the top off of the Mountaineer defense.

This week, there is no travel to contend with and the Apps will have the benefit of a sellout crowd behind them and an extra three days to recover and prepare. If they dig themselves in another early hole, it may not be as easy to claw their way out against a game Chanticleers squad that would love nothing more than to spoil the festivities.

Coastal is still in search of their first Sun Belt win of the season after consecutive losses to Georgia State and Georgia Southern. Getting an early lead could go a long way towards putting some doubt in their minds and getting them out of their comfort zone.

Where do both of these teams stand in the Sun Belt pecking order?

Since the Sun Belt split into divisions in 2018, App State and Coastal have represented the East division in every championship game. There is a bit of an asterisk there, as JMU won the East in 2022 but did not play in the title game due to their ongoing transition from FCS to FBS. However, the point remains that they have been the class of the East in recent years.

This year, both programs seem to be something of an afterthought with JMU (5-0, 2-0), Marshall (4-1, 1-0), Georgia State (4-1, 1-1) and Georgia Southern (4-1, 1-0) all off to hot starts. The Mountaineers can ill afford a loss on home turf if they are going to reestablish themselves as title contenders.

As for Coastal, a loss would drop them to 0-3 in conference, end any outside hope of a title and make even bowl eligibility an uphill climb. Recently, they have been plagued by some of the same issues as the Mountaineers. Despite out gaining Georgia State and Georgia Southern, they lost both games by two scores.

Against the Panthers, it was red zone execution that failed them. In four trips inside the 20, the Chants came away with just three points. Against the Eagles, it was four interceptions from Grayson McCall that did them in.

With their backs against the wall, you can expect the Chants to pull out all the stops on Tuesday to get out of Boone with a victory. The Apps will have to match their intensity and keep their composure to prevent that from happening. With a win, the Mountaineers could serve notice that they are not to be forgotten about in the East just yet.

Turnovers could determine this game and more

Because it happened almost immediately, it may be easy to forget that App has been without their QB1 coming out of fall camp. After being named the starter just prior to the Gardner-Webb game, Ryan Burger broke his finger in the first quarter and has been sidelined for the last month.

Joey Aguilar has stepped in admirably and while it has been something of a mixed bag, there has been more good than bad in my view. He is coming off his first 300-yard passing game and has completed 60% of his passes with a better than 2:1 touchdown to interception ratio.

He is an aggressive player who can stretch the field and when needed, make plays with his legs. If there were any lingering doubts, after orchestrating a game-winning drive with no timeouts from his own 19 yard line and under a minute to to play, Joey proved he has the stomach for it as well.

The primary area of concern, however, is ball security. After committing just one turnover in the first two games, Aguilar has given the ball away six times (four interceptions, two lost fumbles) in the last three. It has also been trending the wrong direction with one turnover against ECU, two at Wyoming and then three at ULM.

It was a tight quarterback battle throughout the offseason to begin with and putting Burger on the field outside of maybe a couple preset packages would be very surprising. A nationally televised divisional grudge match is a tall ask for what would essentially be his debut game. Plus, despite the giveaways, Joey accounted for 384 yards of offense and three touchdowns last week.

For now, it is safe to assume that the job is his and with a win on Tuesday, that conviction would likely be even stronger. Where Shawn Clark and the Mountaineer staff could have a tough decision to make is if the turnovers persist against Coastal and it either costs them the game or requires them to limit the offensive playbook.

Both for the team and a starting quarterback looking to put his long-term stamp on the job, it will be a statement game when Coastal comes to town.