[2024] Week 8 Recap: USM 37-21 APST

[dearden]

Hattiesburg, Mississippi - A heartbreaking defeat, 37-21 away to the Sun Belt West leaders Southern Mississippi, sees Appalachian State back to .500 overall this season at 4-4 (3-2). This was despite a relatively strong defensive performance, which saw Appalachian State intercept the Golden Eagles signal-caller, Senior Quarterback Darius Snead, a total of four times.  Although the Mountaineers rolled out to a 7-0 lead in the First Quarter and maintained a single-score padding well into the Third Quarter, the offense repeatedly balked at opportunities to extend drives and put up additional points.  

Exemplary of these offense troubles was the performance of Appalachian State’s Senior Quarterback, Austin Redding, who finished the day 20/30 for 188 yards with just one touchdown to three interceptions.  Redding’s first and third interceptions of the day came in difficult field positions - on the Appalachian State 36 and 18, respectively.  While the signal-caller was immediately bailed out by an interception of Darius Snead by Safety Andrew Redding - who finished the day with an impressive eight tackles and two interceptions - on the first of these two interceptions, Redding’s third interception of the day led to a Southern Mississippi Field Goal just a handful of plays later.  This extended the Golden Eagles’ lead from 27-21 to a two-score lead of 30-21; one from which the Mountaineers would not recover.

Yet, it was Redding’s second interception which proved the turning point in the contest.  With the score tied 21-21 and 29 seconds left in the Third Quarter, the Mountaineer offense found themselves pounding at the door on the Southern Mississippi 4 yard line.  Following an impressive punt return from Wenyen Clinton-Dix that set Appalachian State up near midfield, and two-successive third down conversions, the Mountaineers appeared poised to retake the lead.  After a 1st and Goal incompletion by Redding to Tight End Chase Randall, Redding entered his three-step-drop once again on 2nd and Goal, looking to find Halfback Wenyen Clinton-Dix behind the shifting Offensive Line.  With the pressure now coming, Redding lobbed a pass into the screen; however, whether the Offensive Line had shifted too far forward or Clinton-Dix had been out-of-position within the screen, Redding’s pass instead found Southern Mississippi Outside Linebacker Brad Sims right between the numbers.  Sims, capitalizing on being in the right place at the right time, put his hands around the ball and gave himself up where he stood.  The turnover would prove decisive: the Golden Eagles would leverage the possession into favorable field position and take a 27-21 lead in the subsequent drive - the dagger to the heart of Appalachian State.

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“I’m just replaying everything in my head,” reflected Austin Redding after the game.  “I don’t know what happened, we’ve run that play over-and-over in practice.  Maybe I got tunnel vision - I’m used to Phil [Turner] usually being my target there so I might’ve been hyper-focused on Wenyen [Clinton-Dix] and getting the ball to him, I don’t know.  I just didn’t see [Sims].  Hell, [Sims] might’ve been just as surprised that a ball got lobbed his way as I was when I’d realized what’d happened the split-second after releasing the ball.  It doesn’t matter, it’s no excuse.  Even without that, I’d had a pretty awful outing with those other two picks.  Yeah, maybe the first one impacted me there; they both definitely compounded on me for the third pick.  I’m better than that mentally, I’m better than that as a player, but I wasn’t today - I let myself down, I let my team down, I let my coaches down.  They had the faith to call two pass plays on 1st and 2nd and Goal within the opposing 5 with three amazing tailbacks who average something like 5 yards per carry each - they could’ve easily pounded the rock in for the lead.  But they chose to call my number instead and here we are.  I hope they continue to place the same faith in me; this series of events won’t happen again.  But hell, I finally understand how those folks in Super Bowl XLIX felt.  We're gonna get right back to work this upcoming week, all of us.  We still want to show the nation what we can do - we want to win out, we want the Sun Belt.  We're gonna learn from this and do everything within our power to get there."

The Mountaineers have Week 9 of the Collegiate Regular Season off - Appalachian State returns to host the Panthers of Georgia State next Friday night in a must-win Conference match-up to keep their Sun Belt Championship aspirations alive.

Edited June 20 by dearden