A year ago, a college football season began like it never had before.

On a warm, sunny Saturday, the first day of September, Appalachian State went to Ann Arbor, Mich., and beat fifth-ranked Michigan 34-32 in an upset so profound it, in fact, changed college football.

For the first time, a school from the NCAA's Football Championship Series, (formerly known as Division I-AA) had beaten a top-10 program.

It caused the national polls/ to change their rules to allow Appalachian State to receive votes for the Top 25 and it would add quarterback Armanti Edwards' name to the list of potential Heisman Trophy winners.

The victory stamped Appalachian State's name into the national consciousness, not just among football fans but with others who heard about the football team from the North Carolina mountains that went to mighty Michigan and took down the giant.

This is the story of how it happened.

It began with an e-mail.

Mike Flynn, Appalachian State's sports information director, was scanning his e-mail one January day last year when he noticed Michigan needed an opponent to come to Ann Arbor to open the 2007 college football season.

Appalachian State needed a game, too, so Flynn flipped the e-mail to associate athletics director Jay Sutton, who handles scheduling for the program.

Sutton had heard no so often from big schools that another rejection wouldn't hurt. Big-time in-state schools wouldn't play the Mountaineers but, at least, Louisiana State, Florida, Georgia and Virginia Tech had agreed to future games. Michigan, he thought, would be perfect.

Sutton mentioned the possibility to coach Jerry Moore.

“Let's go play those guys,” Moore said. “Make them tell us no.”

Michigan had never played a formerly Division I-AA team, but two national championships made Appalachian State different. If Michigan ultimately says no and it means Appalachian State is left with only 10 games, Moore told Sutton, it's worth the gamble.

“We want to go to Ann Arbor,” Moore said.

On Feb.12, 2007, the deal was done.

Appalachian State would receive $400,000 to play at Michigan in front of more than 100,000 fans.

The next morning, as the Mountaineers concluded their 6a.m. offseason workout, Moore walked into the gym and told the players they were going to play the Wolverines on Sept.1.

“We get to go to the Big House,” quarterback Edwards remembers thinking.

Moore, with six months to get his team ready, felt the same way.

“Appalachian will never ever have the chance to do this again,” Moore recalled. “I thought, what a place.”

Michigan's fight song

On Monday, Aug.27, five days before the Michigan game, the soundtrack inside the weight room at Owens Field House had only one song.

The Michigan fight song.

“Hail! To the victors valiant,

Hail! To the conquering heroes

Hail! Hail! To Michigan

The leaders and the best.”

“I wanted them thinking about (Michigan players) Mike Hart and Chad Henne and Mario Manningham and how they were going to hear that all day on Saturday,” strength and conditioning coach Jeff Dillman said. “They all yelled at me to turn the song off but I kept the keys to the office in my pocket that week.”

Otherwise, Michigan week was meant to feel like every other game week for the Mountaineers.

The practice plan was the same. The playbook was the same. The feeling, surprisingly, was the same.

“We didn't have to talk to them about how big it was,” Moore said.

Voice of experience

Moore is a tough man with a soft touch. A Texan by birth and upbringing, his coaching philosophy is structured around solid fundamentals but progressive enough that he adopted a no-huddle offense in 2004 that transformed the program from good into a three-time national champion.

He tends to do his own motivating, but when a friend told Moore about an acquaintance who had played on North Carolina's 1966 team that beat Michigan 21-7 in Ann Arbor, Moore was intrigued.

When practice ended on Wednesday afternoon, Moore had his players huddle on the field. Then he introduced them to Battle Wall, a Charlotte businessman with a summer home in nearby Linville, and a story about playing football in the Big House.

“I told them I had been fortunate enough to play on a team that had played at Michigan and we'd beaten them,” said Wall, a packaging executive who had played on the defensive line for the Tar Heels. “I told them there wasn't anybody in the world who thought we could go up there and beat them that year.

“I told them they were about to embark on the experience of a lifetime... When that fight song started and the bleachers started banging, it'll be like nothing they've ever witnessed.

“But I told them to see it as an opportunity to do something they would remember forever as I did.

“I told them when we were there, before the game started, one of our coaches pulled us aside and said, ‘Look at all these people here celebrating. Now envision after we kick their fannies what their faces are going to look like and remember to look around then.'

“I touched my chest with my fist and told them it was something they would carry in their hearts forever.”

Their first flight

A storm hit Boone on Thursday afternoon, the rain, thunder and lightning wiping out what was to be the Mountaineers' final heavy practice before going to Ann Arbor, adding an unnecessary worry for the coaching staff.

But Edwards and freshman receiver Coco Hillary were concerned about something else. The flight to Michigan from the Tri-Cities Airport would be the first time either had been on an airplane.

“I'm a country boy at heart,” said Hillary, from tiny Edgefield, S.C., 30 minutes from Edwards' Greenwood home. “Everywhere we ever went, we drove. Getting on that plane, it was nauseating a little bit.”

Edwards felt the same way.

“I like to keep my feet on the ground,” said Edwards.

Sitting a row behind Hillary on the plane, Edwards saw the receiver holding the hand of a teammate.

The Big House

On most Fridays when the Mountaineers are on the road, they do a short walk-through at the stadium to get acquainted with their surroundings. The serious work has already been done.

This was different for two reasons – the Thursday workout had been rained out and this was Michigan.

Moore, who has coached college football since 1965, had been to every Big Ten stadium but Michigan. When the team bus approached the famous stadium, he was as interested as the players to see it.

Because most of the stadium is built below ground level, it does not appear overwhelming from the outside. But with an official seating capacity of 107,501, it is the second largest stadium in the United States.

Built in 1927, the stadium is a large oblong bowl. It is historic but, compared to other more modern stadiums, not imposing, especially from the outside where only 20 rows of bleachers are visible.

“People make so much of the Big House, but the buildup was bigger than the reality when we walked in,” offensive line coach Shawn Elliott said. “When you've been to South Carolina or Georgia or LSU, those stadiums are overwhelming.

“We were like, well, it seats a lot of people but it's not that impressive. It's old. That took some of the mystique away.”

It was also empty.

ASU linebacker Pierre Banks knew exactly where he was when he walked inside that Friday afternoon. A student of college football culture, Banks understood the history surrounding him.

“Growing up every Saturday, it seemed like Michigan was the big game on ABC at 12 o'clock. I'd get up, eat my cereal, watch cartoons then watch Michigan,” Banks said.

“Just to see where Charles Woodson, Desmond Howard and the A-Train (Anthony Thomas) had played, I was in awe. When I saw the bricks behind the end zone, I knew where I was.”

Belief in themselves

The Mountaineers understood what they were up against. Michigan was ranked fifth because it was big, strong and dangerous.

Quarterback Henne, running back Hart and receiver Manningham were stars.

Many of the 109,218 fans in the Big House that day didn't know exactly where Appalachian State was located.

What mattered to the Mountaineers was their belief they could win.

“Sure, you think you're going to win and you want to and you're prepared to,” Moore said. “But, realistically, you know they can't play their best (to) be able to do it. They have to mess up, make some turnovers and we have to eat up the clock.

“Things have to happen to a win a game like that.”

The Appalachian State game plan was simple – maintain a crisp pace on offense with its no-huddle scheme but attempt to burn the clock by mixing short passes with running plays in hopes of tiring the Wolverines.

Moore and his staff sensed Michigan might have trouble dealing with Appalachian State's no-huddle offense because it was unfamiliar to the Wolverines.

“People think for games like this you have to devise new schemes,” Elliott said. “We did the same things we do every Saturday.”

There were a few concerns.

One was the status of Edwards' left shoulder, which had been injured two weeks earlier in a scrimmage. He didn't throw a pass for almost two weeks, finally testing his arm lightly in the walk-through on Friday.

On game day, the stadium was louder than the Mountaineers expected. They were starting Brett Irvin, a freshman center, and they had to rely on a silent count, something they hadn't practiced. It meant rather than have Edwards bark out signals, Irvin – who had been playing for Gaffney High (S.C.) a year earlier – would look between his legs and when he saw the quarterback point at the ground, it was up to him to snap the ball when he was ready.

With no previous practice, Irvin would make 78 silent-count snaps in the shotgun formation without a mistake.

Shocking touchdown

Michigan scored on the game's first possession, putting Appalachian State in a 7-0 hole when it got the ball for the first time .

On the Mountaineers' first play from scrimmage, they ran into the middle. On the second play, Edwards threw a short pass. On the third play, the game changed.

The play was called “Y shallow” and it was intended to take advantage of gaps in Michigan's defense. Dexter Jackson was the “Y” receiver in a formation with two wideouts on the left, three on the right.

Jackson broke free immediately, split the two safeties and Edwards whipped a pass across the middle to his receiver, who outran the defense for a 68-yard touchdown just 96 seconds after the Wolverines had scored.

On the sideline, defensive back Leonard Love of Charlotte thought to himself, “Already? Was it that easy?”

With the game tied 14-14 in the second quarter, Jackson scored again on “Y” shallow,' this time taking advantage of a Michigan blitz to catch a 20-yard touchdown pass.

By halftime, Appalachian State led 28-17 and the world outside Ann Arbor and Boone began to take notice. Around the country, televisions were turned from other games to the Big Ten Network broadcast from Ann Arbor.

Appalachian State offensive coordinator Scott Satterfield stayed in the press box at halftime and munched popcorn while the team regrouped downstairs. His group had put four touchdowns on the board in 30 minutes, but Satterfield was a realist.

“I never got to the point where I thought we were going to beat Michigan,” he said.

Michigan rallies

After all of it, the noise, the nerves and everything else, it came down to a single play.

Michigan had roared back, taking a 32-31 lead on Mike Hart's 54-yard touchdown run with 4 minutes, 32 seconds remaining.

But the Mountaineers responded, taking the ball downfield and getting a 24-yard field goal from Julian Rauch that put them ahead 34-32 with 26 history-making seconds remaining.

It could have been the end but it wasn't.

Desperate, Michigan completed a 46-yard pass that left the Wolverines at the Appalachian State 20-yard line with six seconds remaining. As Michigan kicker Jason Gingell prepared to spoil the Mountaineers' moment, hope and heartbreak came crashing together on the Appalachian State sideline.

“That's when you start thinking about everything you've done. We've come so close. We've come this close to shocking the world,” Satterfield thought.

Waiting on the field for the deciding kick, Banks didn't like what he was thinking.

“I said to myself, I knew it was too good to be true,” Banks said. “In my mind, I knew they were going to come back. It's Michigan.”

The thought crossed Moore's mind that his team was going to lose.

“I wanted him to miss it,” Moore said.

On the first day of preseason practice, nearly six weeks earlier, the Mountaineers had practiced blocking kicks. It is, Moore said, the first thing they practice every season.

Defensive back Corey Lynch and a couple of teammates were so effective blocking kicks that first day, Moore asked John Wiley, the special teams coach, if the players were offside. They weren't. They were just that quick.

Earlier in the Michigan game, Lynch had blocked a kick. This time, when the ball was snapped, Lynch blasted into the backfield without a blocker on him when a Michigan back stepped outside to block another defender.

Lynch found himself with an open path to Gingell. Rather than throw himself into the air in an effort to block the kick, Lynch ran into the ball with his arms raised.

The ball hit the ground and bounced into Lynch's arms. He ran downfield 62 yards, carrying the ball and the upset with him. When he was finally tackled, the game was over.

Elliott, the offensive line coach, stood in silence.

Love, a defensive back, pointed to a Michigan lineman and said, “We beat you,” then ran to the 50-yard line and looked up at the big stadium.

Hillary, who had made a critical reception to set up the winning field goal, was in tears.

“I didn't know what else to do but cry,” he said.

Edwards, who had waited out Michigan's last drive while lamenting three turnovers he'd made, looked around in amazement. He had rushed for 62 yards, completed 17 of 23 passes for 227 yards and three touchdowns but lost two interceptions and a fumble, mistakes the Mountaineers survived. In the locker room amid the excitement, Edwards had another thought. He was worried, he remembers, about the plane ride home.

‘We were like rock stars'

That night, after all the sweaty uniforms and dirty shoes had been packed into the Appalachian State panel truck, equipment manager John Welch decided to take a different route back to Boone.

While the team flew home and was greeted by national television crews and hundreds of fans upon their arrival near midnight, Welch took the Appalachian State bus through Columbus, home of Ohio State University, Michigan's biggest rival.

As the truck rolled through the edge of town, car horns began to honk. Students stretched out of windows to wave at the truck. It felt like a convoy.

“We were like rock stars,” Welch said.

The day after

Jerry Moore slept a couple of hours before going to Sunday morning services at Mount Vernon Baptist.

Everyone, Moore remembers, seemed to be smiling.

“I remember thinking the only thing better would be going to heaven,” he said.

Moore would give the team Sunday and Monday off to enjoy their accomplishment and deal with the attention. In the Appalachian State football office, a bouquet of roses arrived from Michigan State with the message, “You light up our life.”

At 3p.m. Sunday afternoon, almost 24 hours after the game had ended, Moore and his staff gathered in the meeting room adjacent to his office to review tape and start to plan for next week.

As the meeting began, the office phone rang. It was Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, calling to congratulate Moore and his staff. The coaches hadn't had a chance to speak after the game and Moore understood the impact the loss would have on Carr, who would soon announce his retirement.

It was a short conversation.

“He couldn't have been more genuine,” Moore said.

In six days, Appalachian State would play another football game – at home against Lenoir Rhyne in front of 75,000 fewer fans than the week before.

Mail would pour in for months afterward, including a $200 check from a woman in Oregon with no ties to the program who just wanted to contribute something.

Moore has never cashed the check. He understands people wanting to be part of something extraordinary.

“You'll never really put it to rest,” Moore said. “It's like winning Augusta or the U.S. Open or the World Series. You don't forget.”

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