MIAMI-OHIO REDHAWKS NOTES:
REDHAWKS FACE APP STATE IN CURE BOWL
The Miami University football team will take on Appalachian State University in the Avocados From Mexico Cure Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 16 in Orlando, Fla. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at FBC Mortgage Stadium.
ABOUT MIAMI
• Miami football ranks first all-time in the Mid-American Conference in wins (724), conference wins (317), MAC Championships (17) and bowl wins (8). • Historically, Miami’s 724 career wins are third all-time among Group-of-Five programs, behind just Navy (737) and Army (725). • Miami was 4-14 in Coach Martin’s first 18 Mid-American Conference games. Since then, the RedHawks are 42-17 in their last 59 games versus schools from the MAC. • Miami and James Madison are the only schools in the country with six road wins this season. The RedHawks are 6-1 on the road this year with their only loss coming in week one at Miami (Fla.). • In 540 minutes versus MAC teams (9 games), the RedHawks have only trailed for 90:37 this year. Miami never trailed against BGSU, Western Michigan, Akron or Buffalo and combined to trail for just 7:37 in the wins over Kent State and Ball State. In Miami’s eight wins versus the MAC, seven were by multiple scores. • The RedHawks have now been bowl eligible seven of the last eight seasons. From 2006-15, Miami was bowl eligible just twice. • The RedHawks have picked up Power-5 victories in two straight years, downing Cincinnati (31-24) this season and Northwestern (17-14) a year ago. • For the first time since 2005, Miami beat both Cincinnati (31-24) and Ohio (30-16) in the same season. Miami’s 17-15 win over Ball State means the RedHawks own all three rivalry trophies in 2023. • Miami captured its 17th MAC Championship, second under Chuck Martin, with a 23-14 win over Toledo on Dec. 2. Miami’s last MAC Championship was in 2019. • The last time Miami won 11 games in a season, NFL future Hall of Fame quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was taking snaps for Miami back in 2003 (13-1). A win over App State would give Miami 12 victories, the second most in program history in a single season. • Miami received 31 points in the most recent AP Poll. • Twelve RedHawks were named All-MAC. Matt Salopek, Caiden Woullard and Graham Nicholson earned first-team honors, while Will Jados, Reid Holskey, Brian Ugwu, Ty Wise, Yahsyn McKee, Alec Bevelhimer and Cade McDonald (returner) were named second team All-MAC. Brett Gabbert and Rashad Amos were placed on the third team. • Matt Salopek was named MAC Defensive Player of the Year and Graham Nicholson came away with MAC Special Teams Player of the Year honors. Salopek is the first RedHawks to earn Defensive Player of the Year since Quinten Rollins did so in 2014. Nicholson was named the 2023 Lou Groza Award winner, Miami’s first Player of the Year award in program history.
ABOUT APP STATE
App State comes into the Cure Bowl with an 8-5 record (6-2 SBC). The Mountaineers won their final five regular-season games before falling to Troy 49-23 in the Sun Belt Championship Game on Dec. 2. Quarterback Joey Aguilar has thrown for a school-record 3,546 yards this season, which ranks ninth in FBS, and has a program-record 33 touchdowns through the air. He is tied with Michael Penix Jr. for third in the nation in touchdown passes. Defensive standout Andrew Parker Jr. leads the Mountaineers with 108 tackles. App State is 6-1 in bowl games since moving to the FBS level in 2014.
SERIES VS. APP STATE
This is the first meeting between the two programs. SINGING THE ABC’S For just the third time in school history, and the first time since 2005, Miami football will be carried live on ABC.
BOWL HISTORY
The RedHawks are 8-6 all-time in bowl games.
APPALACHIAN STATE MOUNTAINEERS NOTES:
TOP STORYLINES
• App State closed the regular season with a five-game winning streak to capture the Sun Belt’s East Division title and earn a Sun Belt Championship Game berth. After making a bowl game in each of its first seven eligible seasons (2015-21) but missing out during a 6-6 season in 2022, App State is back in a bowl to face Miami (Ohio) in the Avocados from Mexico Cure Bowl.
• In going 6-0 in its first six bowl games, App State began that streak with three wins against MAC teams, counting victories against Ohio and Toledo in the 2015 and 2016 Camellia Bowls and Toledo again in the 2017 Dollar General Bowl. A list of App State’s bowl results:
2015: App State 31, Ohio 29 (Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Ala.)
2016: App State 31, Toledo 28 (Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Ala.)
2017: App State 34, Toledo 0 (Dollar General Bowl in Mobile, Ala.)
2018: App State 45, Middle Tennessee 13 (New Orleans Bowl in Louisiana)
2019: App State 31, UAB 17 (New Orleans Bowl in Louisiana)
2020: App State 56, North Texas 28 (Myrtle Beach Bowl in Conway, S.C.)
2021: WKU 59, App State 38 (Boca Raton Bowl in Florida)
• App State has a 93-30 record since starting 1-5 in its 2014 FBS debut. The only teams with more wins than the Mountaineers’ 94 since their transition are Alabama (127), Clemson (118), Ohio State (115), Georgia (113) and Oklahoma (102). Notre Dame and Boise State also have 94.
• Shawn Clark officially took over as App State’s head coach before the 2019 bowl game and has a 2-1 bowl record. He has led the Mountaineers to a win over a ranked opponent in each of the last three seasons: 30-27 over No. 14 Coastal Carolina in 2021, 17-14 over No. 6 Texas A&M in 2022 and 26-23 (OT) over No. 18 James Madison in 2023.
• After replacing injured starter Ryan Burger in the first half of the opener, Joey Aguilar threw a 32-yard TD pass on his first FBS play and has 33 TD passes (T-No. 3 among FBS QBs). Only LSU’s Jayden Daniels (40) and Oregon’s Bo Nix (40) have more entering the bowl season than Aguilar, who has set school records for single-season passing TDs and passing yards (3,546).
• After a 48-38 win vs. Southern Miss, when App State started relying more heavily on its “Star” defensive package, the Mountaineers were allowing 30.9 points per game (unofficially 26.5 points per 60 minutes for which the defense was directly responsible). In the last four games of the regular season, App State allowed 18.3 points (or 15.3 per 60 minutes vs. the defense).
• The only FBS programs in the country with four conference championship game appearances in the last six seasons are App State, Alabama, Boise State, Clemson, Georgia, Oregon, and Utah. The Mountaineers have won four Sun Belt titles overall, plus division titles in 2021 and 2023.
• App State’s 26-23 overtime win at No. 18 JMU on Nov. 18 was the program’s first victory against an opponent with a record of 10-0 or better. At the time of the game, as an FBS program, the Mountaineers’ other wins against opponents with double-digit victories have come against Louisiana (10-2 entering the 2019 Sun Belt Championship Game), and Toledo (11-2 entering the 2017 Dollar General Bowl). Miami (Ohio) has an 11-2 record this season.
• After the third quarter of the Southern Miss game ended on Oct. 28, App State outscored its opponents 174-80 to close the regular season. The four full games were wins over four bowl-eligible teams.
• App State is 8-5 with one win on Michael Hughes’ 54-yard field goal as time expired at ULM, a 10-point win against Southern Miss that was still in doubt when App State fumbled in the final 20 seconds with a four-point lead and an overtime win at JMU in which Joey Aguilar ended the game by throwing an 8-yard touchdown pass to Kaedin Robinson.
• All four App State losses in the 2023 regular season were decided in the closing seconds (by a combined 19 points), and each of the last seven regular-season losses (dating back to 2022) were by seven points or less. Of the program’s last 13 losses, 10 have been one-possession games (eight points or less). In the last exception, a 49-23 loss to Troy in the Sun Belt title game, App State opened the fourth quarter with possession near midfield while trailing 21-17.
• A fourth-down incompletion ended a double-OT loss at No. 17 UNC before an interception at the Wyoming 6 with 12 seconds left (on a first-down play from the 20) capped a 22-19 loss to the Cowboys, whose 62-yard return of a blocked FG for a TD in the final two minutes had erased a 19-14 deficit. Coastal made a 24-yard field goal as time expired in its 27-24 win on Oct. 10, after App State lost a fumble at the end of a 69-yard gain with the score tied, and two incomplete passes thrown to the end zone ended the 28-21 loss at ODU, which had a fourthand-10 conversion before erasing a 21-20 deficit on a TD with 48 seconds left.
• Shawn Clark’s staff in 2023 has six new assistant coaches, including two coordinators in Frank Ponce (offense) and Scot Sloan (defense) who have both returned to Boone, plus a new Director of Athletic Performance (Matt Greenhalgh) who also has returned to Boone.
• Frank Ponce, an App State QBs coach from 2013-18 and offensive coordinator in 2021, is in his third stint with the Mountaineers, who have one other first-year assistant in OL coach Mike Cummings. As Miami’s QBs coach, Ponce spent time recruiting Joey Aguilar, a California-based JUCO transfer who signed with App State before Ponce returned to the High Country.
• Before being Georgia Southern’s defensive coordinator from 2018-21 and coaching at Army in 2022, Scot Sloan coached at App State from 2010-17. App State assistants Victor Cabral (DL) and Travis Cunningham (ILBs) worked on Sloan’s staff in Statesboro, and new OLBs coach AJ Howard was a standout App State defender while being coached by Sloan from 2014-17.
• App State’s roster had 32 scholarship newcomers entering 2023, including 14 from the transfer portal, as the Mountaineers ranked 120th among 133 FBS teams in returning production.
OFFENSE
• App State scored all three of its TDs at ODU on fourth-down plays and scored its final TD against Southern Miss on fourth down. The Mountaineers are 17-for-26 on fourth down this season (with 10 touchdown drives that have included a fourth-down conversion) after ranking 12th nationally in fourth-down payoff last year. The 65.4 conversion rate ranks 22nd nationally.
• Joey Aguilar broke App State’s single-season TD passes record in the regular-season finale and is four away from tying the Sun Belt record of 37 from Arkansas State’s Justice Hansen (2017).
• Joey Aguilar has multiple TD passes in all but two games, with four TDs apiece vs. Southern Miss, Georgia Southern and Gardner-Webb. He has thrown 21 TD passes and just four INTs in the last seven games, and 11 different Mountaineers caught at least one pass against James Madison.
• Departed RB Nate Noel entered the Oct. 10 game vs. Coastal at No. 2 nationally in rushing yards per game (130.2) and No. 1 in rushes per game (24.6) before dealing with injuries during the second half of the season. Redshirt freshman Kanye Roberts has led App State in rushing in five of the last eight games (with three starts in that stretch), highlighted by three different 109-yard rushing games against ODU, Southern Miss and Georgia Southern before a two-TD performance against Troy in the Sun Belt title game.
• After not recording a carry in the first two games, Kanye Roberts has rushed for seven TDs and averaged 58.9 rushing yards per game in the last 11 games. He has five TDs in the last six games.
• Anderson Castle made his season debut vs. Marshall in Game 9 after suffering a foot injury during preseason camp, and he has rushed 14 times for 110 yards (with one TD) in the last two games.
• Five receivers for App State recorded a game in the regular season with at least 93 yards and one TD, including Kaedin Robinson, Christan Horn, Makai Jackson and Dalton Stroman.
• WR Kaedin Robinson led the Sun Belt with 10 TD catches during the regular season, including six in the last four games leading up to the Sun Belt title game. He had two touchdown catches at JMU, including the game-winning reception in OT, and two more TDs vs. Georgia Southern.
• TE Eli Wilson is tied for No. 1 among Sun Belt tight ends with 32 catches while ranking No. 2 with 334 receiving yards and being tied for No. 2 with five touchdown catches. He had a career-high 61 receiving yards at JMU while tying his career high of four catches, then had more four catches for 53 yards against Georgia Southern.
• After losing both starting tackles from 2022 to the NFL Draft and an NFL camp, App State’s six returning starters on offense included three interior linemen in center Isaiah Helms, left guard Damion Daley and right guard Bucky Williams, who have played in 171 NCAA games. They anchor a line for an offense that led the league with only 15 sacks allowed during the regular season, has a league-best 34 TD passes entering the bowl season and has the league’s third-best rushing attack (171.6-yard average).
• After being a second-team All-Sun Belt OL from PFF last year, OG Bucky Williams was the only Sun Belt starting offensive lineman this year with grades over 76 percent in both run blocking and pass blocking during the regular season.
DEFENSE
• App State is officially allowing 28.4 points per game, but that number drops to 24.2 per 60 minutes from coordinator Scot Sloan’s defense when taking away 13 OT points from UNC, 14 points scored on defensive touchdowns by ECU, a special teams touchdown by Wyoming, five points against JMU (safety and an overtime field goal), a kickoff return by Georgia Southern and a defensive touchdown by Troy.
• SAF Nick Ross has played in 65 career games. A Cure Bowl appearance would be his 66th, tying the school record held by Thomas Hennigan, Caleb Spurlin and Xavier Subotsch (all 2017-21).
• ILB Andrew Parker Jr. leads App State and ranks fourth in the Sun Belt with 108 tackles, including a career-high 14 at Georgia State to go along with a then-career-high 13 against Southern Miss two weeks earlier.
• OLB Nate Johnson and DL Santana Hopper have recently received Freshman All-America recognition. A true freshman, Johnson is tied for first place nationally in sacks by a freshman with 7.5. In addition to that total, he has 8.5 tackles for loss, 39 tackles and 36 QB pressures.
• Redshirt freshman DT Santana Hopper has started the last five games, and he recorded a sack in the Sun Belt title game. He had a four-game stretch earlier this season that included 5.5 tackles for loss, including 1.5 sacks at ODU.
• The defense has had several impact FBS transfers who are 2023 newcomers, including DE Shawn Collins (Rutgers, now injured), DE Michael Fletcher (Michigan State), OLB Thomas Davis (Miami), CB Tyrek Funderburk (Richmond), SAF EJ Jackson (Marshall).
• Playing an expanded role as a fifth DB in App State’s “Star” package, EJ Jackson had 32 tackles during the first four games of App State’s late-season winning streak. He totaled one tackle in App State’s first seven games.
• DE Michael Fletcher had 4.0 sacks in the first three games after DE Shawn Collins (2.5 sacks this season) suffered a season-ending injury against Marshall. New starting DE Kevin Abrams-Verwayne also added a sack at JMU.
• CB Tyrek Funderburk intercepted two passes vs. Georgia Southern and is tied for first place in the Sun Belt with four interceptions (teammate Jordan Favors is also among the group with four INTs). Funderburk leads the Sun Belt and ranks and is tied for No. 2 nationally with two pick-six TD returns this season (18 yards at Wyoming and 23 yards at ULM the following week).
• CB Ethan Johnson recorded his first career interception at JMU. He ranked No. 2 among starting CBs in the Sun Belt with a 77.9 coverage grade during the regular season, according to PFF data, and was No. 4 among Sun Belt starting CBs with an overall defensive grade of 78.1.
SPECIAL TEAMS
• Named a second-team All-American by the College Football Network, Michael Hughes has made 17 of 20 field goals (with nine straight makes) after going 9 of 12 on FGs in all of 2022. He has made three field goals longer than 45 yards (46, 50 and 54 yards) and totaled 104 points.
• Milan Tucker, who earned All-America honors as a kick returner in 2022, is averaging 24.0 yards per return this year. He has announced plans to enter the portal but plans to play in the bowl game.
