App State played the last game of the season at the Rock this past Saturday. The Senior Day celebration featured an opportunity for a 6th win and to gain bowl eligibility and send our seniors out on a winning note. Unfortunately, none of that happened and the Mountaineers ended the season with a last minute Arky State TD drive followed by a missed FG attempt in the final seconds to lose 30-29 and put an end to the season.

The Good-

Senior class- these guys have seen more losing than any senior class I can remember since the FBS transition, but they continued to play hard for App State and I appreciated all they have given and endured.

RB- Trigg Lewis continues to impress and rushed for 108 yards on 22 attempts. As the season progress, the true freshman got better and better to a point that he appears to be the best of our backs in my eyes. Let's all hope and pray that we can find a way to keep him in Boone as I suspect the tape he has put together this season, especially the past few games, will get him serious money offers.

Dalton Stroman- had a nice final game with 3 catches for 64 yards and a touchdown. Continued his career motif of catching the tough balls while often missing the easier one. I know he catches a lot of flack on here but I give him a ton of credit and think he represented our team really well during his time on the mountain. Everyone has their own crosses to bear, but I can't imagine how tough it is being on the autism spectrum and yet still playing at a high level of college football. I think a lot of the "bad" that people associated with Stroman is just a result of who he is, and he can't help that. Perhaps I am too easy to give him a pass for things like dropping a football, but I do.

The Bad-

Defense- giving up nearly 450 yards a game is not a winning strategy. Although I do think the defense has actually improved as the season progressed, it has not been nearly enough. We make bad football teams look good and this was no different.

Special teams- in a bit of irony, the best part of our game let us down this week. Pretty much anything that could go wrong on special teams did go wrong. The most glaring issues were the blocked FG, muffed kickoff, and missed game winning FG. It was not a good game for our special teams.

The Ugly-

App State lost a third home game for the first time since joining FBS. Let that sink in a bit, it has been over a decade since we lost this many games at home. We finished the season worse than last year at 5-7 and every other year in FBS. I wish I could find something good to say but the last half of the season has been the worst App State football that I have witnessed since my freshman year in 1988. We went from 4-2 with a 4th quarter lead over Coastal to losing that game, the next 3 after that and finishing 5-7. ABJECT FAILURE of the second half of the season. I can't think of a season in which I watched our team get worse as the season progressed.

Play calling and clock management- ANY TIME the home team gets the ball, with the lead, with 5:37 left to play.....the home team should win. There was no need to rush, no need to hurry, why would we ever snap the ball with anything less than 5 seconds on the play clock is a mystery to me. But we did. We had a 1st and 10 at the 32, with 2:01 left in the game. How did we not milk that clock down? But we run 5 plays.....5 plays in less than 30 seconds!!!!! Sure we got a FG but we gave them the ball back, down only 6, with 1:34 to play. Do they not teach clock management in the NFL, where was that combined 93 years of NFL coaching to help run the clock down? So frustrating.

Undisciplined football- While we did limit out turnovers to only 1 fumble with no interceptions, and we did have less penalty yards than our opposition (on more penalties), we still didn't play clean enough. The best and most glaring example of this is have a winning TD called back because of illegal formation penalty coming out of a timeout. This single penalty really sums up the entire season, undisciplined mistake takes points of the board. Oh, and lets not forget the numerous dropped balls including a sure fire touchdown early in the game. We played undisciplined the entire season, so none of this should have been a surprise to anyone.

Good - Trig is the man!;
Bad - Great play call . Penalty killed us
Ugly- D .. when we needed you most.

Lock Trigg up in the NEZ. Take his phone away, don’t let anyone talk to him.

Seriously, would be a huge boost if we could hang on to him.

GO APPS!!

I put the defensive effort in my Good. Three takeaways. Three Sacks. Four tackles for losses. Six Passes Defended:
In four 4th Quarter possessions: grabbed an interception and forced two punts. Front Line making plays, LB's rallying to the ball and grabbing an INT by clogging the passing lanes.

The Bad: Five for 16 on third down attempts. Responded to their three and out in the 4th quarter with a three point lead and the chance to extend it......with our own three and out because we couldn't convert a 3rd and 1.

The Ugly: Coaching down the stretch:
> Didn't manage the clock well for the second week in a row, ran tempo instead of running the play clock down. (We snapped the ball with 28 seconds, 14 seconds, 10 seconds and 12 seconds left on the play clock in our "with the lead" 4-minute drill.)
> Made the right play call, but didn't execute on 4th and 1. Butch Davis was coaching from the sideline, inside the 20 on that drive. Where was DLo?
> Then, kicked a field goal instead of having the confidence in your offense to make a play on 4th and 6.
> Then, called a prevent defense vs. guarding the boundaries and putting the QB in duress with pressure (which we had done a good job at during the game.)
> Then, put the kicker on the wrong hash to end it. (Yes, we had to pick up a first down to have a chance.) But, there has to be an awareness.

WITH UNDER TWO MINUTES LEFT WITH A CHANCE TO GO TO A BOWL GAME, WE HAD THE BALL INSIDE THE OPPONENTS 10 yard line, WITH A THREE POINT LEAD and we lost. IT NEVER SHOULD HAVE COME DOWN TO A 7th FIELD GOAL ATTEMPT!