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LSU-Appalachian St. preview
08/29/08 - 05:36 PM
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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Appalachian State’s Armanti Edwards may
be the best quarterback in Tiger Stadium when the Mountaineers
visit No. 7 LSU in a matchup of defending national champions from
NCAA football’s top two divisions.
The Tigers may have better players at every other spot on the
field, however, and Appalachian State coach Jerry Moore understands
that as well as anyone.
“We know we’re huge underdogs. We’re not that naive,” Moore
said. “Our players know that and they’ve prepared the best that
they can prepare. We’ll try to play hard and see what happens.”
Moore is a realist, but that doesn’t mean he’s already chalked
up this Saturday’s contest as a loss. After all, his squad stunned
Michigan in the Big House a year ago.
That victory gave Appalachian State a certain mystique that few
other Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) teams
enjoy. Yet it also eliminated the possibility of the Mountaineers
sneaking up on an ill-prepared, overconfident major conference
opponent again anytime soon, never mind LSU, whose coach, Les
Miles, is a former Michigan player and assistant coach.
“They play well year after year,” Miles said of the
Mountaineers, who have lost only four of their last 40 games.
“Jerry’s done a great job in guiding the program. Certainly,
they’re in position to play strong against anybody. They have a
great football team. It’s not specific to any division.”
While there’s no question that Edwards is the star at
Appalachian State, LSU fans don’t even know for certain who’ll
start behind center for the Tigers - and not because they’ve been
distracted by threatening tropical weather that led LSU officials
to move up kickoff from 4 p.m. to 10 a.m.
Miles has declined to say publicly whether he’ll entrust the
offense to Harvard transfer Andrew Hatch, who’s thrown only two
passes in his LSU career, or redshirt freshman Jarrett Lee, who has
yet to take a snap. Miles also has discussed playing true freshman
quarterback Jordan Jefferson, though Jefferson is not expected to
start.
“Whatever the coach thinks is best,” said Hatch, who got the
most work in fall camp and will probably start. “I guess there’s a
lot of uncertainty, but that’s just part of the game. You just kind
of have to focus on doing your job, what you can do each day,
controlling the things you can control and not worry about the
things you can’t.”
It may not really matter which of the three plays, because
whoever it is will be handing off a lot. LSU has a stable of
experienced running backs who teamed up last season to gain 214
yards per game. The Tigers no longer have Jacob Hester as their
best short-yardage running back, but they can still hand the ball
to Charles Scott, Keiland Williams, Richard Murphy and Trindon
Holliday.
Hatch, meanwhile, has impressed teammates with his ability to
run the option.
Appalachian State had trouble stopping the run last season,
losing their only two games against teams that racked up big gains
against them on the ground, milking the clock and keeping Edwards
off the field in the process.
LSU also has four starters back on an offensive line built to
open holes and pass-protect against SEC defenses, never mind
against teams from the lower tier of Division I.
“We need big play from those guys. We need leadership and for
them to do the things that they had done all last season,” Miles
said. “Our expectation is that our offensive line will play
well.”
If that happens, Appalachian State will have to score a lot of
points, which the Mountaineers did regularly last season, averaging
nearly 43 points a game.
Edwards put up some gaudy numbers, finishing last season 3,536
total yards and 38 touchdowns.
Conventional wisdom would call for containing a dangerous
scrambler like Edwards and making him throw from the pocket, but
Miles said LSU is not about to abandon its defensive forte of
pressuring quarterbacks with its experienced and powerful front
four, augmented by an array of blitz packages.
“We’re going to have those big guys come up the field at him,”
Miles said. “We’re fortunate to have some athletic ends that we
think can run as well.”
One of those ends, Kirston Pittman, said he’s been studying a
lot of film on Edwards lately and has come away impressed.
“He’s just a tremendous athlete. He’s just a guy we’re really
going to have to key on,” Pittman said. “We’re really not
sleeping on them at all, you know, with the upset win last year,
which coach Miles mentioned to us a few times.”

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