CHATTANOOGA, TN ? After about 20 minutes of celebrating and fighting through raucous fans on the field after the game, an assortment of Appalachian players and head coach Jerry Moore finally made their way to the podium for the national championship game press conference.
Looking emotionally exhausted, Moore had this to say when prodded by Southern Conference Assistant Commissioner Bryan McGowan to proceed with his opening comment:
“This is not going to be short. I have been waiting 17 years for this.”
To those with a vested interest in the program those words pretty much summed up Appalachian’s first NCAA I-AA National Championship.
The Apps had been trying in vain to win a title for many years, consistently being listed as one of the most successful programs in the nation, with one chink in their armor ? a national title.
Around 11:45 p.m. on Friday, December 16 that all changed and became (to quote another famous December date and statement) a day that will live in infamy for the Mountaineer faithful.
Jump On or How I Helped Us Win A National Title
After injuring his ankle in the first quarter in the Apps’ 29-23 victory over SoCon rival Furman in the semifinals of the I-AA Playoffs at Kidd Brewer on December 10, Richie Williams looked as if he would have trouble getting to his dorm room more or less play football in six days.
The hot button issue all week among the media covering the final, Moore decreed during Thursday’s final press conference before the game that semifinal stud Trey Elder would be the Mountaineers starting quarterback in the championship game.
Elder, a rising superstar out of a tremendous high school program (Byrnes) in South Carolina, looked primed to be the man for Appalachian in the final, but things do not always turn out as planned.
Elder looked poised and calm in the pocket, but could not overcome three turnovers that the Apps gave up in the first half, leaving things at 16-7 in favor of Northern Iowa during the 20-minute intermission.
The team’s psyche changed though when the first half commenced and a great deal of that had to do with the lift that Williams provided when he was brought of the bench by Moore to start the second half.
The aura surrounding Williams entrance into the contest was not a shot at Elder, who according to Moore and the rest of the team will be considered one of the team leader’s next year, but a nod to Williams ? a three-year captain and the uncontested leader of the Appalachian football team.
“Coach (Moore) asked me a halftime if I was ready to go,” remarked Williams. “I said we could give it a go.”
The move paid off and Moore when asked the question why go with Williams said it best: “To me he (Williams) was 100 percent. The difference between him and Trey is experience.”
That experience was paramount to Appalachian’s success in the half, as Williams willed the Mountaineers on his bum left ankle towards a crown.
Williams accounted for 123 yards passing in the second half, leading the team to its only score of the second half. Kevin Richardson, who had both of Appalachian’s offensive touchdowns on the evening to finish with 21 touchdowns on the season, tying John Settle’s all-time mark in the school annals, scored the touchdown on a five-yard jaunt with 6:05 left to play in the third period.
Despite Richardson’s two touchdowns, Appalachian really could not manufacture much on the ground, which meant the second half was, as All-American defensive end Marques Murrell called it, a “gun-slinging show.”
“It was frustrating (not being able to run),” mused Williams. “Coach told me though (at half) that we were going to wing it. Coach called option one time and I called time out because I knew that I could not run it.”
Nevertheless, in the end it turned out to be a pair of All-American defensive ends that matriculated the winning touchdown.
Up until the penultimate play, Appalachian had not really been able to force anything their way, but when Murrell and Jason Hunter are your defensive ends anything can happen in a split-second and it did.
Murrell forced a fumble off NIU quarterback Eric Sanders at the 15-yard line that fellow defensive end Hunter scooped off the ground and ran to the back of the end zone to give Appalachian their first lead of the contest at 21-16.
Murrell remembered the play vividly, articulating, “I thought just jump for it and I got it and then I saw it on the ground and I hoped someone would pick it up and Jason did.”
National Champions
The 21-16 win over Northern Iowa leaves Appalachian with what they have always desired and ? if they were not already ? moves the program to the upper echelon of I-AA football.
“This was just a great night,” Moore said after the game at the press conference. “It speaks wonders for our program, our school and North Carolina.”
Williams agreed with his coaches’ musings, particularly since it was his last chance to shine as a Mountaineer before leaving for the real world after graduating last Saturday with a graphic arts degree after defeating SoCon foe Furman earlier in the afternoon.
“What more can you ask for,” pontificated Williams. “To go out (with a national championship) is a fairy-tale ending.”
Still, the question remained: Is this the best Appalachian team ever?
Moore quickly answered the question like only he could, noting rather easily, “I do not know, but I can tell you this ? they are the only Appalachian team to win a national championship.”
Enough said.