App State starts 2009 workouts

By Steve Behr
 

Appalachian State’s football team spent almost as much time in hospital beds than it did in the weightroom over the winter, spring and summer.

The Mountaineers had no less than 29 players from the 2008 season undergo some type of surgery last year. The most known was the knee surgery done on quarterback Armanti Edwards, but he was hardly the only player who had to go under the knife.

Yet, Appalachian State head coach Jerry Moore liked how things went during spring practice and over the summer. Several Mountaineers stayed in Boone over the summer, and all of the players will report to Kidd Brewer Stadium Friday to begin fall workouts.

The Mountaineers actually will report Thursday night to get organized, then will hit the practice field Friday and Saturday. It’s a chance for the coaching staff to see the veterans mixed with a recruiting class that includes six players who played quarterback last year.

“We’ve had a lot of guys beat up,” Moore said. “We had 29 surgeries between August and the end of the season. But it gave us a chance to look at a lot of young players and we’ve had a chance to heel up a bit. We had a good spring and a number of players stayed over the summer. We were fortunate that a lot of kids want to stay around here. I’m excited about starting over.”

The Mountaineers will try to forget the last time they met at Kidd Brewer, a 33-13 loss to Richmond in the FCS playoffs. If preseason polls are any indication, expectations for the Mountaineers will be high.

Both the Southern Conference coaches and media made the Mountaineers a near-unanimous pick to win a fifth-straight league championship. Appalachian State also placed 16 players on the coaches’ all-SoCon teams, and six players on The Sports Network’s preseason All-American teams.

The SoCon coaches also voted Edwards, the 2008 Walter Payton Award winner, as the league’s preseason Offensive Player of the Year.

Appalachian State linebacker Jacque Roman is the preseason Defensive Player of the Year.
Moore said he doesn’t worry that much about preseason polls and just hopes the players on those lists can provide some leadership on the field.

“I really haven’t looked at the all-conference team,” Moore said. “I never put a lot of stock in that stuff. The thing I’ve hope for, and only time will tell, is the leadership factor. Sometimes to develop into a good team, maybe a little adversity isn’t bad. You have to be able to overcome it and find out what everybody is made of.”