Appalachian State vs. Louisiana: 5 things to watch for in Sun Belt title game
Appalachian State plays Louisiana in the Sun Belt Conference championship football game at noon Saturday at Boone’s Kidd Brewer Stadium (ESPN). Here are five things to know about the game:
What’s at stake
The winner wins the Sun Belt, obviously, but it will be the first time the conference has decided its championship in a title-game format. (The Mountaineers either won or shared the league championship in 2016 and ’17.) Saturday’s winner will play in the New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 15 against a team from Conference USA. The loser will play in the Cure Bowl on Dec. 15 in Orlando, Fla., against a team from the American Athletic Conference. It will be the Mountaineers’ fourth consecutive bowl appearance since joining the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2014.
A little history
The East Division champions Mountaineers (9-2, 7-1) and West winners Ragin’ Cajuns (7-5, 5-3) played a regular-season game on Oct. 20 in Boone, with App State winning 27-17. The Mountaineers’ Darrynton Evans ran for 183 yards and a touchdown. The victory vaulted App State into the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in program history, a spot the Mountaineers lost the next week after a 34-14 defeat at Georgia Southern. App State clinched a spot in the title game with a 21-10 victory last week against Troy.
Losing to App State dropped the Ragin’ Cajuns to 3-4 for the season (1-2 in the league), but they would win four of their final five games and clinched their spot in the title game with a victory last week against Louisiana-Monroe.
Excellence in all three phases
App State has both the Sun Belt’s top offense and defense. The Mountaineers lead the league in scoring offense (37.1 points per game), scoring defense (15.4), total defense (278.2 yards per game), passing defense (153.8) and rushing defense (124.4). Also, Evans leads the league in kick returns (30.2-yard average and a 100-yard return for a touchdown against Penn State) and Clifton Duck (Butler High) is the league’s top punt returner (13.2 average and a touchdown against Gardner-Webb).
Quarterback matchup
The Mountaineers’ lone conference loss, to Georgia Southern, came after quarterback Zac Thomas left the game in the first quarter with a head injury. Thomas would miss App State’s next game (a 23-7 victory against Coastal Carolina), but has been his usual, efficient self since. Thomas completes 63.6 percent of his passes and is also dangerous with his legs, rushing for 417 yards and eight touchdowns.
Cajuns quarterback Andre Nunez completes 65.9 percent of is passes, on pace to set a single-season school record. But Nunez can also hand it off to running back Trey Ragas, who has run for 1,040 yards and eight touchdowns.
Key third downs
The Mountaineers defense averages 5.64 three-and-outs forced per game, second nationally to Alabama (5.75). But the Cajuns don’t give ball back that willingly. Their third-down conversion rate is 49 percent (75-of-153), ninth in the country.