Appalachian State wins third consecutive national championship
December 15th, 2007 Posted in NCAA footballAppalachian State started the year by shocking the college football world with their win at Michigan, and finished the season by winning their third straight national championship, crushing the Delaware Blue Hens 49-21 at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga tonight.
The App State Mountaineers electric offense did what they have done for most of the year - lit up the scoreboard. Delaware’s powerful offense - averaging almost 40 points per game during the regular season, including hanging 59 points on bowl-bound Navy, was expected to match the Mountaineers, but could not keep up with App State’s speed on either side of the ball, and were overpowered by App State’s rushing attack.
App State started the scoring with an Armanti Edwards to Kevin Richardson TD. The Delaware offense seemed ready to respond, driving to the App State one-yard line before the Mountaineers defense stepped up to stuff the Blue Hens on third and fourth down plays. App State dominated the clock for most of the rest of the half, running for over a 150 yards in the half, and racing out to a 21-0 lead.
A Joe Flacco to Mark Duncan TD pass put the Blue Hens on the board late in the first half, but their momentum would be short-lived. Despite getting the ball back on their 30 with only a minute to play in the first half and a two TD lead, App State came out firing. Armanti Edwards completed a first down pass on their first play, and then escaped pressure to hit Dexter Jackson with a 60-yard TD pass to push the Mountaineer lead back up to three touchdowns, 28-7 at half.
The teams traded scoreless possessions to start the second half, before App State relentlessly ran the ball down the throat of the Blue Hens defense on a long 6-minute drive. After being stopped on a third and one around the fifteen yard line, App State again made the aggressive call, electing to go for the first instead of attempting a short field goal with a three TD lead. Kevin Richardson used a solid second effort to get the first down off right tackle, and then hauled in an Edwards TD pass to give the Mountaineers a 35-7 lead with just over five minutes to play in the third.
The Blue Hens stayed alive, responding with a TD drive on their next possession, capped by All-American Omar Cuff’s TD run, a few plays after QB Joe Flacco somehow evaded what would have been a twenty-yard sack play. Delaware kept the momentum with a defensive stop followed by a drive into the App State red zone, but constant App State pressure, mainly from four-man fronts with some zone blitzes, halted the critical drive on a fourth down play with about ten minutes to go in the game. That stop flattened any Blue Hens momentum, and App State completely crushed the Blue Hens with the following TD drive, effectively ending the game at 42-14 on another Kevin Richardson TD run. Two late touchdowns in the final four minutes made the final score 49-21.
App State became the first Division I team to win three consecutive national championships since 1946 (Army), after starting the season by becoming the first 1-AA team to ever beat a ranked 1-A team (Michigan; top 5 at the time). Ironically, Delaware and Michigan share the unique blue and yellow winged helmet design, with only slight differences in color, and now they also share the bookends of an amazing Appalachian State Mountaineers 2007 season that ends with an historic third straight national championship.
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