Last Updated on March 5, 2021 10:23 am
BOONE, N.C. – App State’s home football game against Marshall this September is moving to primetime.
The matchup of historic rivals, originally scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 25, will move to a night game on Thursday, Sept. 23 for national television. Kickoff time and network will be announced in the summer.
The Mountaineers and Thundering Herd have squared off 23 times on the gridiron, with 21 of those matchups coming when they were both members of the Southern Conference from 1977-96. App State holds a 14-9 advantage in the all-time series.
In 11 of the teams' 13 contests from 1985-96, at least one squad was ranked in the NCAA Division I-AA top 25. Both teams were nationally ranked eight times during that 13-game stretch.
App State is looking to avenge last year’s 17-7 loss at Marshall in a Sept. 19 game that was scheduled in mid-August after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Mountaineers to schedule an entirely new nonconference slate. The result was part of Marshall’s seven-game winning streak that saw it rise as high as 15th in the national polls.
The Mountaineers are expected to return seven starters on offense and 10 on defense from last year's squad that finished one spot out of the final AP Top 25. Thirteen players elected to return for a “super senior” season and take advantage of the NCAA's ruling that the 2020 season did not count against anyone's eligibility clock.
Since 2015, App State has the fifth-best record of all FBS programs (63-15), behind only Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma. Only four programs have won nine or more games every year in that span – App State, Alabama, Clemson and Oklahoma.
