Its not the ranking that matters, its what Michigan stands for… This makes me wish Michigan had a basketball program…
No question - after seeing what happened to Michigan, the coaching staff at Lenoir-Rhyne will have the team well-prepared for next weekend. No sneaking up on them…
Remember that game when that guy Chris Webber called that timeout when they didn’t have any? When we were Fab…
Joey, well, the next D-IA team will not be caught unprepared. I think we play them in 2011.
As a Michigan alum ('06) who was at the game, I can say that Saturday was the most embarassing/humbling moment of my (short) affiliation with the university. Michigan will not be ranked when the polls come out on Tuesday. Nor will they have a shot at the national title (this game won’t be forgotten in 20 years, let alone in a few months…). Anything negative that is said about Michigan is rightly deserved. The bandwagon fans will likely find ways to bash Michigan and hype up another team, which is fine with me. True fans will ride it out.
goblue06, I respect and admire your realistic approach to the situation. The next time somebody gives you grief, remind them that Michigan has 11 national titles and is one of the reasons college football exists today as the 2nd most popular sport in America (behind NFL). I’ve got a ton of respect for Michigan as an academic institution and as a football team. This will never be forgotten–ever–but I bet you will be in 5 of the next 10 BCS bowls.
Guys, look at the evidence. If you didn’t notice it when UF destroyed OSU last year, this should make it as clear as day. The Big Ten can’t handle the spread. The Big Ten style of play/recruiting is simply outdated. If App State can put up 34 against Michigan, cover your eyes when they play Oregon this weekend and don’t let them within a mile of top-tier spread offenses like UF or WVU because the beating they would take would just be criminal. Not that those teams are better than an elite team like USC, the matchup is just much farther in their favor… For color, UGA (home team bias here) got stunned in the Sugar Bowl against WVU and has spent about two years re-recruiting to get linebackers, ends and safeties who can play D against the spread. Unfortunately, Michigan may be in store for more pain when they line up against spread teams in the future until they adjust to the times. Hopefully, for their sake, it won’t be too late…
U-M alum here. I was at the game and I’m still not over it. I can rant for an hour easily about all the things that went wrong, but what’s the point? The team was unprepared and got beat. Hart was the only guy who showed up for us and for some reason was forced to stand on the sideline with a “thigh bruise” for 3 quarters. I looked forward to this year with Hart, Henne, and Long all as seniors. For those saying the NC is still possible, get over it. I don’t care if USC has two losses and Michigan runs the table, no one is going to vote for someone who can’t beat a Div IAA team. App State may be the BEST Div IAA team, but it is still essentialy varsity against JV and JV ran all over varisty on Saturday.
isn’t App State located in a dry county? maybe that’s the key to winning.
“App State may be the BEST Div IAA team, but it is still essentialy varsity against JV” just for argument, but weren’t people saying similar things about the midmajors in the basketball tourney a few years ago? i know basketball and football are much different sports (its easier to pull off an upset in basketball than football), but sometimes these programs are really good at taking the talented leftovers of the bigger schools and making them into a good team. i’m sure they’re taking the guys who would would have been a third or fourth string on (in the case of app st maybe) wake, uva, nc state and telling them they’ll be the bmoc. maybe they aren’t playing with all steve mcnairs and terrel owens, but i’m sure these are talented guys.
Another reason why college football sucks, we’ll never know how appalachian state would do against better teams because no decent division I program will ever schedule them again after what just happened to Michigan. They’ll just stick with the crappy division I schools they know they can whoop up on 63-3, try and win their mandatory two or three tough games a year, and hope that’s enough to get them in the national championship game (since they don’t have to worry about something as logical as a playoff system).
They are out of the USA Today top 25.
recruiting athletes who scarcely graduated high school dictates university dominance.
i read in the story that someone ranked them #10.
No, App. State players are not “talented leftovers.” They are walk-ons who wanted to play football, but no Division I-A team in America would offer them a scholarship (except for a half dozen or so on the team). Randall, college football schedules are made about a decade in advance. Saturday’s victory will have absolutely no impact on who Appalachian St. will be playing against next year. They’re on my team’s schedule for 2011 and have been for about 3 years.
that’s just not true. i read that they had 63 or so scholarships, vs the 85 or so at michigan. (http://www.denverpost.com/henderson/ci_6788299). obviously i can’t confirm those numbers, but no one can say that a bunch of mostly walk-ons just beat michigan. these players were recruited to win.
mlh, partial scholarships. None of those have $20,000-$35,000 scholarships. More like $2,000. And the vast majority of them walked-on to earn them. I follow recruiting religiously. There are very few recruits in the top 1,000 that commit to D-IAA teams.
i can honestly say i don’t know any exacts, but do you really believe that a team that has won its championship, totally owning the teams it plays from what i’ve heard, and just beat michigan, has no full rides? that the majority of these guys are out there b/c they “love the game” and just want to play for a little less in tuition? i guess i find that hard to believe. for the bottom rung of 1AA, sure.
mlh, I think you don’t understand D-IAA football dynamics. Appalachian St. isn’t an historic “powerhouse” where all the leftover talent religiously attends; D-IAA football talent ebbs and flows. James Madison won the 2005 D-IAA title and came close the year before. The last time my team played JMU in 2003, we beat them 43-0 with our 3rd and 4th string, and our team was garbage that year. The only team I know of in IAA that is well known for getting good players consistently is Delaware. Once these players are out of the system and ASU’s 68 year old coach retires, App St will return to garbage like the rest of IAA.
i’m not saying pull them out of AA since they’re obviously good enough to play with the big conferences. while football is much different than basketball, it won’t surprise me to see teams from this level surprise more and more people in the future. not necessarily of the level we saw on saturday, but i think a lot of people would agree that this team (this team is all i really can talk about, since i don’t follow it) could beat a lot of teams, consistently, from much bigger conferences. its only been a few years that we have begun to see schools from non-bcs conferences get any kind of respect on the national scene.