The roots of Appalachian State's current success are built upon the same foundations most dynasties at the Division I level of college football are built upon—hard work, a passionate following, and top tier talent at the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level.
After missing the playoffs for the second-consecutive season in 2004, ASU’s seeds of success were sewn in the most unlikely of places: the visiting locker room at Western Carolina.
The Mountaineers had just dropped a 30-27 decision to the Catamounts, which meant the Mountaineers would miss the playoffs for the second straight season and finished the campaign with just a 6-5 overall mark.
It was an evening where the silence in the locker room was deafening after suffering defeat to their archrival, but the loss proved to be a necessary step in the right direction for the Apps.
The Mountaineers were in their first year running the wide-open spread offense they run to this day, and a young team was able to put together a 6-5 mark.
However, while most programs would see such a record as progress toward a winning record in a season running a new offense, that was not the case at Appalachian State—a school that had almost treated playoff appearances as second-nature during the Jerry Moore era.
After finishing with a 7-4 record in 2003, the Appalachian coaching staff decided to make the first of several drastic changes that would pay off in a major way two years later.
The Mountaineers had run a basic Power I formation mixed with a solid play-action passing game for 15 seasons under Moore. Moore wasn’t much for change, however, with the Mountaineers’ struggles to maintain their billing at the top of the SoCon ladder.
Moore knew it was only a matter of time before ASU’s SoCon brethren would eventually be on even ground with the Mountaineers. A trip to West Virginia in the spring of 2004, and the Mountaineers now had a new recipe for success, as the Apps would be running the Rich Rodriguez spread offense.
In the first trial run for the spread offense in ‘04, the Mountaineers were able to do some pretty good things on the offensive side of the football, and finished the season ranking third in the league in total offense (425.5 YPG.), scoring offense (33.3 PPG.), and led the league in passing offense (322.6 YPG.).
There were, however, a number of concerns in the inaugural season utilizing the new offensive scheme. The Mountaineers’ running game had virtually been non-existent, as the Mountaineers ranked last in the league in rushing offense (102.9 YPG.).
Another concern which was not directly attributed to the offense was the play of a young defensive unit, which accounted for the worst defense Appalachian State has fielded in the storied history of the tradition-rich football program.
The Mountaineers’ young defense yielded 400.7 YPG., ranking seventh of eight in the SoCon in total defense and also ranked seventh in scoring defense (32.5 PPG.).
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