Courtesy of Appalachian Sports Information
The decade’s winningest NCAA Division I FCS programs meet on the subdivision’s second-biggest stage on Saturday when No. 5 Appalachian State University travels to top-seeded Montana for an NCAA Division
I Football Championship semifinal. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. ET at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, Mont.
The game will be televised nationally on ESPN, ESPN HD and ESPN360.com (Todd Harris — play-by-play; Charles Arbuckle — analyst).
NOTING SATURDAY'S MATCHUP
• Appalachian (11-2) advanced to its fourth national semifinal in five years with a heart-stopping 35-31 victory at fourth-seeded Richmond last Saturday.
• Montana (13-0) is in the semifinals for the third time in five years thanks to a 51-0 shutout win over Stephen F. Austin in last Saturday’s quarterfinals.
• ASU has won 11-consecutive games since opening the season with back-to-back five-point losses to Conference USA champion East Carolina and Southland Conference co-champion McNeese State.
• Despite posting its second undefeated regular season in three years, Montana’s campaign was on the brink when it trailed South Dakota State, 48-21, with just over five minutes to go in the third quarter of a first-round playoff matchup on Nov. 28. However, the Grizzlies roared back to score 40 unanswered points in the final 20:25 of the ballgame and claim an improbable 61-48 win.
• All told, UM has scored 91 unanswered points over its last 80:25 of game play.
• With this year’s semifinal berths, ASU and Montana have combined to make 11 semifinal appearances since 2000. The schools’ first final-four appearances of the decade came against each other in 2000, when the Griz edged the Mountaineers, 19-16, in overtime at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
• The programs are the only two in Division I FCS with 100 victories this decade. Montana is 118-22 since the beginning of the 2000 season while Appalachian is 101-32. Since the beginning of the 2005 season, ASU leads all Division I programs (FCS or FBS) with 61 wins. Montana is second with 58.
• Appalachian is 3-2 all-time in the national semifinal round. It lost in its first two semifinal appearances (1987 and 2000) but won its last three (2005, 2006 and 2007). ASU’s only semifinal road game was its 19-16 overtime loss at Montana in 2000.
• ASU is 4-7 all-time in NCAA Division I FCS/I-AA playoff road games. Last week’s triumph at Richmond marked the Mountaineers first playoff road game since 2001 (quarterfinals at Georgia Southern) and first playoff road win since 2000 (quarterfinals at Western Kentucky).
• A win would be the 12th that Mountaineer quarterback Armanti Edwards has engineered in the NCAA Division I Football Championship, which would move him into a tie with Georgia Southern's Raymond Gross winningest signal-callers in FCS postseason history.
For more on Saturday's matchup, including links to live audio and stats, both teams' stats, rosters, depth charts, game notes and much more, click HERE to visit GoASU.com's official Gameday Central page.
