September 3, 1998

David Jackson
Staff Writer

At the Southern Conference Football Rouser in the end of July, Mountaineer Head Coach Jerry Moore tried to lead reporters away from the “revenge” scenario when it came to talking about his squad’s 1998 opener against Liberty.

“Last year was last year,” Moore said to numerous writers at the event.  “This is a new season, with new personnel, and this game is important for us in that it sets the tone of the early season.  Sure, there will be some feelings of revenge, but it will not be an overriding factor,” he stated.

If you would have been at the opening of football camp during the first week of August, Coach Moore’s team would have shown you a different sentiment.

“We want these guys bad,” sophomore offensive linesman Billy Young said, following one of the team’s early twice-a-day workouts. “You just cannot come into our house and beat us like that, and expect to get away with that. We will get our revenge,” Young added.

The quest for that revenge begins Saturday night, at 7 p.m., in Kidd Brewer Stadium, as the Mountaineers host the team that robbed them of a play-off berth following an emotional final six weeks of the 1997 season.

“We had a great run at the end of the season,” Moore said at the rouser.  “In that last game against Liberty, there were just some things that did not quite go our way.”

Moore was illuding to a string of bizarre plays in the fourth quarter of last year’s battle with the Flames that let Appalachian’s chance at a birth to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs slip away.

Liberty returned two Bake Baker interceptions during the final period, and perhaps most bizarre of all, the Flames iced the game with a PAT interception return with 4:27 left in the contest.

So Liberty should come in here with a world of confidence against this year’s Mountaineer squad, right?  Well, not exactly.

Despite a 9-2 overall record as a I-AA Independent, the Flames were shutout of the post-season playoffs, which the Flames Head Coach Sam Rutigliano said his team did not appreciate, after posting the school’s best overall record in their history.

“Our guys will be up for the game, simply because we want that playoff berth,” Rutigliano said.  “As a I-AA Independent, we know coming into any given season that we have to have every game to assure ourselves of post-season play,” he stated.

“It was hard for these guys to go 9-2 and have to stay home Thanksgiving weekend.  We think of Appalachian as a tournament-caliber team, and a win against them early may help us out down the road,” Rutigliano said.

Rutigliano believes the winning attitude that accompanied his 1997 squad will stick around another year, as he returns the “nucleus” of last year’s group.

However, to come to Boone, and steal two games in a row from a talented, deep, Appalachian team may be a task that is too tall to order.

The Mountaineers will throw one of the deepest offenses and most punishing defenses that has run out of the tunnel in recent years.

Sophomore David Reaves will get the starting nod at the quarterback slot, but look for sophomore transfer Daniel Jeremiah to get at least one series behind center. Senior tight end Frank Leatherwood, junior Joey Gibson, and sophomore Daryl Skinner highlight a strong receiving corp that returns from last year’s squad.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Hall Brothers (Corey and Joey) look to spark a defense that was punishing, at times, during pre-season workouts.  Senior Adam Neiheisel returns to the fray after being out for much of 1997 with an injury.

Defensive end Rocky Hunt, and linebackers Joe Best and Darrel Wilson also looked good in pre-season workouts.

Do not look for a Mountaineer pity party Saturday night when these two teams take the field for the second time in as many games.

Though Appalachian would like nothing more than to send Liberty home with a loss to start the season, the team also knows that a win would more importantly give the Apps a head start on reaching the playoffs for the first time since the magical season of 1995.