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SEPTEMBER 2, 2010 ISSUE

Mountaineers Open Season with SoCon Opponent Saturday

Story by Jason Gilmer

Junior DeAndre Presley, who backed up Armanti Edwards for two years, has been named the starting quarterback for the ASU football team. Photo courtesy Keith Cline/ASU Athletics

Watch & Listen: ASU at UTC

Date: Saturday, September 4
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Location: Finley Stadium, Chattanooga, Tenn.
TV: SportSouth
Radio: WATA-1450 AM

Presley To Get Start

The search for Armanti Edwards’ replacement at quarterback for the Mountaineers ended last week when junior DeAndre Presley was named the starter.

Presley has two career starts under his belt, including last season’s opener against East Carolina. This year, though, he isn’t starting because of an injury to Edwards. This is his chance to make the quarterback position his own.

“It would be hard to go into a game like this with a guy who’s never taken a snap in a big ball game, and DeAndre has played in some big ball games,” coach Jerry Moore said. “I don’t think he’ll get stage fright. I think he’ll play well.”

Presley admits to learning plenty in his other starts.

“My freshman year and last year, I worried about things too much,” he said. “Now I’m just focusing on playing football. I can only do my job, take it one play at a time and once that’s done, move on to the next one.

“I think that’s something I didn’t do my freshman and sophomore year, and it’s something I will do this year,” he added.

In his two career starts, Presley is 23-for-40 for 247 yards and one touchdown. He also rushed for four touchdowns, including three against Western Carolina in 2008.

Recent opening game opponents for the ASU Mountaineers have included BCS teams like N.C. State, Michigan, LSU and Wake Forest.

This season is a bit different, as the Mountaineers open the 2010 season with a Southern Conference foe for the first time in 19 years. It marks only the sixth time this has happened, and ASU has won the five other SoCon openers.

The Mountaineers play a 3:00 p.m. game this Saturday, September 4, against the Chattanooga Mocs in Finley Stadium.

“The past couple of years we’ve been focusing on the BCS teams [in Week 1],” said linebacker D.J. Smith, “but we’re a lot more focused on this game because if we lose it’s a lot harder to win the SoCon championship.”

Starting quarterback DeAndre Presley agrees. He said the team has been solely concentrating on the Mocs for weeks.

“It’s more intense since we’re starting with a conference game,” he said.

The last time the Mountaineers opened a season with a conference game was in 1991, when they beat Marshall 9-3.

Even though the opponent isn’t one of college football’s “big boys,” the Mountaineers will still take that approach.

“Our mentality is the same,” coach Jerry Moore said. “We’re trying to get our ball club ready to play and play at its best. We’ve talked about it right from the get-go, that this is a conference game. We’ve talked about it a lot.”

Chattanooga coach Russ Huesman said that playing a conference team in the first week is a tough challenge because so many mistakes are made in that game. It doesn’t help that the Mocs are playing the Mountaineers, who Huesman said are “as good as there is in the country at our level.”

“We have to play them at some point in time,” he said. “Would I rather be playing Glenville State (last season’s opener) again? Yeah.”

Chattanooga is coming off a 6-5 season in Huesman’s first season. The improvement from ’08 to ’09 was obvious, and there are nine offensive and seven defensive starters back. The Mountaineers won 35-20 last season.

ASU has won 22 of the last 25 meetings with Chattanooga and have had great success in Finley Stadium, where the Mountaineers won their three national championships.

Moore’s joy of playing tough competition early in the season harkens back to when he played wide receiver at Baylor from 1958 to 1960.

“I like to play good football teams early. I’ve always been that way, even when I was a college player,” he said. “I think it’s a carry-over for me now as a coach.”

The Mountaineers come into the game with a No. 3 national ranking and have won 20 straight Southern Conference games. This season, ASU is trying to tie Georgia Southern’s record of six straight championships.

Chattanooga returns quarterback B.J. Coleman, who threw for 2,348 yards and 17 scores last season, but he’s missing his top targets from last season.
Players still expect a tough challenge.

“We know that Chattanooga will be better on both sides of the ball,” Smith said. “Coach Moore emphasizes all the time that we have to get better, get better, get better and get ready for Chattanooga.”