What they're saying

Appalachian State: A team in transition
Tommy Bowman/Winston-Salem Journal | Posted: Tuesday, August 27, 2013 9:01 pm
A lot has happened since a blocked extra-point attempt by Illinois State in the FCS playoffs ended Appalachian State’s 2012 season.
An era ended.
Jerry Moore was let go after 24 seasons as the Mountaineers’ head coach, and was replaced by former quarterback and longtime assistant Scott Satterfield.
Soon after, the Mountaineers announced a move to the FBS and the Sun Belt Conference, leaving behind a history of success at the FCS level that included three national championships.
The Mountaineers will bid farewell to the Southern Conference, of which they have been a member since 1972. They will compete in the SoCon for a final season but won’t be eligible for a conference title — which they won or shared seven times in the past eight seasons — and won’t be eligible for the playoffs, in which they competed for eight straight seasons.
But Satterfield said they will make the best of the situation. And he thinks he has a good team to do it with.
Ten starters return on offense from an 8-4 team, although top receiver Sean Price will begin the season serving a suspension for violation of team rules. And the Mountaineers will attempt to improve defensively with a switch to a 3-4 set under new coordinator Nate Woody, who joined the staff from Wofford.
"I think we have a lot of really good playmakers on offense,” Satterfield said. “I think the key for us is on defense…. We’ll be playing a lot of young players on that side of the ball. I think one of the keys is how quickly can our young players understand what we’re trying to get done on defense and understand the speed of the game that college football is played at.”
Offensively, the Mountaineers have a key returnee in senior quarterback Jamal Londry-Jackson, a Walter Payton Award candidate who passed for 3,278 yards — just 13 yards short of a program record — and 21 touchdowns last season.
Jackson feels he has perhaps the top receiving corps in the FCS with Price — when he returns — along with proven seniors Andrew Peacock and Tony Washington.
The offensive line is a veteran unit, and the lone question mark on offense is at running back with the loss of 1,300-yard rusher Steven Miller. Ricky Fergerson, who had five carries as a freshman, and freshman Marcus Cox are front-runners to fill that void.
Staff addition Frank Ponce will reunite with Satterfield, with whom he coached at Florida International, and will share offensive-coordinator duties in the fast-paced Spread offense with line coach Dwayne Ledford. Ponce will be pass-game coordinator and Ledford will oversee the running game. Satterfield will call the plays.
On defense, a veteran three-man front will be headlined by junior end Ronald Blair, and the Mountaineers’ staff believes there is much young talent in the secondary. The key might be the four-man linebacker corps, a relatively new group and one without last season’s top tacklers Jeremy Kimbrough and Brandon Grier.
The Mountaineers do feel they have the personnel to fit a 3-4 alignment, something the program experimented with in 2011 before returning to the 4-3.
"I think the versatility of a 3-4 defense will match up well against some option schemes — we play four teams that run a lot of option — but also we’ll play teams that will spread it out with no backs in the backfield and throw it all over the place and you can defend that with a 3-4,” Woody said. “What we want to have are some outside linebackers that can get pressure on the quarterback or they can drop in coverage. I think we have that.”
The Mountaineers will have to replace punter Sam Martin, a fifth-round NFL draft pick who led the SoCon with an average of 45.9 per kick — the second-highest in school history.