MONTGOMERY – No. 5 Jacksonville State University used a heavy dose of Roc Thomas and swarming defense to post a 27-13 win over No. 12 Chattanooga in the 2017 Guardian Credit Union FCS Kickoff in front of 12,952 fans at the historic Cramton Bowl in the season-opener for both teams.

Thomas, who transferred to JSU from Auburn in 2016, finished with 190 total yards and one touchdown in the win. He ran the ball 19 times for 122 yards, including a 76-yard TD jaunt in the first quarter that put the Gamecocks ahead to stay.  He also caught three passes for 68 yards.

Jacksonville State (1-0) also brought a stout defensive effort. The Gamecocks recorded 27 plays for zero or negative yards, and recorded 11 pass breakups, five tackles and forced two turnovers in the win. 

Senior linebacker Jonathan Hagler iced the game with a 58-yard interception return to give the Gamecocks a 20-6 lead in the third quarter. Junior linebacker Quan Stoudemire led the team with nine tackles. 

The teams traded first quarter field goals before Thomas ripped a off a 76-yard TD run to give JSU a 10-3 lead with 4:04 left in the first quarter.

Chattanooga (0-1) cut the lead to 10-6 on Victor Ulmo’s 31-yard field goal in the second quarter.

JSU broke the game open in the third quarter with its defense. The Gamecocks held UTC to two rushing yards in the stanza and iced the game with Hagler’s 58-yard interception return to put JSU in front 20-6.

JSU quarterback Bryant Holt found Shaq Davidson with a 59-yard TD pass with 9:44 left in the game to extend the lead to 27-6. Holt completed 14-of-20 passes for 182 yards and one TD in the win. 

 Chattanooga put together an impressive late drive that resulted in Nick Tiano’s 4-yard TD pass to Joseph Parker that made the final 27-13.

 Tiano completed 23-of-43 passes for 218 yards with one TD and two interceptions. He completed seven of eight passes for 89 yards on the Mocs final drive.

 Both teams will have a week off before returning to action on Saturday, Sept. 9. JSU takes on Georgia Tech at historic Grant Field in Atlanta, while Chattanooga faces LSU at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. 

The 2018 Guardian Credit Union FCS Kickoff will be held on Saturday, Aug. 25. Jacksonville State will play a yet-to-be-named opponent next season in Montgomery. 

CHATTANOOGA HEAD COACH TOM ARTH:

“First of all, I would like to congratulate Jacksonville State. They played a great game. They’re an outstanding team. They’re extremely well coached and they certainly deserved to win that game. For us, just too many errors early on, missed opportunities.

“The big thing for us going forward is going to be our ability to learn from this, to learn from our mistakes and to realize that we’re right there. You’re right there and you’ve got great opportunities. You’ve just got to take advantage of them. When you have penalties and you make some silly mistakes against a team of that caliber, it’s just magnified and we just had a little too much of that tonight.

“I’m proud of the way our defense fought through the entire game. With the exception of a few plays, we played very well on that side of the ball. Offensively, it was great to see coming back in the fourth quarter and getting a chance to work a two-minute situation, going down the field and scoring a touchdown. I think that says a lot about the character of the group and just not giving in and not quitting. We know we can be better. We will be better, but it’s a start for us and we know what we’ve got to do going forward to be the team we’re capable of.”

JACKSONVILLE STATE HEAD COACH JOHN GRASS

“The venue, being able to play nationally televised on ESPN, tonight was a great night for our university and our football program. What a way to start the season off. That was a playoff caliber-type game. That’s probably a second round, quarterfinal-type atmosphere with that type of performance. Chattanooga is always a real talented team, really well coached, so we’re fortunate to come away with a W.

“Number one, you look at it in an opening game and it’s how are you going to gel together and play with extreme effort and play physical, and I thought we were able to do that tonight. There’s a lot of things that we have to go back and cleanup of course, but I thought we beat a good football team pretty good tonight. They had a hard time running the football, so we knew they were going to throw the football a lot. I felt like our defensive line, we played a lot of guys up front and they didn’t get tired. We were able to pressure the passer most of the night. Special teams wise, I thought we played well. We had a couple issues on coverage with kickoffs. Other than that, I thought our kicking team was very clean. We made all our PATs and field goals. Offensively, I thought we were very patient and we just continued to get better as the night went on getting a hat on hat in protection and in the run game. We had some balls that we had to punt that was less than fourth and a yard or two. We’d love to have gotten some more in the end zone when we got in the red zone. We had an interception down there that was a drop tip. I thought Bryant (Horn) played really well for his first game protecting the football. He probably made one bad throw tonight that he forced over the middle with a tip and an interception, but the other one was just a drop. 

“Overall, I thought we played really well. I thought we were able to run the ball as the game went on. It’s a good night to be a Gamecock and a good way to start the season off. We can kind of catch our breath a little bit and have an off week next week and get ready to go on to the task of going to Georgia Tech and playing. Thank you again for Montgomery and the Guardian (Credit Union). This game was excellent. Good thing for our university. Montgomery did a great job of hosting us. I just take my hat off to the classy way the whole event was handled. We appreciate it. Like I said, it was great to be in a nationally televised game and just a good night overall.”

March 21, 2017

Guardian Credit Union will join as the title sponsor of the FCS Kickoff – a college football season-opening game in Montgomery, Ala. The previously announced matchup for 2017 will feature two of the current top-ranked FCS teams in the nation, Jacksonville State University and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The Guardian Credit Union FCS Kickoff is set for Saturday, Aug. 26 at 5 p.m. CT, on ESPN.

“As the local credit union, Guardian is proud to support the community by working with the City of Montgomery to host the FCS Kickoff,” said Guardian Credit Union CEO Heath Harrell.  “This game will bring great value to our City and we look forward to being a part of another growing tradition in Montgomery.”

“We are thrilled to expand our Events business in the City of Montgomery with the addition of the Guardian Credit Union FCS Kickoff,” said Pete Derzis, Senior Vice President, ESPN Events.  “The enthusiasm and support from both Guardian Credit Union and the City makes this an exciting opportunity for the student-athletes, universities, conferences and the community.  ESPN is proud to collaborate in establishing this event in what we hope will be a staple in kicking off the college football season.”

The FCS Kickoff has provided a national showcase for top FCS schools since its launch in 2014. ESPN Events, a division of ESPN, has assumed ownership of the game and will host it at Montgomery’s Cramton Bowl for the next two years in partnership with Jacksonville State. The Gamecocks’ opponent for 2018 will be announced at a later date.

ESPN Events ESPN Events, a division of ESPN, owns and operates a large portfolio of collegiate sporting events worldwide. The roster includes three Labor Day weekend college football games; FCS opening-weekend game; 13 college bowl games, 11 college basketball events and two college award shows, which accounts for approximately 300-plus hours of programming, reaches almost 64 million viewers and attracts over 700,000 attendees each year. With satellite offices in Albuquerque, Birmingham, Boca Raton, Boise, Dallas-Fort Worth, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Montgomery and St. Petersburg, ESPN Events builds relationships with conferences, schools and local communities, as well as providing unique experiences for teams and fans. ESPN Events also manages the Big 12 Corporate Partner Program. Collegiate Football AdvoCare Texas Kickoff (Houston); Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl (Atlanta); Birmingham Bowl (Alabama); Boca Raton Bowl (Florida); Camping World Kickoff (Orlando, Fla.); Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Boise); Gildan New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque); Guardian Credit Union FCS Kickoff (Montgomery, Ala.); Hawai’i Bowl (Honolulu); Las Vegas Bowl (Nevada); Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl (Dallas-Fort Worth); MEAC/SWAC Challenge (Baton Rouge, La.); Popeyes Bahamas Bowl (Nassau); Raycom Media Camellia Bowl (Montgomery, Ala.); St. Petersburg Bowl (Florida); Texas Bowl (Houston); The Home Depot College Football Awards (Atlanta) and Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl (Dallas-Fort Worth) Collegiate Basketball AdvoCare Invitational (Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Fla.); Armed Forces Classic (Ramstein Air Base, Germany); College Basketball Awards Presented by Wendy’s (Los Angeles); Gildan Charleston Classic (South Carolina); Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic (Honolulu); Jimmy V Men’s  Classic presented by Corona (New York City); Jimmy V Women’s Classic presented by Corona(Uncasville, Conn.); NIT Season Tip-Off (Brooklyn, N.Y.); PK80 (Portland, Ore.); State Farm Champions Classic (Chicago, Ill.); Tire Pros Puerto Rico Tip-Off (San Juan, P.R.) and Wooden Legacy (Orange County, Calif.) For more information, visit the official website, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube pages. ESPN Media Contact: Rachel Margolis Siegal at 860-766-2798 or [email protected]

The magic continues in the capital city.

For the third consecutive year, the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl was decided in the final two minutes when Toledo sophomore kicker Jameson Vest’s 30-yard field goal attempt sailed wide right to give Appalachian State a thrilling 31-28 win in front of 20,300 fans at the historic Cramton Bowl.

The Mountaineers had taken a 31-28 lead when freshman kicker Michael Rubino nailed a go-ahead 39-yard field goal with 5:14 left on the clock. ASU marched 35 yards in six plays for the winning margin. Rubino made all 14 field goal attempts from inside 40 yards this season.

App State head coach Scott Satterfield had confidence in his young kicker with the game on the line.

“He’s come a long way this season,” Satterfield said. “Our first game against Tennessee, we missed an extra point and we missed a field goal in that game. He’s come a long way. He’s continued to work just like the other kids in our program. They keep working. We don’t give up on them. They keep working.

“He came out here tonight in pregame and kicked the ball beautifully. That right there to win the game with a 39-yard field goal, under 40, I don’t think he missed this year. He’s perfect under 40 (yards) and I’m really proud of him for that. I was proud of Michael to come back and make that kick.”

It was the second straight year App State won the Camellia Bowl with a game-winning field goal. Zach Matics drilled a 23-yard field goal as time expired for a 31-29 win over Ohio University in last year’s game.

Toledo head coach Jason Candle said the game came down to App State making the plays and his team did not.

“They made the plays they needed to make when it mattered,” Candle said. “They drove down and made a field goal. We drove down and didn’t make a field goal.”

The three Raycom Media Camellia Bowl games have been decided by 10 total points. Bowling Green defeated South Alabama 33-28 in the inaugural game in 2014.

Following Rubino’s go-ahead field goal, Toledo’s Corey Jones returned the ensuing kickoff 31 yards to give the Rockets great field positon at their own 43-yard line. Three straight runs by Kareem Hunt moved the Rockets to the App State 16-yard line before the ASU defense made three straight plays.

Facing fourth and two, Toledo took a delay of game penalty and sent Vest out for the potential tying field goal.

“It’s not his fault,” Candle said. “We put ourselves in that position and he’s been great for us all year. I’m sure he’s pretty upset, but he’ll come back stronger for us next year.”

He isn’t the featured runner in the offense but Scott Satterfield, who once was a pretty good Appalachian State running quarterback himself, figured the third annual Raycom Media Camellia Bowl might be decided by Taylor Lamb’s feet.

“We thought coming into the game that we would have the opportunity to run the quarterback,” Satterfield said. “In that (Mid-American Conference) league, there are not many offenses that run the quarterback, which we do. And Taylor is a very, very effective runner in our run game. But I didn’t know he would have this much success.”

Lamb registered only the second 100-yard game of his career, gaining 126 yards on nine carries in a 31-28 win over Toledo at Cramton Bowl on Saturday night.

The junior from Calhoun, Ga., made Satterfield proud with his gritty runs that answered the challenge virtually every time the Mountaineers faced a third-and-long situation.

His first run was blown up by the Toledo defense and went for no gain, but it was the only time the Rockets contained him. His next run was a three-yard scramble on a third-and-three play. Midway through the second quarter, he kept on the zone-read option and went 28 yards to set up a Marcus Cox scoring run two plays later.

On the next Appalachian State scoring drive, he was there again, running 28 yards at right end, then running untouched at left end for the final 13 yards and a 21-14 lead. His next keep covered 31 yards but ended with a fake field goal and no points.

He had one more keeper that came up just short of a first down, but the 10-yard run helped Michael Rubino’s 39-yard field goal more manageable.

“He’s one tough cookie,” Satterfield said. “He got hit hard tonight several times. I loved when he broke off that big run and he jumped right up and got our crowd going. That kind of stuff gets your team going. I’m going to tell you what: You don’t see our quarterbacks – in the history of our school – slide. We don’t slide. But that’s the toughness we have. Our kids feed off that. That’s what leaders do. That’s why he’s a winner.”

When Lamb was asked about the play, he had a simple answer.

“I don’t like sliding,” Lamb said. “You can get more yards when you’re going forward. Sliding is kind of going backwards.”

He wasn’t going backwards on Saturday. He won the Bart Starr MVP Award, even after heralded tailback Marcus Cox broke off a late run to finish with a game-high 143 yards. Up until that point, Lamb was the leading rusher but he didn’t second-guess his decision to hand the ball off to Cox.

“I just wanted yards, offensive yards, I wanted first downs,” Lamb said. “It’s easy to hand it off to Marcus Cox and Jalin Moore. That makes my job easy.”

On Saturday, it was Lamb who turned in the biggest performance, accounting for 245 total yards after passing for 119 yards.

“I feel like every game, Taylor can have games like that,” Cox said. “Teams key on me and Jalin so when they stop us they forget about Taylor. And as you can see tonight, Taylor can make plays with his legs.”

Each year, the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl has to live up to the hype of its predecessor.

The inaugural game was decided in the final 64 seconds. The second game was won by a field goal as time expired.

There were no last-minute heroics in the 2016 game, just an exciting game that featured a back-and-forth scoring battle that wasn’t  decided until a final field goal attempt sailed wide right with 1:48 remaining that allowed Appalachian State to pull out a 31-28 win in front of an estimated crowd of 20,300 at Cramton Bowl on Saturday night.

“I’m really, really proud of our guys,” Appalachian State coach Scott Satterfield said. “We had so much fight and so much integrity in our football team. They do things right on and off the field and you can’t win close games like this if you don’t do things right on and off the field.”

Appalachian State finished 10-3, winning 21 games and a pair of Camellia Bowls in their first two years of FBS bowl eligibility.

“I made the comment every time we scored, they answered, but that’s the mark of a great team,” Satterfield said. “It was really a wild game, an entertaining game for the fans and for ESPN and everybody watching. It was a great college football game.”

Toledo finished 9-4, losing the Mid-American West title to Western Michigan 55-35, then to the Mountaineers to put a damper on the 2016 season.

“At the end of the day we had a chance to go down and tie the game and we just didn’t convert,” Toledo coach Jason Candle said. “For the most part, I thought we played pretty decent. A lot of credit to App State. Really good defense.

“To go 9-4 in a season is something special. We wanted to get a 10th win, but ultimately we had a pretty good season and we’re looking forward to next season.”

Both of the first two games featured comebacks by one of the participants but that wasn’t the case on Saturday as the score was tied at the end of each of the first three quarters.

“That was a great Toledo team,” said Appalachian State junior quarterback Taylor Lamb, who won the Bart Starr MVP Award. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, it was going to be a four-quarter battle. I think we’ve embraced that all year. You just have to play four quarters and I think our defense did a great job of shutting them down in the second half.”

Much of the pre-game focus was on the matchup between Appalachian State’s vaunted defense and Toledo quarterback Logan Woodside, who leads the NCAA with 45 passing touchdowns this season.

Woodside lived up to the billing, setting a bowl record by completing 69.2 percent of his passes, going 18 of 26 for 247 yards and two touchdowns.

If Appalachian State was going to win with its offense, most analysts would have concluded, it would have been behind the tailback tandem of Marcus Cox and Jalin Moore. And while Cox did finish with 143 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries to become the only Mountaineer to ever gain 1,000 yards in four consecutive seasons and the 22^nd player to reach the 5,000-yard career plateau, he was overshadowed by the feet of his quarterback.

Lamb rushed for a career-high 126 yards and a touchdown on just nine carries, repeatedly turning third-and-long plays into crucial first downs.

The Mountaineers’ first scoring drive featured two third-and-long conversions with Lamb’s arm, another touchdown came on Lamb’s 13-yard run at left end and a third came on Darrynton Evans’ 94-yard kickoff return.

Each time, the Rockets answered, never taking the lead but tying the game after every Appalachian State touchdown.

Finally, a Mountaineer drive stalled and freshman Michael Rubino kicked a 39-yard field goal with 5:14 remaining. When the Rockets faced the same situation minutes later, Candle took a delay penalty to set up a 30-yard attempt by Jameson Vest, but the sophomore pushed the kick wide right.

“Let him back up a little bit and trust our players,” Candle said of the decision. “If we had to go out and do it again, I’d kick the field goal again. Trust in our kicker, trust in our protection and hopefully we make it. That wasn’t the reason we lost the game. Give App a lot of credit. They are a great team. They play a physical brand of football. They come right at you and they force you to make mistakes. They put the pressure on you.”

Satterfield, who defeated Ohio on a last-second field goal last year, figured he still had some Camellia Bowl magic left. As it turned out, he was able to simply run out the clock.

“Even if he had made it, I felt good about it because we had about two minutes left to go down and kick another field goal to win the game,” Satterfield said. “I loved the game, it was a fun game, a back-and-forth game. I enjoyed this one because we never were behind.”

Ron Dayne. Tony Dorsett. Charles White. LaDainian Tomlinson. Herschel Walker. Archie Griffin.

Some of the greatest names to ever run the ball in NCAA history are part of an elite club of 18 players, rushers who have reached the 5,000-yard career rushing plateau.

With 40 yards in the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl on Saturday night, Appalachian State senior tailback Marcus Cox will join that club.

“That would definitely be a cool experience, to be in that elite company of guys,” he said.

The 5-foot-10, 205-pound senior from Dacula, Ga., should have joined the club earlier this year, but a quad injury sidelined him for four games in the middle of the season.

And while it might have been distressing for Mountaineer fans, little did anyone know that Cox’s backup, Jalin Moore, would make an immediate impact and leave head coach Scott Satterfield some tough questions about playing time once Cox recovered from his injury.

“It’s a good problem to have, to have two backs the caliber of these guys,” Satterfield said. “Marcus became the all-time leading rusher in Appalachian State history this year. And Jalin had a big-time year, almost 1,400 yards rushing. He’s the offensive MVP in the Sun Belt.

“Once Marcus came back, we’re just sort of incorporating both guys into the offense and I think maybe four out of the last five games they both had over 100 yards.”

Cox tore his quad against Miami, putting the brakes on a senior season that had already seen him eclipse the century mark against Tennessee and Old Dominion and average 5.9 yards per carry (50-296) in the first three games of the year against two Power Five conference teams.

Into his shoes stepped Moore, with the sophomore rushing for 257 yards on 39 carries against Akron in his starting debut. He followed it up with 149 yards against Georgia State, 106 against Louisiana-Lafayette and 114 against Idaho as Cox continued to heal.

“I have a lot of love for Jalin, that’s my boy right there,” Cox said. “I just tried to help him the best I could when I was hurt. That was the best way I could contribute to the team. It seemed like I did that. He had a great year this year. Just having us both back there gives us a nice one-two punch.”

When Cox returned to the lineup, the two took turns punishing opponents. Cox had 115 yards on 18 carries in his first game back against Georgia Southern, while Moore had 126 yards on 15 carries.

With the exception of a game late in the year at Troy, both Cox and Moore have tallied 100-yard games over the last five games of the season.

“We usually alternate series with those guys and once they’re fresh, we’ll put them back in, but we do have a few sets where we have them both in the game at the same time,” Satterfield said. “We started doing that about three games ago and that’s been very successful for us. Any time you get two ‘best’ players in the backfield, I think that makes the defense have a hard time defending that.”

Cox didn’t want to second-guess his coach’s strategy, but it was clear he likes it best when both players are in the backfield at the same time.

“It really doesn’t matter,” he said, “but I feel like when we’re both back there, it’s definitely a lethal part of our offense.”

Last year, Cox earned the Bart Starr Award as the game’s most valuable player in a last-second victory over Ohio, propelling the Mountaineers to a 9-3 season and a conference championship in 2016.

“Winning MVP last year was definitely a cool experience,” Cox said. “I didn’t think I was going to get it, but I’m definitely honored and blessed to receive that award. I’d definitely love to take it home again one more time and end my career right, but at the end of the day it really doesn’t matter if we don’t get the win.”

The 2016 Raycom Media Camellia Bowl has some local flavor, as a total of five Alabama natives appear on the rosters of both teams.

Appalachian State has four Alabama players in its roster, including former Montgomery Academy standout Josh Thomas.

Thomas has been a media darling this week and served as the Mountaineers unofficial team host.  He has also had some down time with his family and friends.

“I just went home (Tuesday) to spend time with my family,” Thomas said. “(On Wednesday night), we found something to do and had fun with my teammates. Just follow me, we’ll find something for sure.”

Thomas anchored a secondary that led the Sun Belt Conference and ranked third nationally with 25 interceptions. The sophomore defensive back played in 11 games and recorded 25 tackles, two interceptions (26 return yards), two tackles for loss (-4 yards), two pass breakups and one quarterback pressure.

“This year, it’s a lot different because now my role is a little bigger, so I’m definitely excited to go out there and play and just help my team get a ‘W,’ Thomas said.

Sophomore defensive back Tae Hayes attended Decatur High School.  He played in 12 games and recorded 18 tackles and one pass breakup for the Mountaineers.

Freshman quarterback Zac Thomas played at Hewitt-Trussville High School. Freshman offensive lineman Cole Garrison played a Clay-Chalkville High School.  Both redshirted this season.

Toledo has one Montgomery native on its roster this season.  Freshman linebacker Tre’Shaun Wilson played at Robert E. Lee High School. The Cramton Bowl, the site of the 2016 Camellia Bowl, was his home field the last three years. Wilson is redshirting this season. Toledo’s interview policy does not allow freshmen to be interviewed.

THURSDAY PRACTICE NOTES

Both teams held a brief walk-thru on Thursday afternoon.  Appalachian State held a 45-minute walk thru at Alabama State University.  Toledo held a 45-minute, closed session at Huntingdon College.

FRIDAY SCHEUDLE OF EVENTS

Both teams will hold full speed practices on Friday at their respective practice sites. Both sessions are closed to the media and public.

Appalachian State and Toledo will attend the 2016 Alabama Football Legend Awards Luncheon at the Renaissance Hotel on Friday at Noon. Former three-time University of Alabama All-American Woodrow Lowe is this year’s Alabama Football Legend.

ASU head coach Scott Satterfield and Toledo head coach Jason Candle will meet with the media on Friday at the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl Head Coaches Press Conference at the Cramton Bowl.

Both teams are expected to have a brief walk thru at the stadium with potential team photos.

The Raycom Media Camellia Bowl honors its annual Alabama Football Legend Award recipient at a luncheon the day before the game, but former All-American linebacker Woodrow Lowe wasn’t sure why he had been selected.

“I am truly honored,” Lowe said before spending a lot of time telling why he didn’t deserve the award. “From a humble heart and with heartfelt appreciation, gratitude, I say thanks to the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl.”

Lowe is one of three players from this state to ever earn All-America honors three times, joining Auburn center Walter Gilbert (1934-36) and Alabama linebacker Cornelius Bennett (1984-86). Lowe set the standard as a sophomore in 1973 with 134 tackles, a school record that remains to this day.

His 315 career tackles from 1972-75 was a school record that was unmatched at the time and is currently fourth behind Wayne Davis (1983-86), Thomas Boyd (1979-82) and C.J. Mosley (2010-13). Lowe played on three Southeastern Conference championship teams and one national champion (1973) and played 11 seasons in the National Football League with the San Diego Chargers.

The Alabama Football Legend Award, presented by Regions, went to Birmingham native and former Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden in 2014 and former Auburn coach Pat Dye in 2015.

“I had an opportunity to meet Coach Bowden,” Lowe said, “and I was so submissive, just getting a chance to shake his hand. And, of course, Coach Dye recruited me and he coached me at Alabama. That’s my coach. These awards, we’ve gotten a lot of them but football isn’t about who I am, it’s just what I do.”

After retiring from the NFL, Lowe got into coaching at the high school, collegiate and professional ranks, most notably with his alma mater, Central High in Phenix City. He retired last year from Jackson State.

“In recruiting, you always judge a young man when they shake your hard,” Toledo coach Jason Candle said. “I shook Woodrow’s hand last night and he almost took my arm off. I know this guy was real when he played football.”

Lowe was one of the best linebackers to ever play for Paul “Bear” Bryant and spent much of his time at the Friday luncheon using Bryant-isms as a teaching moment for the Toledo and Appalachian State players.

“The lessons of discipline, sacrifice, hard work, team work, fighting to achieve, aren’t being taught by many people other than coaches,” Lowe said, reading a Bryant quote from his final years as Alabama’s coach before retiring in 1982.

“A football coach has a captive audience and can teach these lessons because the communication lines between himself and his players are more open than between kids and parents. We’d better teach these lessons or else the country’s future population will be made up of a majority of crooks, drug addicts or people on relief.

“He was surely ahead of his time as far as the game and with people,” Lowe concluded.

Both head coaches had shifted gears to game mode when they met with the media at the Cramton Bowl on Friday afternoon.

Appalachian State head coach Scott Satterfield and Toledo head coach Jason Candle have turned the page on bowl week festivities and are locked in for Saturday’s game which features a pair of 9-win teams.

“We are into game week now.” Candle said. “We will get to the eleventh hour and see what that looks like. We are trying to wind down and make sure we are fine-tuned for the game and hope to go out and play a really good game tomorrow afternoon and represent Toledo one more time with these seniors.”

Satterfield echoed the same sentiments.

“At this point, we are excited about the game,” he said. ”We are in game mode for us on a Friday. We will have our team dinner. We will do everything together. We will do some meetings this evening and get a good night’s sleep tonight. We will have a few more meetings tomorrow and have our team meal before we head over to the stadium and get ready to play.”

Candle also said it was about playing to a certain standard.

“The senior class as set the standard for what this program should look like, what a game should look like when the University of Toledo steps on the field,” he said. “We will play to a certain standard and if it lives up that hype then so be it.  Our guys understand what they are required to do and what a Toledo football game should look like.”

Satterfield said the two sides that don’t get a lot of attention is the ASU offense and Toledo defense. He thinks those units will play a key role on Saturday.

“Two sides that don’t get a lot of talk in this game, is our offense versus their defense,” he said. “I think that will be a great matchup as well. We are going to try and run the football and I am sure they will load the box and stop it.  It will be a very good game, a very competitive game. It could obviously come down to turnovers, a lot of times that is what happens.”

The third annual Raycom Media Camellia Bowl is kickoff on Saturday at 4:35 p.m. (CT). The game will be televised by ESPN.