BOONE –
Two matchups against Power Five Conference foes from the Carolinas and a
nationally televised Thursday home game against Georgia Southern on Halloween
night are among the highlights in a 2019 schedule that includes two home games
apiece in September and October for Appalachian State’s football team.
With Eliah
Drinkwitz entering his first season as the head coach of a program that is
moving forward from a third consecutive Sun Belt Conference championship and
fourth straight bowl win, the Mountaineers have home games against East
Tennessee State (Aug. 31 opener for Hall of Fame and
Jerry Moore’s 30th anniversary celebration), Charlotte (Sept. 7),
Coastal Carolina (Sept. 28 for Family Weekend), ULM
(Oct. 19 for Homecoming), Georgia Southern (Oct. 31 on ESPNU) and Texas
State (Nov. 23 for Senior Day).
There is
one other non-Saturday game on the 2019 schedule, as Appalachian’s road games
are at North Carolina (Sept. 21 following an off date the weekend before),
reigning Sun Belt West Division champion Louisiana (Oct. 9 for a Wednesday
night game on ESPN2), South Alabama (Oct. 26), South Carolina (Nov. 9 following
the Georgia Southern game nine days earlier), Georgia State (Nov. 16) and Troy
(Nov. 30 in the regular season finale).
The 2019 Sun Belt Championship Game between East and West
Division winners will be held Dec. 7 at an on-campus location.
Arkansas
State is the lone member of the 10-team Sun Belt not on Appalachian State’s
eight-game conference schedule in 2019. The Mountaineers will be facing South
Alabama in Mobile, Ala., for the first time since 2015, and the App
State-Georgia Southern game will be a midweek ESPN matchup for the sixth
straight year.
Appalachian
State will play North Carolina in football for just the second time, as the Tar
Heels won the first meeting in 1940, and the 2019 game is starting a three-game
series with UNC. They are scheduled to play in Boone in 2022 and back in Chapel
Hill in 2023.
This
year’s South Carolina matchup in Columbia, S.C., is also beginning a three-game
series that will continue with a 2025 game in Boone and a 2027 game back in
Columbia. The two programs have played each other nine previous times, most
recently in 1988.
East
Tennessee State restarted its FCS program in 2015, and the most recent meeting
in the 46-game history between the Mountaineers and Buccaneers occurred in
2003.
Only five
of the primary starters from a record-breaking, 11-2 season in 2018 are gone
for App State, which has won 35 of its last 39 games against Sun Belt
opponents, and the return of nine All-Sun Belt players has added to the
excitement surrounding the upcoming season.
2019
App State Football Schedule
Sat.,
Aug. 31 vs. East Tennessee State (Hall of Fame / Jerry Moore 30th anniversary
celebration)
Sat.,
Sept. 7 vs. Charlotte
Sat.,
Sept. 21 at North Carolina
Sat., Sept. 28 vs. Coastal Carolina* (Family Weekend)
Wed., Oct. 9 at Louisiana* [ESPN2]
Sat., Oct. 19 vs. ULM* (Homecoming)
Sat., Oct.
26 at South Alabama*
Thurs.,
Oct. 31 vs. Georgia Southern* [ESPNU]
Sat., Nov.
9 at South Carolina
Sat., Nov.
16 at Georgia State*
Sat.,
Nov. 23 vs. Texas State* (Senior Day)
Sat., Nov.
30 at Troy*
Sat., Dec.
7 – Sun Belt Championship Game
*Sun Belt
game
Home
game in bold
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