App State Coach Dowell Loggains Not Expecting Oregon State, Maalik Murphy To Roll Over

With an 0-5 start under their belts, the Oregon State Beavers will make a cross-country trip this week, looking to take down the 2-2 Appalachian State Mountaineers. The Mountaineers are led by head coach Dowell Loggains, who was hired by the program this offseason after serving as South Carolina's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

Even in the face of going up against an 0-5 team, the first-year Sun Belt head coach is approaching this game with an intent to not underestimate the visiting, and frankly desperate, Beavers.

"Obviously, good football team that unfortunately... the record doesn't show that, but you just watch how the Houston game went. You know, had up and then lose late, because of some special teams' mishaps," Loggains noted during Monday morning's Sun Belt coaches media availability. "But it's going to be a great challenge for us and they're looking to get their first win. There's a psychological battle there anyway, right when you look at the the win loss record, but you better understand when you put together, if I showed a 20 clip highlight of those guys, it's a really talented team.  There's a lot of stars in their recruiting classes. So we'll have our hands full with this one just because they are a good team, even though their record doesn't say that."

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Particularly, Loggains knows a thing or two about Beavers' starting quarterback Maalik Murphy. Before Murphy transferred from Texas to Duke, Loggains and the South Carolina staff previously tried to recruit Murphy to come to Columbia, where he would have been expected to compete with LaNorris Sellers for the Gamecocks' starting quarterback job.

"A lot of respect for him," Loggains noted of Murphy. "He's got a great personality.  He's a talented guy...originally recruited by Texas, but he's got size, he's got good arm arm strength. He moves better than you think he would for a big guy. A ton of respect for his game and it'll be a challenge for us this week with him."

An added challenge for the Beavers in an unusual setting will be sheer time and energy exerted in traveling all the way from Corvallis, Oregon, to Boone, North Carolina. Loggains' team made a similar trip last weekend going all the way to Boise State where the Broncos handed App State a 47-14 defeat. Because of that, Loggains noted his appreciation for Trent Bray and the Beavers making such a long, and somewhat complicated journey, into the Appalachian Mountains.

"The challenge for that travel is this: it's a four hour flight, but just because of our location, it's a two-hour bus trip to Charlotte. So it's you're talking about six hours of travel, which is hard," Loggains noted. "In the NFL,  we would go a day ahead of time when you go out west. I think it's always easier to go east than it is west because of the time travel. When we were in New York, we'd have to go to L.A. and when I was in Miami, we had to go to L.A. and to play. We always went out a day early, and that's a big thing in the NFL.  But the travel, especially getting to Boone, are you staying in Charlotte and driving up the day of the game,? Or you're going to stay in Hickory? So the travel is a challenge. Either way, if you're going east or you going west or coming east. But you know, for those guys, it was a cool atmosphere in Boise, the travel was really hard. But it was cool to go play a really talented team and kind of see what you're chasing and see what you're trying to build in that. Just a ton of respect for how they built their roster, but to get a team like Oregon State to come to The Rock is exciting as well."

Kickoff between the Beavers and the Mountaineers is set for 12:30 p.m. PT on ESPN+ on Saturday.

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