Mountaineer freshman leads App to five wins as starter

By Steve Behr

sports@wataugademocrat.com

It would be easy to think that Armanti Edwards would be the toast of the Appalachian State campus.

The Greenwood, S.C. native took control of the defending I-AA champion Mountaineers offense when he was named the team’s starting quarterback against Mars Hill five weeks ago. Following that game, a 41-0 Appalachian State victory, Edwards has led the Mountaineers to five straight victories. In three of them — blowout wins over Gardner-Webb, Elon and Chattanooga — Edwards has been named the Southern Conference’s Freshman of the Week.

Yet there is Edwards, every Monday, with his fellow quarterbacks, junior Trey Elder and senior Chase Laws, working after practice with the Mountaineers’ receiving corps, working on their timing.

“I’ve just got to keep coming in and do what the coaches ask of me,” Edwards said. “The receivers want to get their routes down and our timing down.”

Even when the workout is over, Edwards trots to the freshman locker room, which is used as the visiting team’s locker room on Saturdays, while his upperclassmen teammates head to the regular dressing room.

True, it’s because of a lack of space more than any hazing, but the freshman quarterback has remained humble throughout his rise to the top of the Appalachian State depth chart.

“Not many people realize who I am yet,” Edwards said. “I just go to class like every other ordinary person. I get a lot of congratulations, but that’s about it.”

It would be easy for Edwards to gain attention. Whether he’s running the option or throwing touchdown passes to a top group of receivers, Edwards has provided the spark to the offense that head coach Jerry Moore was counting on.

Going into Saturday’s game at Georgia Southern, Edwards has hit 72 of his 112 pass attempts for 1,038 yards. He has tossed eight touchdown passes, just four interceptions and has been sacked just four times.

His 79-yard touchdown strike to Dexter Jackson in ASU’s 56-21 demolition of Chattanooga was the longest play from scrimmage this year. It also came from the pocket, where he has grown more comfortable as the season’s gone on. Edwards, a lefty, does not have a rocket launcher of a left arm, but it’s not a weak arm, either.

Quarterbacks coach Scott Satterfield said it didn’t matter that Edwards or fellow South Carolina quarterback CoCo Hillary were both under 6-feet tall and under 200 pounds.

“We didn’t care about his size,” Satterfield said. “We wanted an athlete at quarterback and if (Edwards) didn’t pan out, we could covert him to defensive back or wide receiver. Ultimately, we ended up taking both of them.”

Yet as big of an impact that he’s made on the offense, Edwards is the last one to gobble up the credit.

A player who lets his actions do the talking for him, Ewards does not exactly fill up a notebook with clichés and quotes.

But that doesn’t mean he does not know what he’s talking about when it comes to football. While he may not  be as polished as last year’s starter, Richie  Williams, he is putting up tremendous numbers. His 311-yard passing effort two weeks ago against Chattanooga was a career high and earned him the SoCon’s Freshman of the Week award for the third straight week.

“He’s really learning the offense,” Satterfield said. “He’s got to learn all of the signals and he’s got to know every formation and where certain players are in the formation. At this point in time, we’ve got the whole offense in and he’s picked up on it well.”

Edwards said he has learned a lot from watching film of opponents and from increased reps in practice. He finally got to play a complete game last Saturday in Appalachian State’s 14-7 win over Wofford.

Edwards also has learned how to deal with the faster game of college football by practicing against the Mountaineers’ defense, which allows the fewest yards in the Southern Conference.

“Playing against our No. 1 defense every Tuesday and Wednesday, I kind of got used to it,” Edwards said.

Satterfield said the offense has enough leaders, so Edwards doesn’t have to worry about that. He wants his quarterback to just run the offense and the respect from the other players will come.

“At this point, right now he’s just the quarterback,” Satterfield said. “By making him play, each week he’s gaining more respect from the players. You can’t come in the first week as a starter and then be the leader. That comes from facing adversity and by making plays. He threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown against Elon and then on his next drive, we scored. Those are things that earn respect. Next will come the leadership.”

As long as Edwards continues to provide victories, the leadership won’t be too far away.