Appalachian State, the three-time defending national champion, has quality Football Championship Subdivision talent, mountains of it.

But do the Mountaineers, who open their season at No.7-ranked Louisiana State on Saturday, have leaders?

“I think we've got good talent and good ability,” coach Jerry Moore said recently. “But what kind of leadership we've got, that's the paramount thing right now. Who's going to step in and be the leaders on this football team?

“Because the bottom line is, I don't care if you're an NFL team or if you're Watauga High School (in Boone), leadership ultimately becomes the difference.

“That's huge for us – finding leaders.”

So many of the players who led, on the field and off, are gone. Receiver Dexter Jackson and safety Corey Lynch are in the NFL. Perhaps a half-dozen more have also departed, their eligibility expired.

Three of those leaders – , Trey Elder (student assistant), Nic Cardwell (tight ends) and John Holt (offensive quality control) – are former players coaching this year. They tie this year's team to last season's that much tighter.

A religious strain has run through many of Moore's Appalachian teams.

“We have a big contingent of players who are real active in their church,” Moore said. “Like in our Bible study web on Wednesday night; Corey Lynch was big in it. Blake (Elder), Nic Cardwell, about 50 or 60 kids.

“Blake will obviously continue that too. That kind of leadership; they're important to us. The way we run our program, that's a huge part of it.”

Moore stressed that no one is required to attend Bible study.

“When we finish practice on Wednesday, I tell them, ‘Don't forget Bible study tonight at 8 o'clock.' They go to the training table and eat and they come back over there; we've got some pizza for them to eat.

“But that's a huge part; Blake is big in that; really big. He speaks at a lot of churches, a lot of youth groups around the mountain area.”

This season, Blake Elder, a receiver from Duncan, S.C., will do more than that. Someone always reads the team's Bible “victory verses,” 2 Samuel, Chapter 22, before each game.

Elder, prompted by Cardwell, who had been doing the reading, volunteered his services.

“I thought that was awesome,” Moore said. “Nic had been doing that for three years and now it's Blake's turn. In two more years, Blake's going to pass that on to somebody else.

“I think that's what makes us a little bit different. I think a thing like that is one of the driving forces for our football team.”