Commentary: This one’s

bigger than Michigan
By Steve Behr, sports editor
sports@wataugademocrat.com

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — They said it following their win in Ann Arbor, Mich. They repeated it Friday night in Chattanooga.

Beating Michigan is great. Winning a national championship is better.

Appalachian State has received quite a bit of publicity for its 34-32 victory over Michigan back on Sept. 1 and for good reason. They beat a team that was ranked No. 5 in the nation and was looking forward to competing for a BCS championship.

Tack on the fact that it was a win at Michigan Stadium in front of more than 109,000 and no wonder why some called it the biggest upset in college football history.

It made the Mountaineers famous. It got receiver Dexter Jackson on the cover of Sports Illustrated. It got coach Jerry Moore on ESPN, and the players were interviewed by major newspapers all over the country.

The New York Times even covered Appalachian State’s following game with Lenoir-Rhyne. Heck, even Lenoir-Rhyne coach Fred Goldsmith, a good friend of Moore, did an ESPN interview.

Yet beating Michigan did not complete the Mountaineers’ season. Beating Delaware did.

The 49-21 victory over Delaware gave the Mountaineers their third straight national championship. It’s what motivates the Mountaineers to do the big and little things that teams that want to win championships do, like their 5 a.m. running drills that they did in Varsity Gym over the winter.

There’s only one thing I like to do at 5 a.m., and running sprints isn’t one of them. I’m sure the players look forward to them like they might look forward to watching ice melt.

Yet for the past three years, they’ve realized their goal of winning a national title.

“I hope people think of the three national championships before they think of Michigan,” quarterback Armanti Edwards said. “Michigan did not put a ring on our fingers. This game did.”

Immediately after the Michigan victory, reporters asked several Mountaineers if it was the biggest win they’ve ever had. Their answers probably surprised them.

“It’s almost better, but it’s not the same as a championship,” cornerback Leonard Love said, even though he had a key interception in the Michigan game. “This is good for a different reason.”

The Mountaineers know that beating Michigan was a big deal, but it did not run their season. Had they lost, they merely would have reached the playoffs with an 8-3 record and a loss to a Big 10 powerhouse.

Maybe they would have had a tougher draw, but James Madison, Eastern Washington and Richmond seemed tough enough to me. I know that Appalachian State won in a blowout over Delaware, but the Blue Hens had to beat two very good teams — No. 1 seeded Northern Iowa and No. 4 seeded Southern Illinois — on the road.

However, they caught an Appalachian State team with an offense that, if it finds its rhythm early, can be nearly impossible to stop. It also did not help the Blue Hens that Appalachian State’s defense got better as the playoffs went on.

Most of the talking heads at ESPN probably care less that the Mountaineers are a three-time champion. When they talk about Appalachian State, they’ll say how they went to Ann Arbor and shocked the Wolverines and, with them, the sports world.

But when the Mountaineers get fitted for a third ring, they’ll remember that chilly night in Chattanooga and smile, knowing that they are a national champion.