Can Appalachian State win the Sun Belt? - ESPN

The Appalachian State Mountaineers were voted to win the Sun Belt East in the preseason coaches' poll, claiming 12 of 14 first-place votes. But after an up-and-down start to the season, the Mountaineers are looking to lock in for their conference slate.

They'll open up Sun Belt play against South Alabama (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) with a 2-1 record, and hopes of recapturing their first conference title since 2019.

To get here, App State has traveled a winding road.

After winning at least nine games from 2015 to 2021, 2022 was a roller coaster. The Mountaineers opened with a 63-61 loss to North Carolina, followed by a 17-14 road upset of No. 6 Texas A&M in College Station. That win prompted a «College GameDay» visit for their game vs. Troy, which they won 32-28 on a Hail Mary.

Then they lost nine of their next 16 games. That stretch was out of character for App State, a program that has had only one losing season since 1983 and has the sixth-most wins of any program in the country since 2014.

«When I look back at it now and you really don't realize it then — our players were mentally exhausted in three weeks,» head coach Shawn Clark said. «And I didn't do a good job of getting them back mentally. Physically, we were fine. Mentally, we weren't there, just the outside noise happening, and then with kids and social media, etc., they feel the pressure to go out and win. And then things didn't work out.»

The Mountaineers would go on to finish the 2022 season 6-6.

Clark said the team called the next season «Reset '23» to show it was going to get back to its core values. But even that took some time after a 3-4 start. Following a 28-21 loss to Old Dominion and a seven-hour bus ride back to Boone, North Carolina, Clark was trying to