I was a freshman in 2003. I remember going to a few games by myself because none of my friends were interested at all or went to one game and gave up. It was the first year after the name change from SWT to TXST and the introduction of the Supercat logo. Manny Matsakis was coach (and then fired for violations that year). They had all sorts of silly names each unit. Triple Shoot Offense, Shark-in-the-Water Defense, etc.

The only mistake I made was not buying an ugly shirt. It had a typo on it and it was my favorite. Our fight song includes these lyrics:

No doubt about it,
We're gonna shout it —
Bobcats will win this game!

Back then, someone had made a typo on the school website and there was a question mark after the "we're going to shout it" line. To this day I still sing this part as a question. It really reflects how Bobcat football has been over the last 20 years for me.

2017 was my freshman year. ULM went 4-8, but the games where both teams scored a ton of points were exciting and fun to watch. The home games against Coastal, App State, and StAte (even though we lost that one) that year are some of the best games I've ever seen in person.

2009.. opened up against southern with over 43,000 people in attendance then the next week beat Kansas state at home.. Finished .500 on the year and don't remember many games from the tailgating. I worked at a drive through liquor store afternoons and weekend mornings good times were had.

1974 was not a good year for my Cajuns.

(05-26-2021 06:29 PM)CajunAmos Wrote:  1974 was not a good year for my Cajuns.

Augie is an insurance agent in the town I live in. I've met him twice. He's friendly.

(05-24-2021 06:45 PM)eaglewraith Wrote:  I was a freshman in 2001.

I got to see the last year of AP and Paul Johnson at Georgia Southern.

I also had my lifelong hatred of Furman established when they beat us in the semis, our first ever home playoff loss.

My last game as a student. That was one we should have won....I knew we played down to them and Furman had no shot at winning the NC.

(05-22-2021 07:21 AM)JTApps1 Wrote:  My freshman year 2000, App went 10-4 losing at Montana in OT in the Semifinals. We beat Wake Forest to open the season, but then lost a close game to Troy at home in week two. Georgia Southern beat us mid-season and won the conference title. We ended the regular season with a win over Liberty. In round one of the playoffs we got revenge at Troy before going on the road to beat WKU in round two.

It's crazy to look back and see all of these really good I-AA programs that ended up leaving the division. If NDSU, JMU, and Montana left there would be very few past champions left in FCS.

I was a freshman the same year. Such an awesome time to be alive, those ages of 18-22 at the one and only Appalachian State.

Seems like a lot of the App posters on this forum were there around the same time.

My freshman year at App was also Head Coach Shawn Clark's freshman year (we shared a class that spring). App finished 9-4, including close losses to Wake Forest and those unmentionable guys from Statesboro, a close win over those other unmentionable guys from Lynchburg, and mostly importantly a win over arch-rival and #1 ranked Marshall on a cold and rainy Boone evening.

The season ended with a 2nd round loss in the I-AA playoffs to Boise State.*

Sophomore year, former HC Scott Satterfield QB'ed the team to an undefeated regular season in which we all expected our first national championship before an early suprising playoff exit ended it at 12-1.

*as mentioned a few posts above, it is notable how many future FBS schools/G5 powerhouses were crossing paths in I-AA in those days.

In 1999, we were led by Joe Hollis, and finished 4-7, 5th place in the Big West (out of 7.). Boise, Utah St, Nevada, Idaho, NMSU, and UNT comprised the Big West. We beat Louisiana, UNT, Nevada, & SHSU. Narrowly lost to Memphis and only by 3 to TCU, which had a 1974 yd rusher that season by the name of LaDainian Tomlinson.

I transferred to North Texas from UCF after the 2008 season, so the 2009 Sun Belt season was my first at UNT.

We sucked tremendously. After opening the season with a win at Ball State, we preceded to lose to Ohio, Alabama, Middle Tennessee, Louisiana, Florida Atlantic and Troy before beating Western Kentucky at home. Then we finished off losing to ULM, FIU, Army, and Arkansas State.

We were good at basketball and represented the Sun Belt in the dance a few times, but those last few years in the SBC, we were an abomination to all that is football.

I started freshman year the same time Coastal's football team began playing: Fall of 2003! This is why I've always felt a kinship with the program and can't believe how far we've come. I used to park in the Brooks Stadium lot, which was still under construction that August leading up to our first home game, to walk to classes and remember seeing our quarterback, Tyler Thigpen, with a crowd of excited students around him. Subsequently, this is also when golfer Dustin Johnson was a Chanticleer so just a magical time in our school's sports history happening...

(05-30-2021 09:11 PM)El Chanto Wrote:  I started freshman year the same time Coastal's football team began playing: Fall of 2003! This is why I've always felt a kinship with the program and can't believe how far we've come. I used to park in the Brooks Stadium lot, which was still under construction that August leading up to our first home game, to walk to classes and remember seeing our quarterback, Tyler Thigpen, with a crowd of excited students around him. Subsequently, this is also when golfer Dustin Johnson was a Chanticleer so just a magical time in our school's sports history happening...

Wow. Thats a name I havent heard in awhile. I didnt know Thigpen played for yall! He was fun to play in Madden since he was pretty mobile.

(05-30-2021 10:00 PM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  

(05-30-2021 09:11 PM)El Chanto Wrote:  I started freshman year the same time Coastal's football team began playing: Fall of 2003! This is why I've always felt a kinship with the program and can't believe how far we've come. I used to park in the Brooks Stadium lot, which was still under construction that August leading up to our first home game, to walk to classes and remember seeing our quarterback, Tyler Thigpen, with a crowd of excited students around him. Subsequently, this is also when golfer Dustin Johnson was a Chanticleer so just a magical time in our school's sports history happening...

Wow. Thats a name I havent heard in awhile. I didnt know Thigpen played for yall! He was fun to play in Madden since he was pretty mobile.

Thigpen, Jerome Simpson, and Mike Tolbert played there at the same time.

In 2001, A-State won just 2 games, and let it slip on the radio broadcast that HC Joe Hollis was fired, before the game was over. I was at that game. We were never competitive during his tenure, but hired Steve Roberts shortly after, and that changed. While Roberts didn't win big, he did field competitive teams, won the SBC (co-champs) once, and set the stabilized the program until we got the right people in place.

Although I wasn't technically enrolled until January '08 (waitlisted ), I spent most weekends in Boone for the fall of '07. Obviously we won a national championship and beat Michigan. Been hooked ever since.

(05-26-2021 07:10 PM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  

(05-26-2021 06:29 PM)CajunAmos Wrote:  1974 was not a good year for my Cajuns.

Augie is an insurance agent in the town I live in. I've met him twice. He's friendly.

It picked up the next two years, but that 74 season was tough.

My freshman year at App was the year we had a coach named Mike Working. Record was 6-4-1. There were bumper stickers all over town reading "Appalachian Football Ain't Working" and "More Work Less Working". It was a tough year but it ultimately let to hiring a first year coach named Mack Brown who put us back on the right track.

won a natty. Beat CCU 30-3. Played LSU tuff in a natty year for them. It was pretty good.

My freshman year was 1986. Nelson Stokely coached his first game at home against Oklahoma State. At the time, Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders gave the Cowboys a great 1-2 punch in the backfield, but OSU had another stud in WR Hart Lee Dykes. Dykes was one of the first "big" receivers I remember seeing in college football as he was 6'4" 220 lbs. That was not common then, as it is now, but he ended up being the #16 pick in the NFL draft a couple of years later.

Anyhoot, the Cajuns clamped down on Oklahoma State's offense and pretty much kept Thomas and Sanders in check. With a little more than 3 minutes left, OSU's QB was strip-sacked in their own endzone. We recovered the fumble and took a 20-9 lead. It was like watching a miracle unfold. The Cajuns Field crowd went nuts. And then. . . .it all went down hill. On the ensuing kickoff, OSU returned the ball 97 yards for a touchdown. The Cajuns were then forced to punt and then with 8 seconds left, Dykes ended up catching an 11 yard fade in the corner of the endzone to finish off their 70+ yard game winning drive. OSU won 21-20 and it was heartbreak hotel for Cajun fans (link to the AP Wire story below). By the way, he wasn't the starter in the game but OSU's current head coach Mike Gundy ended up supplanting the QB who did start later that season.

As for the rest of the season, we went on to beat ULM, Memphis, East Carolina, and Tulsa but then lost another 21-20 heartbreaker to Ole Miss. We finished with a 6-5 record.

https://apnews.com/article/4453c7588ecdd...486d6bc7ed