Silver lining

[AppSt12]

Well...the dream season died last night. The 2019 Mountaineers were not the group who had what it takes to take us to the next level. South Carolina will skull drag these guys as well...in fact coach would be wise to rest some players in that one.

However, if we can close out the Sun Belt Schedule unbeaten, GA Southern can drop 1 more and we earn a Sun Belt Title berth...a win their and. New Orleans Bowl win would out us at 12-2 and would give us our beat year yet in FBS.

There is something to play for...but it hurt seeing our coaches and players rollover and die to a 4-3 team at home. Maybe next year.

[spacemonkey]

Our players played their tails off.....our fans rolled over and died. I hope a player calls us out. His quote should be simple and sweet. “We gave more effort than our fans did”

[Yosef84]

Well...the dream season died last night. The 2019 Mountaineers were not the group who had what it takes to take us to the next level. South Carolina will skull drag these guys as well...in fact coach would be wise to rest some players in that one.

However, if we can close out the Sun Belt Schedule unbeaten, GA Southern can drop 1 more and we earn a Sun Belt Title berth...a win their and. New Orleans Bowl win would out us at 12-2 and would give us our beat year yet in FBS.

There is something to play for...but it hurt seeing our coaches and players rollover and die to a 4-3 team at home. Maybe next year.

Nobody rolled over last night. We were playing lights out in the fourth quarter. It was a crappy night of football by App standards to be sure, but it happens in college football pretty often. That's why there are so few undefeated teams at the end of each and every year. I was ticked off watching the game also. I uttered (ok shouted) my share of expletives). I have said that we were "flat", "lacked focus" and "got out-coached" but I really don't have the information to draw conclusions on motivation or effort. I hate that we lost, but I will wear my App gear this weekend and nothing will change about my "fandom" because I love my Apps!

For the record, if anyone's "dreams" died last night then their dreaming skills suck!

[BeauFoster]

For the record, if anyone's "dreams" died last night then their dreaming skills suck!

Nail, meet hammer.

[Yosefus]

We all need to remember that there is only 1 G5 school left undefeated! Yes the NY6 hopes were dashed last night but not the rest of the stated goals to win the conference title and go to a bowl. Already halfway to those 2 goals. We will need help to win championship as we longer control our destiny.

[appstatealum]

We all need to remember that there is only 1 G5 school left undefeated! Yes the NY6 hopes were dashed last night but not the rest of the stated goals to win the conference title and go to a bowl. Already halfway to those 2 goals. We will need help to win championship as we longer control our destiny.

That’s why this loss was bigger than any....we don’t control our destiny. Cotton Bowl was a reach, but now winning our own division is in the hands of our rival. It sucks, no debate about it. I still can’t get over all of the missed opportunities. Corey wide open in the corner of the end zone and Zac overthrowing Evans in the flat, never even saw the right read. Awful.

[cnut]

On the bright side:

1. Drink probably won’t be snatched away by a P5 after 1 year.
2. We’re 7 and 1. Don’t act like that’s not good and don’t take winning for granted. I share an office with Clemson fans. You want to talk about entitled?
3. We have some real talent on the team that the coaching staff will hopefully fully unlock.
4. 1 game be damned. Zac is a good QB and is only a junior.
5. Better competition in the Sunbelt will draw more eyes.
6. Even after a huge coaching shake up, we’re a winning team. I had all but written the season off for rebuilding after Satt left. Great work by Drink and the rest to get us where we are.
7. There’s other stuff. Think about it.

[APP93]

I hate we lost again to our rival, but still plenty of season left. We already have a great P5 win this season (anytime you beat the holes it's a great win) and an opportunity to get another P5 win next weekend.

GSU has 4 conference games left, all against good teams. I would not be surprised if they lose at least one of them, so SBC title is still very much in play. For all of the talk about SB teams needing to get better, App has yet to run the table in the conference.

App could have gone 13-0 and that still would not have guaranteed a NY6 game. That only get's to be a possibility when you are the highest ranked G5 in the CFP rankings, not the AP and I had a weird feeling we may not have liked our position in the CFP rankings...but now with the loss that point is moot as we will never know.

Only real disappointment for me is that we will lose our AP rank. I enjoyed App being considered one of the top 25 programs in the country and all of the publicity and extra TV coverage the program was getting. But there is still plenty to play for and who knows, if we finish strong maybe a final top 25 rank is possible.

[bigdaddyg]

Last week Oklahoma lost to Kansas State. That loss might have dashed their hopes to get into the CFP. Does anyone think that they consider their season lost? I doubt it. There is more to the season beyond making it to the Cotton Bowl. If we as fans can't stomach a loss we are very delusional. We have a helluva program and will continue to be successful but it is hard as crap to win every week.

[APPdiesel]

This team has MASSIVELY over achieved this season already. Entitled whiners be damned. Keep buying tickets. Keep coming to games. DO NOT quit on this team just because the loftiest goal in our grouping of conferences is out of reach.

It's November. Chaos reigns. Anything could still happen.

[AppStFan1]

Well...the dream season died last night. The 2019 Mountaineers were not the group who had what it takes to take us to the next level. South Carolina will skull drag these guys as well...in fact coach would be wise to rest some players in that one.

However, if we can close out the Sun Belt Schedule unbeaten, GA Southern can drop 1 more and we earn a Sun Belt Title berth...a win their and. New Orleans Bowl win would out us at 12-2 and would give us our beat year yet in FBS.

There is something to play for...but it hurt seeing our coaches and players rollover and die to a 4-3 team at home. Maybe next year.

I don't expect a win but this is no reason to lay down and rest starters. We need to try to beat South Carolina. They are not a top 25 caliber team so we should not feel like it is a lost cause. Our fans did not give the effort they should have.

Our team never stopped fighting and I'm proud of them for that. We just have to keep focus on 1-0 as a team and we can still accomplish what we wanted. Even those of us who had a special season in mind expected 10-2 or 11-1 in the regular season. We can still do that.

This was a big reason why I tried to get people to stop talking NY6 and top 25 because it is a huge gut punch when something like this happens. Best to take it one week at a time. I'm not worried about GSU, Texas State, Troy, or the Eagles losing a game because all of our focus should be on shocking the world in Columbia. If we gameplan right we can do it. I don't expect to do it but it is possible and because of that I hope we put 1000% effort into trying. At least if we lose we leave it all on the field and our fans can say they brought a strong effort to Columbia.

[Mjohn1988]

Just imagine if ever P5 program considered the season lost once they knew they couldn’t make one of the two playoff games. A NY6 game is the G5 version of the P5 playoffs only we don’t get 4 teams in we only get one. It’s great to want that brass ring and we should want it but all’s not lost when you fail to reach perfection. And make no mistake it would have taken a perfect season for us to get that NY6 game. When we left the FCS I missed the playoffs but truth is we’re in a full year playoff system now with only one G5 winner. I think we’ll get that game one day but for now we need to get focused on SC, the Sunbelt title and the New Orleans bowl. 4 years ago could you have even imagined having a shot at NC and SC in the same year?

[ApexASU]

Our players played their tails off.....our fans rolled over and died. I hope a player calls us out. His quote should be simple and sweet. “We gave more effort than our fans did”

Wrong. Flat wrong. Fans were amazing considering the elements and lack luster game. If anyone gets called out it should be the coaches. They let all of us down. Now we ALL need to show up for the next game. #BeatGamecocks

[AppSt12]

Just imagine if ever P5 program considered the season lost once they knew they couldn’t make one of the two playoff games. A NY6 game is the G5 version of the P5 playoffs only we don’t get 4 teams in we only get one. It’s great to want that brass ring and we should want it but all’s not lost when you fail to reach perfection. And make no mistake it would have taken a perfect season for us to get that NY6 game. When we left the FCS I missed the playoffs but truth is we’re in a full year playoff system now with only one G5 winner. I think we’ll get that game one day but for now we need to get focused on SC, the Sunbelt title and the New Orleans bowl. 4 years ago could you have even imagined having a shot at NC and SC in the same year?

Sure plenty of p5s consider their season gone of they lose games that keep them out of the playoffs. Same way the top g5s in a given year feel that way when they lose a NY6 bowl. You think Clemson will be happy if they dont make the playoff this year? Will noise be happy if they dont make the NY6 this year? No. Now should we expect to make a NY6 every year? Hell no. This just happens to be one of the few schedules we will have over the next 10 years that makes that really possible. It would be 1 thing if a NC or SC loss kept us out. But a GS loss? Devestating. The team will be crushed from this...watch them next week. South Carolina will destroy these guys. But...I'm hopeful for a 3 game sun belt sweep and a conference championship win.

[Apptrain]

As bad as losing to GS hurts me(rather lose to ISIS U), I’m still pleasantly surprised how well the coaching transition has gone. I was not going to be surprised with a 9-3 or 8-4 season and try not to be disappointed with that. That could still happen but for me anything better than that is icing on the cake.

[ah59396]

As bad as losing to GS hurts me(rather lose to ISIS U), I’m still pleasantly surprised how well the coaching transition has gone. I was not going to be surprised with a 9-3 or 8-4 season and try not to be disappointed with that. That could still happen but for me anything better than that is icing on the cake.

This is great perspective. If you told me we’d lose our entire coaching staff and only lose say, 2, games this season?

I would have took that in a heartbeat.

[Rekdiver]

Our players played their tails off.....our fans rolled over and died. I hope a player calls us out. His quote should be simple and sweet. “We gave more effort than our fans did”

Sorry monkey you are way off base. Let this go.

[Stonewall]

I don’t think we have overachieved perhaps with the exception of the UNC game .This staff inherited a talent laden team , not without issues upfront but one of the better programs in the G5.Certainly one of top few in the Sunbelt. With that I think they have done a good job at 7-1. Last night we got beat by the weather taking away a quarter or more of our offense and some pretty poor tackling. Had our opponent been a balanced attack squad like anyone else in the conference the outcome would likely have been different.The Gamecocks have SEC athletes all over the field but if we play really well and get a break or two we can win that game.Im going down there expecting just that.

[Yosefus]

Don't think for a minute that Drink wasn't as disappointed as anyone. Go watch the post game press conference. He takes as much ownership in the loss as anyone. The next time we play the gnats the team will have fire in their eyes and guts regardless of our record at that time. He will never forget his first loss as a head coach.

[WataugaMan]

After last year's result you would think that the "fire in the eyes" would have been there Thursday night. I'm still amazed at the lack of focus and poor performance, hopefully a lesson was learned this time.