Mysterious Mountaineers haven't put much on tape, but they'll certainly move

Mack Brown and the North Carolina coaching staff have watched all 120 minutes of football Appalachian State has played this season and walked away with one basic conclusion on the offense they saw on that film.

“It’s really a wasted video for us other than just a few schemes,” he said.

In a 42-7 victory over East Tennessee State and 56-41 win over Charlotte, the Mountaineers have gone out of their way not to reveal much beyond the basics.

“They opened up with two teams they were better than and you don’t have to show much,” Brown said. “Usually what you have to do is you have stuff in your package and you don’t use it unless you need to. I think we’ll see different things on Saturday.”

Winners of 41 games, four bowl games and three Sun Belt titles over the past four seasons, the Mountaineers have bigger goals this season, with their eyes on the Group of Five’s slot in a New Year’s Six bowl game.

And starting with Saturday, App State has the opportunities on its schedule to get there, as the Mountaineers will also visit South Carolina in November.

With App State’s vanilla approach in the first two games, there’s no film of this group executing the more exotic offensive concepts of first-year head coach Eli Drinkwitz, who spent the past three seasons at N.C. State.

“We’ve told our kids already that we’ve got to be prepared for a lot more offense than is on film and I think that’s going to be the challenge,” defensive coordinator Jay Bateman said. “We’re watching a lot of N.C. State film and applying it to their personnel, seeing where we think the two things mesh.”

And if the two things mesh, the Tar Heels certainly expect to have their hands full, as Drinkwitz’s Wolfpack finished 26 in total defense last season while the Mountaineers averaged 49 points en route to an 11-2 season.

Quarterback Zac Thomas, the reigning Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year, leads a group that brought back every significant contributor.

“He’s a young man that can run and throw,” Brown said. “He’s very athletic; a lot of our guys know him and they talk about him being such a great leader and such a great young man. He’s a very accurate thrower, so he’s really a good football player.”

Without Drinkwitz opening up the playbook, Thomas has completed 30 of 44 attempts for 332 yards with five touchdowns, while rushing for a score in the opener.

The biggest threat to his repeat bid for player of the year honors is in his own backfield, as the lightning-fast Darrynton Evans has picked up where he left off last season and led the nation in rushing after two games, carrying 33 times for 333 yards with four touchdowns.

Last season, Evans saw just 19 carries over the first four games before taking over for the injured Jalin Moore for the rest of the season. All he did from there was top the 100-yard mark in seven of nine games, finishing with 1,187 yards and seven touchdowns.

“They’ve got a dog at running back,” defensive tackle Aaron Crawford said. “He’s going to play in the league one day."

The guys opening gaps also provide a unique challenge for the Carolina defense, too.

“They’re a very fast (offensive line); they’re very quick,” Crawford said. “They’re not as heavy as I’ve seen … but the way that they scheme, and athletically, they’re running fast and flat, they’re getting up to the second level, they’re getting on the backers, they’re getting to the safeties.”

As good as the App State offense has been this season, they’ve done it without their top deep threat, Corey Sutton, who was suspended for the first two games.

The Mountaineers have always leaned on a run-first offense, and that’s been true this season, with 80 runs to 45 pass attempts, averaging 7.5 yards per throw.

That number likely goes up with Sutton, who had 44 receptions for 773 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, averaging 17.6 yards per catch.

“Watching him in our offseason study from the summer, he’s a really talented kid; ACC player, I think,” Bateman said. “I wish he’d sat out one more week.”

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