Appalachian State president Dr. John E. Thomas and athletic director Jim Garner grabbed coach Jerry Moore before his introductory press conference in 1989 and wanted to get one thing straight before he addressed the media.
It’s pronounced app-uh-LATCH-in.
“They sent me to a little room prior to the press conference and worked on me saying, ‘Appalachian,’ ” Moore told The News & Observer. “You’ll never hear me say ‘App State’ because they taught me how to pronounce it.”
Nowadays, the university would prefer to be called App State on first reference. That’s about the only thing that hasn’t carried over in the football program. Call it Appalachian or App State, chances are you’re going to call it a winner. No other Division I football program in the state of North Carolina has had the continuity the Mountaineers have had for nearly 40 years.
Moore went on to be the most successful coach in program history, winning three NCAA Division I-AA national titles from 2005-07.
App State has only had three losing seasons since 1983, when coach Mack Brown took over after the Mountaineers posted back-to-back losing seasons, through last season’s 10-4 record led by coach Shawn Clark.
From NCAA Division I-AA and its three national titles to the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2014. Whether playing in the Southern Conference or the Sun Belt. Through Brown, Sparky Woods, Moore, Scott Satterfield, Eli Drinkwitz and Clark, App State keeps on winning.
“I do think that in some cases, most cases, it’s probably harder to maintain something than it is to build it,” said Woods, who guided the Mountaineers to their first I-AA playoff appearance in program history in 1986. “So you’ve got to credit Coach Moore and everyone after. What they’ve done is remarkable to keep it going.”
And last Saturday’s upset at then-No. 6 Texas A&M just shows the tradition continues.
‘It’s not surprising’
Satterfield took on the unenviable job of replacing the legendary Moore in 2013 and led App State until leaving to become Louisville’s head coach in 2018. He was not shocked last Saturday to see the Mountaineers pull off their second biggest upset in program history.
“It’s not surprising that App went and won that game,” Satterfield said. “That program, they think they can go play anybody, anywhere and go win.”
How they came to think that way strikes at the heart of why Satterfield said the Mountaineers have found success regardless of the coach or system in place. Satterfield described Boone as a “very unique place” that people don’t understand “unless you’ve been there.”
The isolation of being located in the mountains — and the winters that go along with it — becomes a recruiting tool. Everyone won’t like it. And that’s the point. Because the players who choose to commit to App State are dedicated. As Satterfield said, recruits “either love it or hate it.”
“When they go there, you’re gonna do two things: you’re gonna get your education, you’re gonna play ball — there’s nothing else really to do,” Satterfield said. “And so the people that are there, it’s about playing ball. And that’s why when you put the ball down, they’re ready to play. I mean, really, there’s no distractions and I think that’s a huge thing that people don’t really fully realize. And the kids there, they play with a chip on their shoulder every day. Every day.”
Satterfield added that most of the roster is made up of players who were not recruited by Power Five schools. It’s why evaluation and development of players has also factored into their success. Just look in their backfield.
Nate Noel was a 5-foot-10, 170-pound running back out of Miami’s Northwestern High School. The only other offers he got were from Buffalo, Alabama A&M, Florida International and Alabama State. Camerun Peoples, who was listed as 6-foot-2, 185 pounds out of high school, was recruited by Illinois. But his offers were from Georgia State, Troy, Tulane, Massachusetts and UAB.
That duo combined to rush for more than 2,000 yards last season. Peoples, who is now 225 pounds, filled in for an injured Noel and gained 112 yards against the Aggies last week, averaging 5.9 yards per carry.
“It’s a unique culture and it’s a program based off getting the right people in the building,” Clark said. “We’ve been surrounded with the right people and we get our kind of guys and that’s guys that come here and value a world-class degree and a chance to play for championships. And I think we do a really good job of evaluating not All-Stars, but also what we see with our own eyes. And that’s paid off for us for a long time.”
It’s also paid off having coaches who stuck around instead of using App State as a stepping-stone job. Drinkwitz, who is currently the head coach at Missouri, was the first coach since Brown to leave after only one year.
Cooper Hodges, a fifth-year offensive lineman, was recruited by and played one year under Satterfield. His second season he played for Drinkwitz. He fully endorsed Clark’s hiring and the potential stability it represented.
“We wanted somebody that was an App guy,” Hodges said. “That was just more worried about the players and development than worried about just stepping over us to get to a bigger school. So we were definitely — I was 100 percent Coach Clark.”
Clark is in his third season and is already reminding some in Boone of Moore, who coached from 1989-2012. Both Clark and Moore have the tendency to wear similar vintage sweatshirts, which gives a new meaning at App State to the phrase common thread.
N&O reporter Andrew Carter contributed to this story.
