By Jesse Wood
Sept. 19, 2013. While the Appalachian State Mountaineers (0-2) enter Saturday’s away game against the Elon Phoenix (1-2) with two straight losses, App State hasn’t lost to Elon in 10 meetings following the Phoenix’s membership into the Southern Conference in 2003.
The Mountaineers have struggled during the beginning of the 2013 season. Not only have the Mountaineers been, in head coach Scott Satterfield’s words, a “little dinged up,” but the team is missing its star wide receiver Sean Price, who was arrested in late August.
While Satterfield said Price’s “status is the same” coming into Saturday’s matchup against Elon, the bye week has proved fruitful, giving players time to rest and heal and coaches time to work on mistakes that were costly in the previous two losses.
“It’s been a good off week. We’ve got some things corrected that we’d been messing up on. It’s good to get away, to relax,” Satterfield said. “We’re looking forward to this opportunity to get back on the field and right what we’ve been doing wrong the past two games.”
As for the offense, Satterfield said the team needs to find a way to make more big plays to keep the offense in rhythm. He said that N.C. A&T and Montana did a good job limiting those momentum-changing plays, but he coughed up that part of the reason for lack of huge plays is conservative coaching and not wanting to turn the ball over.
“We have to create some way to push the ball down the field,” Satterfield said.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Satterfield said the quarterback situation for Elon was undecided until more practice sessions played out through the end of the week.
After knee surgery in January, senior Jamal Londry-Jackson has struggled so far early into the season, and Kameron Bryant nearly brought the Mountaineers back from an 18-point deficit against N.C. A&T before a missed field goal ended any hopes of going into overtime.
Satterfield noted that “Kam has outplayed Jamal,” but added that he would wait and see who takes charge of practice this week before picking Saturday’s starter.
For more information about the upcoming game, click to AppStateSports.com’s Game Day Central.
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