ASU fills up

TSN team
From staff reports

PHILADELPHIA — Three-time-defending national champion Appalachian State shattered The Sports Network’s all-time record by landing 11 players on TSN’s All-America teams, the news service announced Saturday.

Offensive guard Kerry Brown, defensive tackle Anthony Williams, linebacker Pierre Banks and safety Corey Lynch headlined the Mountaineers’ first-team, All-American selections.

Quarterback Armanti Edwards and place-kicker Julian Rauch received second-team honors, while running back Kevin Richardson, offensive guard John Holt, center Scott Suttle, defensive end Gary Tharrington and cornerback Jerome Touchstone all collected third-team accolades.

Five additional Moun-taineers received honorable mention recognition — wide receivers Hans Batichon and Dexter Jackson, defensive end Tony Robertson and linebackers Jacque Roman and D.J. Smith. Roman and Smith fell just shy of inclusion on the third team.

Appalachian’s 11 TSN All-America selections broke the previous record of eight, set by Marshall in 1996.

The 11 total All-America honorees this season also toppled ASU’s school record of eight, set in 2006.

Northern Iowa had the second-highest total on TSN’s All-America squads with five.

Fox knows the Apps
Appalachian State University football has been a focal point during Fox’s broadcasts of last week’s Bowl Championship Series games.

Fox’s open for Tuesday’s Sugar Bowl broadcast with featured commentary from Appalachian head coach Jerry Moore and highlights of ASU’s 34-32 triumph over Michigan on Sept. 1.

Moore was joined in the opening piece by former Heisman Trophy winners Matt Leinart and Desmond Howard, Boise State running back Ian Johnson, infamous Stanford trombone player Gary Tyrrell and member’s of this year’s Trinity College team, which pulled off an improbable victory over Millsaps by lateraling 15 times for the winning touchdown on the final play of the game.

Monday night, a contingent of Appalachian cheerleaders and fans will be included in the announcement of the winner of the Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the Year contest during Fox’s broadcast of the BCS Championship game between Ohio State and LSU. Thanks to Corey Lynch’s block of a 37-yard field-goal attempt as time expired in the win at Michigan, ASU is one of four remaining finalists for the Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the Year. The winner nets a $100,000 grand prize for the school’s general scholarship fund.

Top sports story
Readers of USA Today and ESPN.com have ranked Appalachian football among the top newsmakers in all of sports in 2007.

In an ESPN.com SportsNation poll created on Dec. 18, the Mountaineers’ victory at Michigan ranks No. 1 among nearly 20,000 voters as the top sports story of 2007. Boise State’s Fiesta Bowl upset over Oklahoma, the Mitchell Report, steroids in sports and Barry Bonds’ chase of baseball’s all-time home run record round out the top five.

In the Dec. 28 edition of USA Today, readers voted Appalachian State football as sports’ second-biggest newsmaker of the year, behind only the saga of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick. Appalachian received 24 percent of the vote, behind only Vick’s 41 percent and more than double the 11 percent received by Bonds.

More accolades
National accolades continue to roll in for Appalachian following its 13-2 campaign, which culminated with an unprecedented third-straight NCAA Division I national championship.

The Sports Media Entertainment (SME) Network named Edwards as one of its nine Stars of the Year.

Edwards fell just 52 yards shy of becoming the first player in Division I (FCS or FBS) history with multiple 2,000-yard passing, 1,000-yard rushing seasons, finishing the campaign with 1,948 passing yards and 1,727 rushing yards.

Despite missing four-and-a-half games due to injury, the sophomore accounted for 38 touchdowns (21 rushing, 17 passing), including 16 in four postseason games. He set a Division I record for rushing yards by a quarterback with 313 in the Apps’ national semifinal win over Richmond.

Additionally, College Sporting News included Edwards, Lynch, Brown and Touchstone on its Fabulous 50 FCS All-America team, with Lynch, Brown and Edwards honored as CSN’s Defensive Player of the Year, Lineman of the Year and playoffs MVP, respectively.

ASU’s first three-time All-American since Dexter Coakley (1994-96) and first four-time all-conference performer since Chip Hooks (1991-94), Lynch finished second in voting for the 2007 Buck Buchanan Award, just five points behind Montana’s Kroy Bierman in the closest voting in the 13-year history of the nation’s premier defensive player-of-the-year award.

Lynch tied for sixth nationally with six total interceptions in 2007 and finished his illustrious career second in ASU’s all-time interception annals with 24.

A 6-6, 310-pound two-time consensus first-team All-American, Brown earned the Jacobs Blocking Trophy — awarded to the SoCon’s top offensive lineman — for the second-straight year. He helped pave the way for an Appalachian offense that finished as the nation’s top-ranked offense (483.5 ypg). Behind Brown, ASU also ranked among the nation’s top 10 in scoring (42.7 ppg — second), rushing (287.4 ypg — third) and pass efficiency (161.29 — sixth).

A lockdown cover corner who didn’t get many opportunities to makes a play on the ball due to his coverage skills, Touchstone finished with an interception, four pass breakups and 39 tackles on the season.