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Columnist for ESPN Ranks Appalachian State Mountaineers in This Week’s ‘Bottom 10’ List of FBS Football Teams

By Jesse Wood

Oct. 2, 2014. With a 1-3 record so far through four games of its inaugural season in the Sun Belt Conference, Appalachian State University is obviously off to a slow start in FBS.

And if that wasn’t enough, now an ESPN columnist has ranked the Mountaineers in his weekly “Bottom 10” list. The Mountaineers placed as the 10th worst team in FBS football at the moment, just edging out Tulane, Ball State, Eastern Michigan and UNLV for this dubious honor.

“As stated earlier, I live in North Carolina. That means Appy State fans don’t bother contacting me through Twitter or email. They just walk up to me at the Jiffy Lube and call me a traitor,” Ryan McGee wrote on ESPN.com. “But last weekend, the Mountaineers were stomped by their old Southern Conference rival Georgia Southern (I look forward to seeing what GS fans find wrong about that mention), and their previous weekend’s nail-biter loss to Southern Miss already looks even worse than it already had. The Golden Eagles fell to Rice, 41-23. Rice!”

Of course, this listing is sort of tongue and cheek. McGee also rated Michigan – or as he put the Wolverines: Meechigan – as the fifth worst team in the top division of college football. Remember, the season opened with the Wolverines clobbering the Mountaineers in the long-awaited rematch 52 to 14, and at one point Michigan led 42 to 0 late into the third quarter.

This Saturday, the Mountaineers return to Kidd Brewer Stadium to face Southern Alabama in the “Stripe the Stadium” game with a chance to reverse ship. At the game, former head coach Jerry Moore will also be recognized for his contributions to App State Athletics and his induction into the 2014 College Football Hall of Fame. Maybe Moore’s touch will rub off on the team.