There is still hope for the Appalachian State University football team.
    With a 6-3 overall record and a 4-2 Southern Conference record, the Mountaineers still can hope to play in the post season and make a title run.
    Appalachian has only lost three games. Only two of those were conference loses, both to teams in the top of the SoCon standings.
    The team opened the season with a loss to Marshall University. With quarterback Joe Burchette injured at the time, it didn’t come as that big of a surprise when the Herd’s Heisman Trophy candidate Byron Leftwich threw for over 400 yards and toppled ASU 50-17.
    Three weekends ago in Statesboro, Ga., ASU suffered its first conference loss to Georgia Southern University; then two weekends ago Wofford College pulled off the upset in Boone.
    Wofford also upset Georgia Southern earlier in the season.
    The only other conference foe currently above Appalachian in the rankings is Furman University, and no Mountaineer fan can forget the incredible miracle play with 7.4 seconds left on the game clock against the Paladins.
    Those in attendance at that game forever have etched in their minds Josh Jeffries’ interception and pitch to Derrick Black who ran the length of he field.
    That play alone should remind everyone not to count us out yet. Appalachian is still only one game out of first in the conference.
    We’ve been in this situation before.
    Two seasons ago, the team lost to non-conference foe Troy State University, then to Georgia Southern and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. ASU entered the playoffs that year ranked 14th.
    In the first round, the team won a rematch against Troy State then moved on to Western Kentucky University where they won 17-14.
    Then, for the first time in Appalachian history, the Mountaineers were in the semi-finals for the NCAA Division I-AA National Championship.
    The Montana University Grizzlies defeated ASU in overtime, 19-16.
    That season Appalachian became the fourth team in I-AA history to make it to the semi-finals without playing a home postseason game.
    And don’t forget about last season. With losses from Wake Forest University, Georgia Southern and Furman, Appalachian entered the playoffs ranked seventh and with a home game.
    The team triumphed over the College of William and Mary in the first round 40-27 before losing the rematch against Georgia Southern.
    Appalachian’s current standings aren’t unfamiliar.
    With two games left this season, this weekend’s home game against the Virginia Military Institute and next weekend’s match up against Western Carolina University, the Mountaineers still have a chance for post-season magic.