Appalachian State QB Lamb makes positive debut for Mountaineers in loss

Taylor Lamb said he had a few jitters before he took the field for his first start as Appalachian State’s quarterback Saturday night at Southern Mississippi, but that they quickly dissipated.

He said he had prepared for the day from the time he began traveling on a team bus as a kid with his father Bobby Lamb, a former quarterback and coach at Furman who is now the coach at Mercer.

“As a quarterback, you always try to prepare every week like you’re the starter,” said Lamb, a redshirt freshman. “That’s what I did last year when I was a redshirt, and that’s what I’ve done this season. That’s kind of the mantra you have to have. You never know what could happen.”

Appalachian coach Scott Satterfield said he decided last week that Lamb would start instead of incumbent Kam Bryant. He said the change wasn’t so much a reflection on Bryant, but more about Lamb’s performance and his ability to make the right reads and quick decisions.

Lamb knew throughout the week of preparing for Southern Miss that he would be the starter, but he was expecting to rotate with Bryant. Lamb wound up playing the entire game. He completed 28-of-40 passes for 264 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for 39 yards — including a 27-yard scramble. Lamb’s 28 completions were the most for a debuting quarterback in school history. He threw two interceptions.

“I think Taylor came in and played well and had a great presence about him, very calm and collected,” Satterfield said. “At times, he took off and ran and got some first downs for us which were huge, keeping drives alive. And scrambling to make the throw to Malachi Jones for a touchdown was awesome.

“He had one critical error on the interception in the fourth quarter. The other interception was a protection issue. He got hit and the ball went straight up. He made a bad read on the other, but other than that he played solid.”

Satterfield praised the running ability of the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Lamb.

“He took it down several times and picked up some key first downs with his legs, and that’s something we need to do in this offense,” Satterfield said.

The Mountaineers moved the ball relatively well against Southern Miss – running for 191 yards and passing for 264 – but missed opportunities for points, largely because of misfires in the kicking game. Three missed field goals – one blocked – and had a blocked extra-point try resulting in a 21-20 loss.

“We didn’t put much on the board,” Lamb said. “We were getting in the red zone and couldn’t convert. We came out in the second half with a good plan and executed it, but at the end we just didn’t finish it. We’ll learn from this and come back stronger.”

Running back Marcus Cox said he was impressed with Lamb’s first start.

“Taylor played great, I’m very proud of him in his first start,” Cox said. “He has a bright future. He showed a lot of poise in those last drives when we were down, and he led us down the field twice to tie it up.”

Lamb’s second start will be on an even bigger stage: in the Mountaineers’ first Sun Belt game, Thursday night at rival Georgia Southern on ESPNU.

“They’re solid on defense,” Lamb said. “They change up the coverages a lot, and they know how to disguise it a lot. Obviously, we had a good game against them last year (a 38-14 victory in Boone), and we know they’ll definitely be ready for us this year. We’ll go down there prepared to give it our best shot.”