App. St/Michigan stories: Personal Favorites

I thought the coverage that appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer this morning was good: note on A1 with a refer to sports, with huge photo ESPN used of Richardson with one finger in the air, column by Caulton Tudor and coverage of the game by David Scott of the Charlotte Observer.

A1: http://www.newsobserver.com/content/print/front_pdf/1-A-Sun-September-2-07.pdf

Tudor: http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/story/690237.html

Lynch: http://www.newsobserver.com/734/story/690247.html

Lynch piece, I thought, was exceptionally good, because it wasn't a gamer as much as everyone who cared knew it happened by the time this thing came out this morning.

 

"Cinderella" always has a roster with a great name or two. Add CoCo Hillary to that list.

 

Is there no gamer from the Freep? It looks like the lead story is the (really good) column from Michael Rosenberg... Where is the gamer? Mark Snyder is the beat guy, right?

 

Found the AP story to be boring and drab.

 

Winston-Salem staffed the game, didn't it?

 

Lopresti's column was good. Sorry I don't have a link, so I guess I'll just post the whole damn thing ...



By Mike Lopresti, Gannett News Service
This is life when you're the giant killer from Division I-AA — or whatever they call it now.

One week, Michigan.

The next, Lenoir-Rhyne.

Guess we'd better take a brief tutorial on the Appalachian State Mountaineers, since they currently own college football — lock, stock and Big House.

Ten things we should know about the upstarts from Boone, N.C.

Their home stadium in the Blue Ridge Mountains is at 3,333 feet.

Among the special teams leaders for the two-time Division I-AA national champions in 2005 and 2006 was (now) 27-year-old Brian Stokes, a Marine veteran who served two tours of duty in Iraq and lost most of the hearing in one ear from a roadside bomb attack.

Lefthanded quarterback Armanti Edwards is 15-0 as a college starter.

The player who blocked Michigan's last field goal attempt — Corey Lynch — is a physics major.

The player who kicked the winning field goal — Julian Rauch — is an advertising major.

Jerry Moore has had 17 winning seasons in his first 18 as Appalachian State coach.

The Mountaineers have won 15 straight games and 27 in a row at home.

Appalachian State had a total home attendance of just over 135,000 all last regular season. The Mountaineers played in front of more than 109,000 Saturday.

Two-thirds of the roster is from North Carolina.

Oh, and this one. This had never happened before, a lower division team beating a ranked blueblood. Never. Ever.

"You've got to remember these kids have won two national championships and this is not bigger than those," Moore said. "But they will never forget this experience as long as they live."

"They have bigger players, faster players and stronger players," Lynch said. "It's what's inside your chest — your heart."

As for Michigan, it's bad enough to lose only the 14th opener ever ... or give up the most points at home in regulation since last century ... or be the fall guys for history.

Know what else is bad? How other teams around the nation hear your score and talk about you.

Coach Dennis Franchione after Texas A&M struggled early against Montana State: "We were not Michigan tonight."

Coach Bill Callahan after Nebraska sputtered early against Nevada: "We all saw what happened in Ann Arbor, and we certainly didn't want to see that happen today here."

Hawaii punt returner Michael Washington on his team's blazing start against Northern Colorado: "We didn't want to come out and be like Michigan."

There are basically two ways a team can be on everyone's tongues by the end of a college football Saturday. And one of them is very bad.

 

Good?

 

You didn't like it? I preferred it over the Carty story.

 

No way. The Carty piece was a thousand times better. Lopresti could've written his from his couch.

 

And probably did.

 

You mean before or after he spent the first half retyping the pregame notes?

 

Nobody beats Rosenberg when it comes to Big Ten football columns. He had great ones during the BCS mess last year, after the USC collapse, and pre-season too.