Saturday, March 2, 2019

App State Completes 2019 Football Schedule


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