Louisiana coach has memories of Sun Belt championship opponent Appalachian State
Louisiana football coach Billy Napier has a history with Appalachian State, and it goes beyond the Ragin’ Cajuns’ 27-17 loss against the Mountaineers in October.
Napier, whose team will again face App State – this time in the Sun Belt Conference championship game — Saturday in Boone, is a former all-conference quarterback at Furman who had a bit of success against the Mountaineers, splitting the two games he started against them in 2001 and ’02.
“A lot of good days, a lot of bad days,” Napier recalled. “Some of them I’d like to forget.”
Those were very different days, actually. The Paladins and Mountaineers were Southern Conference rivals and routinely squared off for supremacy, along with Georgia Southern, in a league that was among the most competitive in the Football Championship Subdivision (then known as Division I-AA).
Since then, Appalachian State and Georgia Southern have moved up to the Football Bowl Subdivision’s Sun Belt. Furman remains in the Southern.
“It was always very competitive,” said Napier, who’s in his first season as a head coach. “Those three teams were always in contention with each other. And what I like about (the Sun Belt) is that we can play against some of those teams in the old Southern Conference.”
Napier’s 16-year coaching career has kept him primarily in the south. He spent five seasons at Clemson, rising to offensive coordinator for the 2009 and ’10 seasons. After a short stints at Alabama, Colorado State and Arizona State, he took his first head-coaching job at Louisiana.
The early portion of the season was tough as the Ragin’ Cajuns (7-5, 5-3 Sun Belt) lost lopsided games at Mississippi State and Alabama and dropped a road contest to Coastal Carolina in their Sun Belt opener. Since then, Louisiana has gone 6-2 (including the loss in Boone) and beat Louisiana-Monroe 31-28 last Saturday to win the Sun Belt’s West Division and a spot in the league’s first championship game.
“We’ve been in playoff mode for several weeks now,” Napier said. “We knew we needed to improve and that if we’d keep winning we’d have a chance to advance. We’re in the championship game because of that.”
Awaiting them are the Mountaineers (10-2, 7-1), who after Saturday will play in their fourth consecutive bowl game since moving up to the FBS. The winner of the Sun Belt title game will go to the New Orleans Bowl; the loser will get a bid to another of the league’s bowl partners.
“They’ve always been a very competitive team, even from my time as a player against them,” Napier said of the Mountaineers. “They’ve always had an identity, they’re well supported and are in a good alignment with the athletic department and their fans. You’ve seen what they’ve done in their transition from FCS to ‘Group of 5’ ball.
“A winning tradition is undervalued, in my opinion. There’s an expectation of winning there. (Coach) Scott (Satterfield) places tremendous value on that.”
Satterfield, incidentally, said Monday he was not contacted by North Carolina officials about the vacant Tar Heels football job, which is reportedly going to Mack Brown (himself a former Appalachian State coach).
“No, I haven’t heard anything from them,” said Satterfield, who has a 50-24 record in six seasons with the Mountaineers. “I’ve said many times, when you have a program that’s consistently winning football games and doing it the right way, people are going to talk to you in a positive manner.”
Brown would replace Larry Fedora, who was fired Sunday. Satterfield was considered a possible candidate for the position.
“I’d rather be in these kinds of conversations than then other ones,” Satterfield said. “It’s a part of this time of year: there are a lot of bad things happening to coaches around the country.”