Scouting Report: App State
CHAPEL HILL – Appalachian State and North Carolina have met just once before on the football field, and it occurred six years before Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice became a Tar Heel.
UNC opened the 1940 season with a 56-6 victory over App State and the programs haven’t met since. But the Mountaineers will visit Kenan Stadium on Saturday in a game that many prognosticators see as fairly even.
App is in its first year under Eliah Drinkwitz as head coach, but the program has been successful for a couple of decades. It has UNC’s respect, as was clearly articulated in Chapel Hill this week.
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Here is some of what UNC Coach Mack Brown, his coordinators and two key players had to say about App earlier in the week:
Mack Brown
On the difficulty of scouting App, which has two comfortable wins in which it didn’t have to show much…
“You looked at Wake playing Rice and playing Utah State, which our guys know nothing about, and they (Wake) didn’t play with the energy against those two that they did against us, this is a very similar situation. So what we’ve told our guys, ‘Watch the athletes don’t watch the energy’ because the energy in our game Saturday is going to be totally different from their first two games. So it’s really a wasted video for us other than just a few schemes.”
On App having a chip on its shoulder coming in…
“Absolutely, it’s 100 percent. We’ve played them once in 1940. This is a great opportunity for them to beat a Power 5 school. Them, like Boise, like Central Florida, are trying to be that New Year’s group of five bowl team with the highest rating. Their schedule’s not such that unless they beat somebody like us that they’ll be able to do that most likely.
“So this is a huge game for them. That’s what I’ve told our guys, they better look at it as a huge game for us.”
On App QB Zac Thomas…
“He’s a young man that can run and throw. He’s very athletic. A lot of our guys know him, they talk about him being such a great leader such a great young man. He’s a very accurate thrower. He’s really a good football player.”
Defensive Coordinator Jay Bateman
On the offense new App State Coach Eliah Drinkwitz runs if it’s different from what Scott Satterfield ran…
“I think Eli is running his offense, which is really good. I think it’s what he did at N.C. State. You can watch it and pretty much put it together. It’s a little bit hard to tell because I don’t think they’ve been super challenged the first two games… We’ve got to be prepared for lot more offense than is on film and that’s going to be a challenge. We’re watching a lot of N.C. State film and applying it to their personnel.”
On how much App having WR Corey Sutton back change its offense…
“He’s a really talented kid. I think Hennigan, five, is really talented. So any time you’ve got two receivers that are both talented guys ad both bigger guys it gives you some concern. So obviously, we’ve been watching him in our offseason study. He’s a really talented kid, an ACC player, I think.”
Offensive Coordinator Phil Longo
On what he sees from App’s defense that impresses him…
“Twenty-Four (…) is a good football player, he’s really productive. Number seven in the back end is really, really good. And up front, 48 is a physical kid, so those are probably three of the stronger players we’ve identified at App State. We’ve got to know where they are and we’ve got to be able to handle them.
“App is a little blend of a number of opponents we have seen, they’re going to use a good mix of man and zone coverage. They’ll cloud the corner at times (and) will try to get two over on Dyami (Brown) I’m sure. They’re going to stack the box and they’re going to try to stop the run and they’re going to force you to beat them with the throw. At least that’s what they’ve shown in the first two games.
“They do a good job of stacking the box and gapping off the run game, so for us to establish the run game that we want, that we intend to get established, we’re going to have to do a good job physically and technically up front.”
Defensive tackle Aaron Crawford
On what App State does well offensively…
“They’re a very fast o-line, very quick. The line is not as heavy as I’ve seen, actually the lightest o-line we’ll face all year. But the way that they scheme and athletically, they’re running fast and flat and get up to the second level, get up to the backers and safeties. So, I feel like we’re just able to stay square and be able to get penetration but not too much to create vertical seams, I think we’ll be able to effectively knock it back.”
Quarterback Sam Howell
On what impresses him about App State…
“They’re a really good team. Their program has done a lot of really good things. Just the way their guys play, you see it on tape, they play hard and you can tell they expect to win every game no matter their opponent. They took Tennessee and Penn State the past few years both to overtime. So it doesn’t matter who they’re playing, they’re going to expect to win.”