TE Cardwell takes

on key role at ASU
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

Nic Cardwell is yet another feel-good story when it comes to Appalachian State football.

Cardwell is another walkon who has had a successful career with the Mountaineers. The Kernersville Glenn graduate redshirted in 2003 and played his first full season in 2004 as a backup to Daniel Bettis when the Mountaineers went 6-5 and missed the playoffs for the second straight season.

Since then, it’s been nothing but championships for the 6-foot-1, 230-pound Cardwell. He earned a ring with the Mountaineers in 2005 and 2006. Friday, he and the rest of the Mountaineers will try to make it three straight when they take on Delaware in the FCS national championship at Chattanooga, Tenn.

Cardwell is not necessarily quarterback Armanti Edwards’ first choice. In fact, Cardwell has seven receptions this season.

But he has played a key role in the Mountaineers’ last two victories. He caught a pass for 12 yards on a fourth-and-two that gave Appalachian State a first down and set up a Julian Rauch field goal that ended up being the difference in a 38-35 victory over Eastern Washington two weekends ago.

Cardwell made even a bigger impact last Friday by catching two touchdown passes, the Mountaineers’ final two scores of the game, in their 55-35 win over Richmond.

“I didn’t have a single idea that I would catch a touchdown,” Cardwell said of his first touchdown Friday. “It was awesome. They called the play and the play before, I got called for a holding call, so they had to bring it back. Then they came back and throw a play right to me and I was like ‘I planned it that way.’ It was just awesome to get two touchdowns in my final home game.”

Cardwell is one of the Mountaineers’ team captains on offense, even though he is not necessarily known as a pass-catching tight end. However, he also has a knack of finding the end zone. He lone reception in 2006 was a 13-yard touchdown in the Mountaineers’ 45-28 win over Coastal Carolina in the first round of the playoffs.

His first reception this year was a 38-yard catch-and-run in ASU’s 48-7 victory over Lenoir-Rhyne.

Cardwell is also one of the Mountaineers’ spiritual leaders and attends the team’s Bible study meetings. He gave credit to the Lord for just allowing him to take the field. He had a painful neck injury last year, but still played in all 15 games.

“It’s definitely a blessing and a great opportunity,” Cardwell said. “Corey (Lynch) and I were here when we were 6-5 during the rough times. I think the 6-5 season gave us the opportunity to know how to react to adversity.”

It really didn’t matter to Cardwell where he would play for the Mountaineers. It also doesn’t matter what he’s asked to do while on the field.

Mostly, his role is to block for Edwards and for running backs Kevin Richardson and Devon Moore. Edwards stunned Richmond by gaining 313 yards on the ground.

“Coach (Jerry) Moore talked to me about being a walkon and I said ‘I’ll do whatever you ask me to do. If you need me to block, I’ll block. If you need me to run routes and catch balls, I don’t care.’ I think that’s the attitude of a lot of guys on the team. Do whatever it takes to win.”

Appalachian State has been doing plenty of that lately. The Mountaineers (12-2) have won their last seven games and has won eight of their last nine. They take on a Delaware team that has beaten two seeded playoff teams — Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois — and is making its first appearance in the national championship since the Blue Hens won it in 2003.

Cardwell said the Mountaineers are playing with the confidence that gives them the feeling that even if things go wrong, such as when Richmond scored three straight touchdowns to tie the Mountaineers 35-35 in the third quarter, they can recover and win the game.

“We knew that it wasn’t going to be easy and just a clean run,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of great leaders and they’ve done a great job.”

Playing close games, Appalachian State also beat James Madison 28-27 in the opening round of the playoffs, has paid off for the Mountaineers. Losing close games to Wofford (42-31) and Georgia Southern (38-35) also helped build the Mountaineers’ character, according to Cardwell.

“When it got tied up today later in the second half, it helped to have seen adversity after seeing Georgia Southern and Wofford,” he said. “We knew we had to keep playing and playing hard.”