Nothing really happens on the first weekend of the college football season. Sure, there are a few good, BCS-significant games (see Cal vs Tennessee or Georgia vs Oklahoma State), but for the most part, it's the big boys getting their jollies against the runts of the litter (see Penn State over Florida International 59-0 and Louisville over Murray State 73-10).
Then this happens. Out of nowhere, the Mountaineers begin their hard charge towards a national championship in 2007 with a win over the No. 5 Michigan Wolverines.
No, I'm not talking about West Virginia, but rather the "other" Mountaineers, from Appalachian State, of the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA).
I'll get the bad stuff out of the way first, because I'd rather discuss the good things. There were certainly a lot of questions about Michigan's defense coming into this season. However, allowing 388 yards of offense (226 passing, 162 rushing) to a second tier school is inexcusable, even if they are that second tier's champion each of the last two years.
UM coach Lloyd Carr was already on the burner because of his three consecutive losses against Ohio State, and this merely provides more fuel to that fire. Carr will now likely have to run the table to have even a shot at the BCS, and will have to beat Ohio State to retain his job (whether that is justified or not).
Michigan's offense played well, racking up almost 500 yards, but they stalled out in the red zone right before halftime and had two field goals blocked, including one that could have won the game with six seconds left.
This is the second year in a row that Michigan has led off the season with a head scratcher, maybe they'll rebound this year as well, maybe they won't, but it is obvious that their offense is the only area that doesn't have problems.
With that out of the way, how about the Appalachian State team? This win is absolutely huge for them. They already entered this season as back-to-back FCS champions, although (much like every other team in the subdivision) they hadn't even come close to winning any games against FBS opponents. Big blowouts at the hands of teams like NC State (who finished 3-9 last year) showed that Appalachian State was a good second-tier team, but a second-tier team nonetheless.
Article comments
1 - ClemmerC
Thank you for being one of the few journalists who are giving credit where credit is due
2 - Block-A
Rauch is a senior entering his fourth year as PK for ASU, became ASU's highest scoring kicker today.
3 - Matthew T. Sussman
The secret to the upset was that Appalachian State coach Jerry Moore spoke with Lloyd Carr prior to the game and said, "Pretend this is a bowl game
4 - zed
The last time my school - Albion College - played the U of M, we kicked their ass. Of course that was in about 1890.
5 - nicolas
sorry Block, i swear i read somewhere that he was frosh. oh well.
6 - Nick
Don't mean to bash on a good article, because it was, but App State wasn't exactly blown out by NC State. They were in it the whole game and NC State scored a late touchdown to put it just out of reach.
7 - nicolas
yes, but it was still a loss to a rebuilding team that finished the year at the bottom of the ACC (3-9)