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.

Toledo and Appalachian State fans were eager to learn their bowl destination as the first week of December drew near.

Head coaches Jason Candle and Scott Satterfield were just as eager, but each felt a little nervous as they realized their teams were on a collision course in the third annual Raycom Media Camellia Bowl.

“About three weeks ago, when we found this out, we called each other and said, ‘Hey, are we playing each other?’ ‘Yeah, we’re playing each other,’” said Satterfield, the fourth-year coach at Appalachian State. “So that part of it is friendship but once we play, he’s trying to win, I’m trying to win.”

It’s a friendship that goes back to their days at Toledo in 2009. Candle, who had played and coached at Mount Union, was hired to coach receivers at Toledo by new coach Tim Beckham. Satterfield, who had played and coached at Appalachian State, was hired as a co-offensive coordinator in charge of the passing game.

“Matt Campbell and I were co-offensive coordinators there,” Satterfield said. “We had an outstanding staff there, really worked well together. Jason is a really, really good football coach and I learned a lot from Matt, from him, from all the guys on the football staff. We’ve kept in touch since I left and still talk.”

Satterfield would get an opportunity the next season to serve as offensive coordinator at Florida International, returning in 2012 to Appalachian State as the assistant head coach and offensive coordinator in Jerry Moore’s final season with the Mountaineers.

Candle, meanwhile, remained with the Rockets, rising to offensive coordinator in 2012 after Campbell became the head coach and to associate head coach in 2014.

Despite the constant changes in their lives, Campbell, Candle and Satterfield stayed in touch, forming a bond in that one season at Toledo and the famous noon-time basketball games against the coaching staff.

“Scott is a tremendous human being,” Candle said. “In coaching, you always want to gravitate yourself to good people. He’s got a great wife in Beth and three good kids in Bryce, Isaac and Alli. I don’t know how old they are now but they were little ones when he was at Toledo with us. He is a good family man and someone who is well respected in our profession.”

When Campbell left to take the head coaching position at Iowa State and Candle was promoted to head coach of the Rockets, one of the first phone calls he made was to Satterfield. The former was preparing for his first game as a head coach in the GoDaddy Bowl and the latter was preparing for his first bowl game in the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl.

“Over the years, we’ll talk some offensive and defensive schemes, that type of stuff, just in general terms,” Satterfield said.

“When he got the head coaching job last year, he called and we talked a little about when I got the job at App, kind of the things we did initially. We just bounce ideas.

“Throughout the season, we probably talk once or twice, but it’s really just checking in. ‘How are things going?’ That kind of thing. Just friendly talk.”

The conversation must have worked. Candle’s Toledo team defeated Arkansas State, while Satterfield’s Mountaineers defeated Ohio.

“We talk a lot about a lot of things,” Candle said. “Unfortunately, you can’t go to Barnes and Noble and pick up a book and say here’s how to be a Division I-A football coach. You’ve got to try and use resources wisely and reach out to people that you know and trust, people that you respect, people that you know do it the right way.”

Now, as the bowl bids were being handed out, Louisiana-Lafayette was the choice of the New Orleans Bowl, which selected first, and Troy was the choice of the Dollar General Bowl, which selected second. That left Sun Belt co-champion Appalachian State as the best team still available for the Camellia Bowl staff and a 9-3 Mountaineer team was the perfect pairing for a 9-3 Toledo team.

Like it or now, the two friends would be facing each other.

“As we’re coming down to this deal and there’s a chance you’ve got to play each other, you don’t like playing your friends because you still have to go out there and try to win the football game,” Satterfield said.

Candle, asked the same question, said it was more satisfying to beat your friends than your enemies.

Satterfield, confronted with that response, laughed and revised his outlook.

“It’s bragging rights for the rest of the time,” he said. “And, right now, I’m 1-0 in bowl games against Coach Candle. I was at FIU (in 2010) when we played Toledo in the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl (and won 34-32) so hopefully he won’t even the score.”

The 2016 Raycom Media Camellia Bowl is one of eight bowl games where both teams have at least nine wins and that makes for must-see-TV on the opening day of the bowl season. The others are Las Vegas Bowl, Alamo Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, Peach Bowl and Fiesta Bowl.

The Camellia Bowl is rated No. 6 in the list of Top 10 Bowl Games to Watch, according to Sports Illustrated. The Camellia Bowl rated No. 12 among the 40 bowls by the USA Today.

“The Sun Belt co-champion Mountaineers take on the high-flying Rockets, who came within a game of playing for the MAC title in this opening-day treat. Leading the way for Toledo is veteran QB Logan Woodside, who has 43 TD passes this season with the help of an explosive receiving corps. ASU QB Taylor Lamb isn’t quite as prolific but directs a solid ground attack that has helped them to a possession-time edge of nearly eight minutes per game,” according to USA Today.

NCAA’S TOP RUSHERS SQUARE OFF:

Two of the NCAA’s top three active career rushers will meet in the 2016 Raycom Media Camellia Bowl.

Appalachian State senior running back Marcus Cox is the NCAA’s second leading active rusher with 4,960 career yards. Toledo’s Kareem Hunt is the third leading active rusher with 4,825 career yards.

Cox needs 128 rushing yards in the Camellia Bowl for his fourth straight 1,000-yard season for the Mountaineers. He has 879 career rushing attempts for 4,960 yards and 51 touchdowns in 44 career games at ASU.

Hunt needs 24 rushing yards to become the Rockets all-time leading rusher. He has 760 career rushing attempts for 4,825 yards and 42 touchdowns in 42 games.

“I have been fortunate to coach some really good players, some guys who live for that opportunity,” Toledo head coach Jason Candle said. “There are a lot of guys on this team like that, they really are. Kareem is not exception to that. He has had a storied career. He has a chance to go over 5,000 yards in his career, that is doing some work at running back. In today’s football you get hit a lot.  It’s a beating on your body. He stayed healthy all year and stayed the course. I am really proud of his growth and development.”

Cox and Hunt have combined for 9,785 yards and 93 touchdowns.

NCAA ACTIVE RUSHING LEADERS

Player, School                                                    Career Yards

Donnel Pumphrey, SD State                            6,290

Marcus Cox, Appalachian State                     4,960

Kareem Hunt, Toledo                                        4,825

De’Angelo Henderson, Coastal Carolina     4,635

Dalvin Cook, Florida State                                4,319

 

APP STATE WINTER HOME:

The Mountaineers are playing their fourth game in the state of Alabama, including back-to-back Camellia Bowl games, in the past 372 calendar days. ASU faces Toledo on Saturday at the Cramton Bowl and suffered a 28-24 loss at Troy back on Nov. 12.

App State played at South Alabama on Dec. 5, 2015 and made it first-ever bowl appearance with a 31-29 win over Ohio in last year’s Camellia Bowl.

Satterfield was asked on Friday he was considering a winter home in the capital city.

“I might move here (if someone would buy me a house). It’s third time in a year we have been down here. We are pretty used to coming down here. This is probably the closest venue for our fans to see us in a bowl game. We have a lot of alumni in the Atlanta area, which is not that far to come over here.

“It a pretty good trip for our fans to come here and hopefully they will pack it out like they did last year. We fed off those fans throughout that game, especially when we started making that second half comeback. That was huge for us. Hopefully, we will have more of our App fans here this year.”

CAMELLIA BOWL SOCIAL MEDIA:

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The trademark of the Toledo defense is to be physical and make plays.

“We are a team that as you watch them play, you will see 11 hats run to the ball and play physical,” Toledo head coach Jason Candle said. “Hopefully, we can find a way to get a couple of turnovers because we will need some of those in this game.”

The Rockets are a blue-collar team with sound fundamentals on the defensive side of the football.

“We are not a huge pressure team but we are a team that wants to be gap sound and play in our base packages,” Candle said. “We will challenge receivers at the line sometimes.

Junior defensive end John Stepec is one of the Rockets top defenders this season. He was named first-team All-MAC this season after leading the Rockets with 14 tackles for loss (-46 yards) and 13 quarterback pressures. He ranks second on the team with 4.5 sacks (-20 yards) and third with 66 tackles.

Senior defensive tackle Treyvon Hester was named second-team All-MAC despite missing two games this season. Hester led the team with five sacks (-28 yards) and finished third with eight tackles for loss (-33 yards). He also added 39 tackles and seven quarterback hurries.

Senior free safety DeJuan Rogers was a second-team All-MAC selection. He led the team with 82 tackles and finished second with seven passes defended.

Junior inside linebacker Ja’Wuan Woodley was named third-team All-MAC. He was second on the team with 71 tackles and 11.5 tackles for loss (-66 yards).

TOLEDO DEFENSE:

• Toledo leads the MAC in opponents third down conversions this year. Toledo opponents have converted 58-of-171 (.339) third downs this season.

• Toledo ranks third in the MAC in scoring defense. The Rockets have allowed 25.3 points per game this season. Toledo won all seven games when holding the opposition to 20 points or less this season.

Appalachian State has a simple but successful philosophy.

“Overall, our formula is run the ball and play defense,” ASU head coach Scott Satterfield said.

The Mountaineers led the Sun Belt Conference in rushing offense and defensive passing efficiency this season. ASU led the league and ranked third nationally with 20 interceptions this season. That combination led ASU to the 2016 Sun Belt Conference championship and the school’s second straight bowl appearance.

Appalachian State also played one of the toughest non-conference schedules among the Group of Five teams this season. ASU opened the season at Tennessee and later hosted Miami, the biggest game in the history Kidd Brewer Stadium in Boone.

“I think our non-conference schedule was one of the hardest in the Group of Five,” Satterfield said. “We played Tennessee and Miami. We played an Akron team, who at the time was an outstanding team until the quarterback got hurt. Old Dominion finished 9-3.

“I think that our non-conference teams really helped us and prepared us for our conference schedule. We went through our conference almost undefeated. We were 50 seconds away from being undefeated in our conference, but we ended up winning it and our non-conference schedule was huge for us and we knew it would help us throughout the season.”

ASU placed 12 players on the All-Sun Belt Conference squad, including sophomore running back Jalin Moore, who was named Offensive Player of the Year, and freshman cornerback Clifton Duck, who was tabbed Freshman of the Year.

APPALACHIAN STATE OFFENSE:
• Appalachian State leads the Sun Belt Conference and ranks 13th in the NCAA with 247.1 rushing yards per game this season. ASU topped the 200-yard mark seven times this season, including a season-high 429 yards against UL Monroe on Nov. 19.

• Senior running back Marcus Cox is the school’s all-time leading rusher with 4,960 career yards. Cox has 979 career rushing attempts for 4,960 yards and 51 touchdowns in 44 career games. Cox has 136 rushing attempts for 872 yards and eight touchdowns this season. He needs 128 rushing yards in the Camellia Bowl to become the only player in ASU history with four straight 1,000-yard seasons.

• Sophomore running back Jalin Moore was the 2016 Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Year. Moore had 221 rushing attempts for 1,367 yards and 10 touchdowns this season. He led the Sun Belt Conference with 1,367 rushing yards and 113.9 rushing yards per game. He was second in the league with 10 touchdowns. Moore has 320 career rushing attempts for 2,098 yards and 15 touchdowns in his 23-game career.

• Appalachian State ranks second in the Sun Belt Conference in total offense (431.1), scoring offense (29.1) and red zone offense (88.4 percent) this season.

• Junior quarterback Taylor Lamb has completed 183-of-293 passes (.625) passes for 2,162 yards with 14 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He was third in the Sun Belt Conference in passing efficiency (134.7) and completion percentage.

• Senior center Parker Collins, junior right guard Robert Gossett and Moore were First-Team All-Sun Belt Conference selections. Junior right tackle Beau Nunn, senior wide receiver Sheadon Meadors and Cox were second team all-conference picks. Freshman left tackle Victor Johnson made the All-Newcomer Team.

Players from both Appalachian State and Toledo spent Thursday morning taking in the civil rights history of the Capital City before resuming practice for the third annual Raycom Media Camellia Bowl.

Appalachian State players spent an hour or so at the Civil Rights Memorial Center, site of the nationally acclaimed Civil Rights Memorial designed by Maya Lin in 1989 that lists the names of 41 people killed in the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s.

“It’s really nice and enlightening,” said Dante Jones, a junior wide receiver from Raleigh, N.C. “Growing up, you see things and learn things like Martin Luther King or Emmett Till, but you don’t learn the exact specifics.

When you come to a place like this, they enlighten you on exactly what happened. For example, I didn’t know the (Montgomery) Bus Boycott lasted 381 days until I got here. I thought it was maybe a week. Coming here let me learn things like that.”

Till was a 14-year-old from Chicago who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, putting a national spotlight on the brutality associated with the civil rights movement for the first time.

Appalachian State players were originally slated to tour the Rosa Parks Library and Museum ahead of Toledo players, but chose a different site after visiting the Rosa Parks Museum on their trip to Montgomery for the 2015 Camellia Bowl.

“It was a little bit different, it was more focused on the bus and Rosa Parks,” Jones said of the Civil Rights Memorial Center. “This was a little more of a wide spectrum, a lot more Deep South. I didn’t know Emmett Till was from Chicago. I thought he was from the South.”
The Toledo players, visiting the Capital City for the first time, seemed as impressed with the Rosa Parks Library and Museum, established on the site of the Empire Theatre where Mrs. Parks was pulled off of the bus and arrested by Montgomery Police in 1955.

“It was a great experience,” said junior cornerback Jordan Martin of Upper Marlboro, Md. “We got to learn about a lot of individuals we had never heard of and listen to the story about Rosa Parks. Being in this place, you can feel it. It’s just a different vibe, like you can feel the spirits. I can’t explain it, it’s just something you have to experience for yourself.”

“This museum was really awesome,” echoed senior safety Connery Swift of Waynesboro, Va. “I really enjoyed every aspect of it. The playback of the night on the bus, the actual action that she did, seeing that in real time hit home for me. That really touched me and made me realize the impact she had on the whole movement.”

The Thursday morning stop was one of the highlights for Camellia Bowl officials, who want to emphasize the historical aspects of Montgomery as a selling point for the bowl game that features teams from the Sun Belt and Mid-American conferences.

“This isn’t one of the bowls you come to party, this is one where you come and learn a lot,” Jones said. “This is the place where the Civil War started. Right around the corner, you can see Martin Luther King’s church. It’s really nice.”

Every year, you could list the candidates for starting quarterback at Toledo and never mention Logan Woodside’s name. That might offend some players, but Woodside seems to take it in stride.

“Even going back to high school, nobody wanted me to play quarterback,” he said. “I just always told myself, ever since I was little, that I was going to play quarterback and I was going to be the best at it. Competition, I like it. It motivates me. I’ve always had to do it my whole life. I don’t know anything else.”

There are few college football fans in the Midwest that don’t know who Logan Woodside is these days. The 6-foot-2, 201-pound junior leads the nation in touchdown passes with 43 and is second nationally in pass efficiency. In another year, he might own virtually every Mid-American Conference passing record ever established. His career pass completion percentage of 65.4 ranks just behind Ben Roethlisberger (2001-03 at Miami, Ohio) in fourth place, three spots behind former Toledo slinger Bruce Gradkowski (2002-05).

And that may be the only school record Gradkowski, the previous record holder in most categories, can hold on to.

“He’s one of the better quarterbacks in the country this year,” said Appalachian State coach Scott Satterfield, who is saddled with the responsibility of coming up with a game plan to counter Woodside in the third annual Raycom Media Camellia Bowl on Saturday night at Cramton Bowl. “The amount of touchdown passes they’ve thrown this year is incredible. If you throw 43 in a career, you’ve had a great career. To do that in one season is phenomenal.”

As a freshman in 2013, the Toledo starting job at quarterback was safely in the hands of senior Terrance Owens until Owens suffered a knee injury in the third game of the season against Eastern Michigan. Enter Woodside, who had enrolled in school in January and was forced into action for the remainder of that game and three others that season.

“It was definitely an experience I learned a lot from,” Woodside said. “I came in and did the best of my ability, but being 17 years old and playing at a Division I-A level as a true freshman at quarterback is pretty tough to do.

“I was kind of thrown into the fire, so I had to learn quick and adapt to it.”

By the next year, you might think Woodside’s game action behind the departing Owens might earn him a position, but the starting role was reserved for Phillip Ely, a transfer from Alabama who had a pair of national championship rings from 2011 and 2012 and had sat out 2013 to comply with NCAA transfer rules.

Once again, in the second game of the season, an injured knee, this time by Ely against Missouri, thrust Woodside into a starting role for the remainder of the season. He completed 185 of 296 passes for 2,263 yards and 19 touchdowns with eight interceptions, but it didn’t matter. Once again, he was going to back up Ely in 2015.

“He was thrown into action unfairly as a freshman due to injury,” Toledo coach Jason Candle said. “When you recruit a quarterback, you don’t ever want them to play as freshmen and he had to. The same thing happened to him as a sophomore. He’s a guy who lost the job to Phillip Ely two years in a row. Having to tell that kid two years in a row you’re not going to be the quarterback, I think a lot of young people in today’s world would have bagged it and quit, transferred and looked for the next opportunity, chased greener grass.”

Woodside shrugs at the suggestion, as if leaving would be the last thing on the mind of a true competitor.

“Me and Phil have a great relationship,” Woodside said. “We still talk. I didn’t really ever take it (the wrong way). I just used it as motivation for me to be the best player that I could and to prove to people that I could play and be one of the best to play at the school.”

That second year as Ely’s backup (2015), Woodside was redshirted to allow him to gain an extra year of eligibility. With junior Michael Julian playing in four games as Ely’s backup in 2015, Woodside wasn’t guaranteed anything this season, either. He entered preseason camp listed as a co-starter with Julian.

“It’s just a unique situation,” Woodside said. “You can’t really dwell on it. The only thing I tried to do is take it one day at a time and get better in practice. I had a lot of support from my family and teammates. I just tried to be a team player, knowing I would get an opportunity again.”

When the opportunity came, he didn’t disappoint. The Frankfort, Ky., native has completed at least 23 passes in nine games this season and has thrown at least three touchdown passes in every game. Three times this season, he has completed more than 75 percent of his passes.

And, of course, there are those 43 touchdown passes this season, 15 less than the NCAA-record 58 thrown by Hawaii’s Colt Brennan in 2006, but 14 more than the school record Gradkowski threw in 2003 and again in 2005.

“With all the hard work I had put in and the offense I had been around for four years, I knew that I could play well,” Woodside said. “To say I would go out and throw 43 touchdowns through 12 games? No, I didn’t think that. I set a goal at 30. It’s all the credit to the offensive line and all the great receivers that we have. I just get them the ball and they do the rest.”

And while that sounds like the type of answer you’d get from a quarterback who has patiently waited for this time, Satterfield is quick to point out Woodside has plenty of weapons at his disposal.

“Number one, their offensive line is really good,” the Appalachian State coach said. “I think they have an outstanding running back. When you have a running game like that, you’re able to have the defense suck up and now you’ve got some free guys running down the field. The third thing is, they have some great skill. Their wide receivers and tight end are great pass catchers and route runners and they keep you on your toes defensively.”

Candle, however, doesn’t want people to lose sight of the fact that while other quarterbacks may have transferred for more playing time, Woodside’s decision to buckle down and win the job made him a better quarterback.

“You want your quarterback to be as close to one as you can with the coaching staff,” Candle said. “One thing you can say about Logan is he’s never disrespected what the process of preparing for a game looks like and the amount of time and preparation it takes to play the most scrutinized position in sports. If you embrace that and if you prepare like a champion, good things are going to happen.

“All the credit really goes to him. We call the plays we call and he’s got the ability to get us into good plays and out of bad ones and he certainly does a great job doing that.”

With three touchdown passes on Saturday, Woodside can tie the MAC single-season touchdown record set last year by Bowling Green’s Matt Johnson, but he isn’t thinking about personal accolades. As usual, he’s thinking about being the best teammate possible.

“I just want to go out and compete one last time with the seniors, a lot of my friends, just to try and get them a win one more time,” Woodside said. “Appalachian State is a really good defense. They take the ball over (through turnovers) a lot. We just have to limit turnovers and just have fun.”