2026 Sun Belt Preseason Awards and Poll

[AppDub]

Every Appstate game is exciting to me. Count me as one who is optimistic that this year will be a good one!

[AppStFan1]

Every Appstate game is exciting to me. Count me as one who is optimistic that this year will be a good one!

I am cautiously optimistic. Sun Belt is wide open so I feel like the championship will be determine based on who has the best coaching and culture. On paper no team in the league looks superior to everyone else.

[spacemonkey]

I will continue to beat this into the ground. A running quarterback will open up a lot of options for our offense. If we score often I think we have a chance. I don't think the defense will be stopping a whole lot. Just my two cents. I hope I am right about the offense and wrong about the defense. I would love to see a scrambling quarter back hit a wide open tight end for 20 or tuck and the tight end take someone's head off as our quarterback runs for 20 or 80. That is the dream.

[Stonewall]

I’ve said the same thing, for years. It does concern me when coaches don’t seem to see the benefit.

[mike87]

A running QB is more impactful in college football than NFL. We have so many hundreds of years of NFL experience on the sideline it's understandable that they would have missed on it.

[T-Dog]

Dowell has been a running QB convert since immediately after last season. Also believe the new OC will help with that and bring some different flavors to the play calling.

[ASUFan4863]

I wouldn’t call him a convert. He wanted an RPO QB last season but did not feel comfortable with any after not landing Singleton. Swann was better than he will ever get credit for but battled through what would have been a season ending injury for most people. I do think DLo overestimated his abilities with a hurt QB and OL, but that’s what happens when the other option (Kohl) shows little fight or leadership to instill confidence.

[MDaniels]

I wouldn’t call him a convert. He wanted an RPO QB last season but did not feel comfortable with any after not landing Singleton. Swann was better than he will ever get credit for but battled through what would have been a season ending injury for most people. I do think DLo overestimated his abilities with a hurt QB and OL, but that’s what happens when the other option (Kohl) shows little fight or leadership to instill confidence.

I would bet that we would have won 8 games or more last season with Zac Thomas, Chase Brice, or Mr Tennessee in there.

[AppStFan1]

I wouldn’t call him a convert. He wanted an RPO QB last season but did not feel comfortable with any after not landing Singleton. Swann was better than he will ever get credit for but battled through what would have been a season ending injury for most people. I do think DLo overestimated his abilities with a hurt QB and OL, but that’s what happens when the other option (Kohl) shows little fight or leadership to instill confidence.

I was about to say the same thing. People have to remember that he wanted Sellers, who is mobile, and he just could not get one he liked as you said during last year. You have to give him credit for not reaching and going with a different type when he could not get what he wanted. Now, this year is 100% on him since he now has the QB he has wanted.

I agree with you on Kohl but I also think injuries to Poindxter, Cummings, etc along with Thomas Davis being dismissed set him back heavily. We have more depth now than we did last year so if injuries happen we should not seen the same struggle unless we lose Singleton early. I could see that hampering us big time though.

[AppSt94]

With 65 new additions that are largely unproven, how does one know that we have better depth with so much turnover?

[T-Dog]

I wouldn’t call him a convert. He wanted an RPO QB last season but did not feel comfortable with any after not landing Singleton. Swann was better than he will ever get credit for but battled through what would have been a season ending injury for most people. I do think DLo overestimated his abilities with a hurt QB and OL, but that’s what happens when the other option (Kohl) shows little fight or leadership to instill confidence.

During his first spring game, there were exactly zero QB runs if I remember correctly. And none in the first two games before he got hurt. Even if Swann could run, I don't think Dowell had any confidence to have him run.

There were moments where Swann's arm would have carried the team, but just glimpses.

[AppStFan1]

With 65 new additions that are largely unproven, how does one know that we have better depth with so much turnover?

I should have said that the coaches feel we have better depth. I guess we will find out if they are right or not here soon.

[AppSt94]

Have to love their optimism. QB is arguably the most important position and the one that fans focus on. QB1 has 797 career passing yards with 6 tds. QB2 has no competitive stats. Not a strong enough sample to refute their opinion but it doesn’t make me feel as confident.

[ASUFan4863]

I wouldn’t call him a convert. He wanted an RPO QB last season but did not feel comfortable with any after not landing Singleton. Swann was better than he will ever get credit for but battled through what would have been a season ending injury for most people. I do think DLo overestimated his abilities with a hurt QB and OL, but that’s what happens when the other option (Kohl) shows little fight or leadership to instill confidence.

During his first spring game, there were exactly zero QB runs if I remember correctly. And none in the first two games before he got hurt. Even if Swann could run, I don't think Dowell had any confidence to have him run.

There were moments where Swann's arm would have carried the team, but just glimpses.

You could have misunderstood what I said. I was not calling Swann a mobile or RPO qb, but just saying he was a better QB than his stats show due to a serious injury.

We saw very limited runs with Kohl because he was as tough as wet cardboard.

[AppStFan1]

Have to love their optimism. QB is arguably the most important position and the one that fans focus on. QB1 has 797 career passing yards with 6 tds. QB2 has no competitive stats. Not a strong enough sample to refute their opinion but it doesn’t make me feel as confident.

All coaches should be. I won't feel confident until I see the depth tested some either due to injury or just by seeing a lot of players on the field because they are able to help us. I do think we have better talent just from the additions we made and definitely have some high school players that are much better than most of what we were bringing in. We will find out fairly soon.

[Bootsy]

Can we all agree it's way past time for the world to be reminded that Appalachian is HOT HOT HOT?

[ASUFan4863]

With 65 new additions that are largely unproven, how does one know that we have better depth with so much turnover?

Because last year’s roster had way too many D2 quality players due to prior recruiting issues, as I’m sure you are aware of, and the time crunch to fill a roster. To make matters worse, some of the D1 quality players had such little respect for authority due to prior leniency that they were a detriment to the roster. All of that mess has been rooted out. It won’t be a one-year fix but it’s on the road to recovery in the fast lane.

[AppDub]

Have to love their optimism. QB is arguably the most important position and the one that fans focus on. QB1 has 797 career passing yards with 6 tds. QB2 has no competitive stats. Not a strong enough sample to refute their opinion but it doesn’t make me feel as confident.

Sports Reference has Singleton listed at a career passer rating of 154.1. Grantedbits a small sample size, but I'm going to put on my App colored glasses and be optimistic that we have a dual threat who can pass with some accuracy.

[BambooRdApp]

Well, Zach had basically zero passing yards rolling into Penn State. Prior to any season, I look at things from an optimistic perspective. As of today, we going undefeated!!!

[AppSt94]

We shall see. Fair comparison to Zac. The only difference is that Zac had 2 years in the system with 4 games played in mop up time prior to getting the nod.