Fan the Flames Football Forecast: Appalachian State

The Liberty Flames came up just short against Danny Rocco and the Richmond Spiders, falling 46-39 in double overtime, despite an outstanding game from Darrin Peterson (who currently leads the nation in receiving yards at the FCS level) and a school record 60 yard field goal from John Lunsford as time expired in regulation. Josh Woodrum had a solid game, finishing with 193 yards passing and a career high 98 yards rushing and 5 total TDs, although his streak of 300 yard games came to an end.

Not much time to lick the wounds this week as the Flames play their second FBS opponent:

 Appalachian State (1-4, 0-2 Sun Belt)

 vs.

Liberty (3-3, 0-0 Big South)

This is the last non-conference game of the season for the Flames, and with the loss to Richmond, and the struggles of the Mountaineers in their first season at the FBS level, this game lost a lot of its luster, but, with the bye week coming up, this is a chance to get some positive momentum before opening conference play against Gardner-Webb in two weeks

Matchup:

Location: Kidd-Brewer Stadium, Boone, NC

Series: Tenth Meeting (ASU leads 7-2)

Last Meeting: 29-22 ASU 09/21/2002

Kickoff:; 3:30 PM

Radio: Victory FM Radio Network (Liberty) Alan York play-by-play, Appalachian Sports Network/IMG College, David Jackson play-by-play

Television: ESPN3 (Announcers TBA)

Coaches: Turner Gill (3rd Season at Liberty, 16-12 Record), Scott Satterfield (2nd Season at Appalachian State, 5-12 Record)
Last Week: Liberty 39-46 2OT vs. Richmond. Appalachian State 21-47 vs. South Alabama

The Mountaineers have fallen on hard times since their threepeat from 2005-2007 as NCAA I-AA/FCS national champions. After the departure of legendary head coach Jerry Moore following the 2012 season, Satterfield, who returned that year to be the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach, was hired. Expectations were very high in Boone for a team that had won or shared the Southern Conference title 7 of the past 8 years before receiving an invitation to the FBS Sun Belt Conference in 2013. ASU struggled to a 4-8 record in a transitional year, and now come into their homecoming weekend losers of four of their first five games (the lone win coming against Campbell in week 2).

Liberty comes in losers of back to back games, the most recent a heartbreaker in front of a record homecoming crowd in Lynchburg. While it won't have as much play as it could have as far as an at-large berth is concerned, this is still an important game for the Flames. With the bye week coming next week as noted at the top of this week's post, Liberty doesn't want to go into the downtime on a three game losing streak. As Jon Manson noted on the Liberty Flames Nation blog, going into the bye on a three game downer could really kill this team's confidence, while a win (especially over an FBS) could give them a much needed boost, especially against one of the teams that was picked over the Flames when the Sun Belt looked to expand.

Prediction:

Liberty needs this game as much if not more than App State does (which still isn't much after the Richmond loss), and with the Flames ability to be competitive against FBS schools, that keeps them in this one, but if the front 7 can't get any legitimate pressure and the DBs make plays instead of giving a ton of space as they have the last couple weeks, the Flames will be headed back to Lynchburg with their 8th straight defeat in this series. I am picking ASU in a close one as I did before the season, but I would not be surprised if the Flames get a victory

Liberty 24
Appalachian State 28