Coach Moore

[JCline0429]

Sounds like our fans need a history lesson Appalachian football didn't start in 2005.

I sure hope the fans that jumped on late stay.

Agreed. It's sad that you can't praise the coaches before Jerry without some viewing it as an attack against Coach Moore. He did great things for many years, but Appalachian was winning football games long before he got there. Everyone played a role!

It sad that someone can't ask a question (or start a thread) about Coach Moore without everyone down playing his importance or saying that he wasn't perfect or had issues no one knew about. Like him or not (everyone has a opinion) but his numbers over 21 years speak for themselves.

It seems pretty clear to the 30K+ that fill the stadium how important he was, believe me I was there when there were plenty of empty seats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachia ... s_football

Just some of the numbers.

10 of the 18 conference champs
3 of the 3 national champs
.713 overall record
.687 conference record

Okay it's clear some people are way too harsh Jerry Moore and others are too much in love with him.

We had very good football BEFORE Jerry Moore. We beat South Carolina in Columbia, had some good games with Clemson, and did some great things before him.

I have 5 points to make here.

1. When he got here we won but never anything major. We were ranked #2 in the nation preseason one time and tanked pretty bad. Anyone remember Joe Burchette and the team we had his senior year? Did you know we had 8 players that NFL teams were asking about heading in to that year and the team was suppose to be our first national title team. They did not live up to the hype and then we had the downward spiral until 2005.

2. Each year after the semifinal game in Montana we won less. We had players getting kicked off the team, lots of arguing within the staff, etc. Jerry knew he was in hot water so he started looking at the spread in 2004 and then in 2005 we entered our 2nd year of it. We started to really surprise people and gave opponents nightmares of an offense they had not seen in the SoCon.

3. You want to talk attendance? We had a lot of years of empty seats before and during Jerry. If you look, when Roachel Laney left that is when attendance soared. Go ask Gerald Adams about the first week when Laney announced he would step down (forced to by the way) and about how much Yosef giving increased and how season ticket sales were breaking records. You need to seriously go look at our attendance during and after Laney. He's the one thing that changed during that period and there is a direct correlation showing that things started getting better when Laney was gone. He made things hard for Jerry and Cobb finally gave Jerry whatever he needed to win, which helped.

4. 2005 was the perfect storm. There was energy with Laney gone, 2nd year of the new offense, and Moore had pretty much been told jokingly, that anything short of a NC would result in a change of HC. We won the NC and had so much talent from the 2003 recruiting class that we won another one, had more talent from 2006 and 2005 so we won again in 2007. I credit Moore and the staff for keeping a good system in place for those years. I credit Moore but I also credit Peacock, Cobb, our fans, and the system we had in place.

See many of you seem to think this was all Moore but there were a lot of factors involved. Go ask players from the NC teams and they will tell you that there were times when the noise at Kidd Brewer gave them such an edge and helped them. We had a lot to do with it from the money given, the atmosphere we created, the talent Moore brought in, change in mindset from Cobb, Laney gone, etc. that everything snowballed and we did great things.

5. After 2007 many of our staff left and a lot of egos, even Moore's ego, took over and there was no control within the program. Our team GPA fell below a C average, we had players getting kicked out, staff began arguing, and Jerry kept pushing his son. Finally, Cobb and them had enough and saw time for a change before the 2012 season but Jerry's ego and thinking he ran the show cost him.

You guys seem to put everything on Moore for winning but it was a team effort. EVERYONE was key in the wins and to be honest Moore was at the top while we were losing control of our team but I blame the staff as well for letting things get out of hand. Jerry is gone now and while I thank him for what he did we have to move on. The bottom line is that he did not want FBS and he was fighting it. I'll be shocked if Jerry ever endorses this move and until he does I don't see Cobb and Peacock honoring him, especially since he could have gotten Cobb fired.

Some are treating Moore like people often treat the QB. Too much blame for the bad and too much praise for the good. Jerry did some great things and definitely made mistakes. He's like the evangelist who saves 200,000 people in his lifetime but then you find out he was stealing money his last few years, loses fame, and then dies. He did great things but he also did some things in his final 5 years at App that tarnish a lot of the good he did. There will always be a split here with our fans but I look at it this way. If Jerry wants to be involved and help ASU I want him and I think our staff would want him but he doesn't want, he doesn't want FBS, and his ego is hurting him right now. I'm not mad at him because now I have what I have wanted for 20 years, FBS. I'm ready to move on to FBS and don't think we need to keep bringing this up.

You're rght, we had some good football before JM, but we also had some horrible football. Witness the Mike Working years and the last few years of Coach Brakefield. Brakefield, was a favorite of mine, but he had 7-3-1 and 8-3 years and then some not so good years. 3-7-1, 5-5-1, 2-9, 3-8. Jerry has been the most consistent coach in our history by having only one losing season in what, 22 years?