Penn State Football: For Franklin, How Upsetting is Appalachian State’s History?

Let’s go to the videotape. Or not.

James Franklin told me last week that he won’t show his players clips of Appalachian State’s historic 34-32 upset at fifth-ranked Michigan from 2007.

Or App State’s near-upset of ninth-ranked Tennessee in 2016, when they led by 10 points and lost in overtime, after the Vols recovered their quarterback’s fumble in the end zone for the winning TD.

Or App State’s 2017 fourth-quarter comeback at No. 15 Georgia — CFP title game participant Georgia — when, down 31 to zip, the Mountaineers made a pair of picks to close fast on their way to a 31-10 loss.

All were season-openers for Appalachian State, all were on the road, all were against preseason Top 15 teams.

And, coincidentally — or, maybe not — all of that is also true of App State’s game this Saturday in Beaver Stadium against ninth-ranked Penn State. The Nittany Lions’ 2018 season-opener kicks at 3:30 p.m. and is on the Big Ten Network. 

“We won’t show (the 2007 game) to them,” shared Franklin. “But I will talk about it with them. I’ll talk about all the games I just mentioned (Tennessee and Georgia). This is a team that has played really well on the road. I know that was a long time ago and a previous (App State) staff. But even recently, they’ve done a good job.

“…Obviously,” Franklin added, “when you’re able to go into Tennessee and take them to overtime, and if you look at the final score of the Georgia game it’s a little bit deceiving. More than anything we want to make sure that in our games we respect every opponent we play. I think these are stories we’ll be able to tell — not show them — but stories that we can tell to illustrate what we’re talking about.”

Thus, Franklin won’t show any of those clips to his players, most of whom were in elementary school back in 2007.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t. 

UPSETTING IN ANN ARBOR

First, the set-up:

It was Sept. 1, 2007, and visiting App State led 28-17 at halftime before 109,218 in the Big House for the first game of Wolverines head coach Lloyd Carr’s last season. Trailing 32-31 late in the game, the Mountaineers blocked two Michigan field goal attempts by Michigan’s Jason Gingell in the final 97 seconds while making a field goal from 24 yards to cap a 69-yard drive to take the lead with 26 seconds left.

Here’s the second of the two blocked field goal attempts, from 37 yards out, with App State ahead 34-32 and time about to expire:

Pandemonium reigned, including inside Beaver Stadium, where Penn State fans had just finished watching the home team pummel visiting Florida International 59-0.

The App State-Michigan contest was the first football game ever broadcast on the fledgling Big Ten Network. Penn State students gathered by the thousands in the bowels of the stadium to watch those final seconds from Ann Arbor on a few televisions posted high above the concession stands.

Here’s their reaction when App State’s Correy Lynch blocked that 37-yard field goal attempt by Michigan’s Gingell to seal the win:

The victory put App State — which had won the Division I-AA national title in 2005-06, and went on to win it again in 2007 — on the map. App State was the first FCS team to ever defeat a nationally-ranked FBS team.

Michigan did extract a measure of revenge on Aug. 30, 2014, when it hosted Appalachian State again in the Big House. It was the debut of App State as a bona fide FBS school. The Wolverines won that day, 52-14, before 107,811.

Those two Appalachian State games against Michigan are the only two contests in its 90 years of playing football that it has faced a Big Ten school. Saturday marks game No. 3. They also mark the two largest crowds in App State history, home or away; that 2016 contest at Tennessee, which drew 100,074 fans, is No. 3. That should be erased Saturday in Beaver Stadium.

CJF WAS A HARE CLOSE

Speaking of upsets, on Sept. 1, 2007, Franklin was the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach at Kansas State. And on that day, K-State was at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Alabama, playing an early-evening game against No. 18 Auburn. The Wildcats almost pulled off an historic upset of their own, jumping to a 13-6 lead before losing 23-13 on a scoop-and-score of K-State quarterback Josh Freeman’s fourth-quarter fumble before an ESPN audience. K-State’s running backs coach that day? Ricky Rahne.

Speaking of Auburn, App State almost knocked off the Tigers in Jordan-Hare back on Sept. 4, 1999. App State led 15-7 after the first half — holding Auburn to just 54 yards of offense — but lost on a 33-yard Auburn TD pass with just 38 seconds remaining in the game.

So it is no surprise that Appalachian State traditionally plays a challenging opponent in their opening away game. Here’s look at their track record in that regard since 2007:

Sept. 1, 2007 — 34-32 win at No. 5 Michigan

Aug. 30, 2008 — 41-13 loss at No. 7 LSU

Sept. 5, 2009 — 29-24 loss at East Carolina

Sept. 4, 2010 — 42-21 win at Chattanooga

Sept. 3, 2011 — 66-13 loss at No. 13 Virginia Tech

Sept. 1, 2012 — 15-13 loss at East Carolina

Aug. 31, 2013 — 30-6 loss at Montana

Aug. 30, 2014 — 52-14 loss at Michigan

Sept. 12, 2015 — 41-10 loss at No. 12 Clemson (season-opener was a 49-0 win over Howard at home)

Sept. 1, 2016 — 20-13 overtime loss at No. 9 Tennessee

Sept. 2, 2017 — 31-10 loss at No. 15 Georgia

And upset or not, App State will get a decent pay-off for making the 992-mile roundtrip to Happy Valley. The road game, which was announced by Penn State back on Oct. 30, 2014, comes with a nice-sized guarantee in the neighborhood of a million and a quarter.

WHAT JAMES SAYS

Last week, Franklin made it clear he had a lot of respect for App State, coached by Scott Satterfield, who is a former App State starting quarterback now in his sixth season as head coach after succeeding Jerry Moore, who went 215-87 from 1989-2012, including that upset of Michigan.

Satterfield is one of three current App State coaches who had a hand in that 2007 victory. He was the Mountaineers’ QB coach in 2007, while current defensive coordinator Dale Jones was App State’s linebacker coach, and current outside linebacker coach D.J. Smith played linebacker for App State in 2007-10, then another four years in the NFL.

Over its last 45 games against FBS opponents, App State proudly touts that it is tied for the fifth-best such record in major college football. According to the App State media guide, Alabama and Clemson are tied for first (41-4), followed by Ohio State (40-5), Wisconsin (37-8) and then App State and Oklahoma, both at 36-9. App State went 9-4 in 2017, winning its last four games, including a 34-0 victory over 11-3 Toledo in the Dollar General Bowl.

App State’s biggest challenge will be replacing quarterback Taylor Lamb, who threw for 90 TD passes in his career and joined Ohio State’s J.T. Barrett and Louisville’s Lamar Jackson as the only major college quarterbacks to pass for 9,000 yards and run for 2,000. (I know what you’re wondering: Trace McSorley enters the 2018 season with 7,369 passing yards and 899 rushing yards — so, it’s kinda possible that No. 9 will be No. 4.)

“They’re very athletic,” Franklin said of App State. “We did a study on them this summer and we’ve already started this week as well. They’re a little undersized. They’re a twitchy defense. They’ve gotten some really good transfers in as well. It should be a really good challenge for us.”

FROM PSU TO APP STATE AND BACK

That study no doubt included a bit of intel from current Penn State defensive grad assistant Matt Fleischacker, in his second season as a GA on the Penn State staff, working under D-coordinator Brent Pry.  Fleischacker was a GA on the Appalachian Staff in 2016, working with the outside linebackers on a squad that went 10-3.

Fleischacker has deep Penn State roots. He came to PSU as an undersized cornerback from Allentown, N.J., and tried to make the squad in 2012 as a walk-on kicker. It didn’t happen, but that led to Penn State stints as a recruiting intern and then an undergrad assistant. Which led him to App State.

He’s 20 months removed from his days in Boone, N.C. And last week defensive line coach Sean Spencer waved off any inside knowledge the defensive protégé may have on his former employer.

“Ah, that was two years ago,” down-played Spencer, who had plaudits for the Mountaineers’ coaching staff, which includes five former App State players. “I do know that App State is one of the best-coached teams in the country. Satterfield’s done a great job. I’ve known Coach since he was out at Toledo (as the QB coach, in 2009; Spencer was the D-line coach at Bowling Green, which beat Toledo 38-24 that season). I know a lot of their coaching staff.’

Spencer wouldn’t be surprised by a little chaos.

‘Those guys will come in here and play,’ he said. ‘We have to be ready. The lights are not too big for Appalachian State to come in here and play. We’ll have our hands full.”