Western Carolina at Appalachian State, 3:30 p.m.
ASU hits homestretch
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

Appalachian State coach Jerry Moore only has to remember a time when a playoff season was nearly ruined by an ultimate underdog.

Appalachian State, looking for some momentum heading into the 1994 season, faced the 0-10 VMI Keydets. A win almost seemed like a formality, except that VMI didn’t get the memo.

The Keydets pulled off a 26-23 upset, knocking the Mountaineers out of first place in the Southern Conference. Appalachian State recovered long enough to beat New Hampshire in the first round of the playoffs, but lost at Boise State 17-14 in the second round.

“I’ll always remember VMI,” Moore said. “They had not won a game and we lost to them. We were still in the playoffs and we had a good team, but we lost that game.”

This Saturday, the No. 7-ranked Mountaineers will be heavy favorites to knock off Western Carolina (1-8, 0-5), a team that is trying to salvage what is left of the 2007 season by winning the Old Mountain Jug.

“We need if for a lot of reasons, mainly because of who we’re playing,” Western coach Kent Briggs said of beating Appalachian State. “They’re playing well right now. They’ve won two national championships, which shows what kind of program they have.”

The Mountaineers (7-2, 3-2 SoCon) are trying to keep up three other teams — Wofford, Georgia Southern and Elon — in the Southern Conference standings. Should the Mountaineers win this Saturday and next Saturday at home against Chattanooga, they would do no worse than a tie for first place, even though they would not necessarily earn the automatic berth into the playoffs if there is a tie.

But that is still way into the future. Moore is more concerned about a Western team that scored 41 points in the second half in a 47-44 loss to the Terriers earlier this season.

Moore said the Catamounts got off to a rough start this season by losing to Alabama and Georgia, and then also losing to Eastern Kentucky, the first-place team in the Ohio Valley Conference.

“They’re a good team, but they had to overcome a lot of tough stuff,” Moore said. “They showed that against wofford. It showed volumes about their players and their staff. It shows the grit they’ve got.”

Western Carolina has struggled keeping the Mountain Jug over the course of the jug’s existence. Since 1985, Appalachian State has won the jug 20 out of 22 times. The last time Western won the jug was in 2004 when the Catamounts overcame an 11-point deficit and beat the Mountaineers 30-27.

The other time Western captured the jug was 1998 when Brad Hoover ran the Cats to a 23-6 win. Both games were in Cullowhee. Western Carolina has not beaten the Mountaineers in Boone since 1984 in Sparky Woods’ first season as Appalachian State’s head coach.

Overall, Appalachian State holds a 23-6 lead in the jug series and a 52-18-1 lead over the Catamounts in the overall series. Moore feels that good players and a good coaching staff have helped the Mountaineers maintain their advantage over the Catamounts.

“Number one, we’ve had good players,” Moore said. “I don’t know if ours are better than Western’s, but that’s the number one thing. The other thing is we’ve kept our staff intact. We have one guy (defensive coordinator John Wiley) who has been on staff with me since 1989, the first time we played against Western, and we have two (quarterbacks coach Scott Satterfield and offensive line coach Shawn Elliott) who have played against Western. That nucleus means a lot. They’re not out looking for jobs and stuff like that and our athletic department has taken care of everybody.

“I can’t speak for everybody, it I don’t thing there is anybody who comes to work all grumpy and wishing they were anywhere else.”

ASU also has a staff member, split ends coach Lonnie Galloway, who played for Western. Galloway quarterbacked the Catamounts from 1990-93 and is still the school’s career total-yards leader.

Western Carolina has not played since it fell to Wofford on Oct. 25.

“The thing about Western is that they’ve had almost two weeks to prepare for us,” Moore said. “They’re going to be fresh.”

Note: The New York Jets signed former Appalachian State defensive end Marques Murrell off the Philadelphia Eagles’ practice squad Wednesday, the Jets’ Web site reported.

Murrell signed with the Eagles as a free agenet April 30, was waved Sept. 1 and re-signed Sept. 3. He was a two-time All-American at Appalachian State, recording 36 sacks and forcing 18 fumbles.

Murrell is the younger brother of former Jets running back Adrian Murrell, who gained 3,447 yards from 1993-97.