Next matchup for Charlotte 49ers and Appalachian State: Seven years too long to wait

Let’s fire off a quick note to Charlotte 49ers athletics director Mike Hill and Appalachian State counterpart Doug Gillin:

Mike and Doug,

We know contracts have been signed and dates locked in for your nonconference football games for the next seven years. But please try and figure something out — move some games around, call in some favors, something, anything — so the 49ers and Mountaineers can play again before 2026, the next scheduled meeting and the first of a four-game series.

Because after Saturday’s game in front of a crowd of 29,182 Kidd Brewer Stadium, a 56-41 Mountaineers victory, this is a rivalry that needs to be renewed.

Now. Every season.

Seven years is too long to wait for another game like Saturday’s, between two programs separated by 100 miles, decades of tradition and now with a new-found respect for each other.

Appalachian (2-0) showed why it’s a Sun Belt Conference power, ripping off big play after big play to score the most points allowed by the 49ers since 2017. Charlotte (1-1) put on a display of how far it has come under first-year coach Will Healy, especially after the Mountaineers trounced the 49ers 45-9 in 2018 in the first meeting between the two programs.

“This was everything we expected,” 9ers senior linebacker Jeff Gemmell said. “App State is a great team, credit to them. The atmosphere was really great. Niner Nation came out. But we didn’t do our part.”

The 49ers didn’t do their part, maybe, if all you’re thinking about is the win-lost record. Fair enough. But Charlotte showed it belonged on the field with the Mountaineers, who did everything they could do to subdue the 49ers, only to have the visitors pop up off the mat time and again. It was the most points by an Appalachian opponent in Boone since Miami scored 45 in 2016.

“This is not a moral victory,” Healy said. “Just competing with Appalachian State is not where we want to be. We’re not going to be everybody’s homecoming game any more. We’re not going to be a 24-point underdog to another ‘Group of 5’ team any more.”

Appalachian junior tailback Darrynton Evans was the game’s star, rushing for 234 yards and three touchdowns, including an 87-yard scoring run on the game’s first play from scrimmage. He added a 45-yard kickoff return off an attempted 49ers onside kick in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.

“Darrynton Evans,” first-year Appalachian coach Eliah Drinkwitz said, “was Superman out there.”

Said Healy of Evans’ early touchdown: “I got on the headset and said, ‘I don’t feel like this is the way it’s supposed to go.’ But when all around us are losing their cool, we’ve got to keep ours.”

The Mountaineers needed every bit of Evans’ offense, because Charlotte sophomore quarterback Chris Reynolds (now the unquestioned starter) threw for a career-high 294 yards and four touchdowns, and also ran for 76 yards (41 of them negated by being sacked four times). Tailback Benny LeMay ran for 118 yards and two touchdowns, and caught three passes for 34 yards.

Reynolds spread out his 20 completions to four players — freshman Micaleous Elder, seven for 119 yards; Victor Tucker, six for 90 yards and two TDs; Cameron Dollar, four for 53 yards and a touchdown; and LeMay’s three.

The game turned during a two-minute stretch that ended the first half, when the Mountaineers took advantage of a sack-fumble that resulted in a touchdown, then a blocked punt that led to another, to turn a 14-13 lead into a 28-13 halftime advantage.

“That’s Charlotte beating Charlotte,” Healy said of the end-of-half meltdown. “We can’t have those types of things happen.”

The teams both scored 28 points in the second half. The Mountaineers held leads of at least two touchdowns twice, but Charlotte rallied to make it a one-score game both times.

In the end, Appalachian had a two-touchdown victory and now has a bye week before heading to Chapel Hill to face North Carolina on Sept. 21, a game that will hold at least as much significance for the Mountaineers as Saturday’s against Charlotte. The 49ers are home to Massachusetts next Saturday.

For the 49ers, it was a missed opportunity, and it stung.

“It’s how we are as a football team,” Reynolds said. “It’s how our morale is. We won’t stop fighting. We’ve been through a lot of tough times, and we’re tired of it.”

Drinkwitz tried his best to downplay it.

“There really wasn’t a point where I worried about losing the game,” Drinkwitz said. “Any win is a good win.”

There you have it, Mike and Doug. Fodder for next year’s game — if only there was one.

This story was originally published September 8, 2019 at 4:40 PM.