It's Gardner-Webb Week

Appalachian State had an unexpected weekend off when its scheduled home opener versus Southern Mississippi was canceled due to Hurricane Florence. So, that means the real season opener will take place this Saturday when Gardner-Webb visits The Rock for a 3:30 pm kick.

The Mountaineers go into the contest with a 1-1 mark having lost at Penn State in overtime and rolled to a 45-9 with at Charlotte. The Bulldogs have defeated Limestone 52-17 and lost at N.C. A&T 45-6 and at home to Western Carolina 28-10.

Gardner-Webb is an FCS program that competes in the Big South Conference. So, heading to Boone is a step up for GW.

For App State, playing USM would have been best for this team. It was getting into a groove and Southern Miss would have been a solid team to gauge itself against. But, it’s understandable why the game was not played, though from a purely football perspective, it would have been very interesting to see if Scott Satterfield’s team would have kept up the level it played the first two contests.

The challenge this weekend for App, aside from taking care of business versus a decided underdog, is playing to its own standards. The opponent shouldn’t matter to App this week, it must meet its own expectation in terms of focus, effort, consistency and execution.

GW may not have much of a chance at winning this game, but that’s not at all how App State needs to view this opportunity to get better. It must use it as four quarters of football to improve its chances at making a run toward the Sun Belt Conference championship, which is App’s stated mission.