— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Mired in a four-game losing streak, Appalachian State must defeat Marshall on Saturday afternoon to remain in the mix for bowl eligibility and a non-losing season.
While the Herd (5-5, 3-3) needs one win over its last two games to become bowl eligible, there is no margin for error for the Mountaineers (4-6, 1-5) as a result of their recent struggles.
The old rivals face off at 2:30 p.m. Saturday from Kidd Brewer Stadium in a game that can be seen on ESPN+.
Appalachian State’s current skid includes setbacks to Coastal Carolina, Old Dominion and Georgia Southern in addition to last week’s 58-10 drubbing at nationally-ranked and Sun Belt Conference leader James Madison.
The game features two first-year head coaches in Marshall’s Tony Gibson and App State’s Dowell Loggains, who served as South Carolina’s offensive coordinator for two seasons before taking the job in Boone.
Appalachian State is hardly accustomed to losing streaks or a lack of success in Sun Belt competition. The Mountaineers are four-time Sun Belt Champions and have somewhat consistently been in contention for the league title the better part of the last decade.
“There is still a lot of good that can come from this season, but you can’t talk about a bowl game until you win this game,” Loggains said. “We’ve got a really skilled opponent that has done a good job in a short time in building a roster. Marshall is a good, competitive team. The good thing for us is that we get to play at home. We have to get our group to put last week’s game behind them and look for ways to win this game.”
The Mountaineers have had a revolving door at quarterback and AJ Swann is currently taking the bulk of snaps behind center. Swann previously played sparingly at LSU and saw an abundance of action in two seasons at Vanderbilt.
Should the Mountaineers go in a different direction than Swan, 6-foot-7 Iowa State transfer JJ Kohl would be in line to replace him.
Both played in the loss to the Dukes, with Swann struggling mightily. He completed 8-of-28 passes for 64 yards and was intercepted once, though in the previous matchup with Georgia Southern, Swann threw for 348 yards and two touchdowns.
Appalachian State does have several skill players the Herd must monitor closely, specifically wide receiver/punt returner Jaden Barnes and fellow receivers Davion Dozier, Dalton Stroman and Izayah Cummings. Barnes leads the sqauad with 55 receptions, 608 receiving yards and seven touchdown grabs.
Rashod Dubinion is the Mountaineers’ lead back and has 821 yards and four TDs on the ground.
Six Mountaineers have at least 40 tackles, led by linebacker Colton Phares’ 74 stops and two sacks. Defensive back Zyeir Gamble has recorded 57 tackles and a pair of interceptions for a struggling defense that’s allowed 152 points during the ongoing skid and 237 points in the team’s six losses.
ASU wraps up the regular season next weekend with a home game against Arkansas State. The Red Wolves suffered a 34-30 loss to Louisiana on Thursday.
