The casual college football fan probably hears “Appalachian State Mountaineers” and thinks of the school that played in what was then Division I-AA and somehow beat the Michigan Wolverines at the “Big House” in Ann Arbor in 2007.
Fast forward eight years and the Mountaineers are a completely different program. In 2013, the school made the leap to the Sun Belt Conference, and now, after two years in the NCAA’s Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), Appalachian State has a combined record 17-7. This year, in their first year of bowl eligibility, the Mountaineers went 10-2, finished second in the Sun Belt, and on Saturday will play in their first bowl game since 1955.