Appalachian State Silences the Big House

They are known as “cupcake games”—lower division teams get paid to travel to college football Meccas where the hosts make a nice profit from an extra game. On September 1, 2007, the University of Michigan Wolverines, with more wins than any team in history, hosted the Appalachian State Mountaineers from Boone, North Carolina, in the first such game at Michigan Stadium, the largest stadium in the country. App State was no cupcake. Coach Jerry Moore, in the spirit of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team and other memorable underdogs, assembled his team with two things in mind—speed and character—and conditioned them to the breaking point. “We’re fixin’ to shock ’em,” he shouted at practice, in the locker room, at the dinner table. This book tells the inside story of Moore’s legendary team and the Mountaineers’ historic win.

David J. Marmins is a civil litigation partner at Atlanta’s Arnall Golden Gregory, LLP. He was an award winning college newspaper editor and reporter and is the editor of the legal treatise, Georgia Nuisance Law. He lives in Smyrna, Georgia.

Steven K. Feit was an award-winning college sportswriter, whose career in sports has consisted of public relations, merchandising, marketing, logistics, and game-day operations for a variety of clients and teams. He has served in the front office of the Harlem Globetrotters for the past decade. He lives in Duluth, Georgia.

David J. Marmins and Steven K. Feit

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 276
Bibliographic Info: 37 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2017
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6497-2
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2932-2
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments  ix
Preface  1
1. “Let’s Go Beat Michigan!”  3
2. Speed and Character  12
3. “Who’s Gonna Grab That Axe?”  24
4. A Steady Diet of Hart, Kraus and Long  34
5. Jerry Moore: Blueprint for Success  41
6. Henne Feels the BAM!  52
7. Pierre Banks: Full House  61
8. “I Just Scored in the Big House!”  71
9. Hans Batichon: A Haitian Love Story  79
10. “They Ain’t Got a Clue!”  90
11. John Holt: “I Like Wild Meat”  97
12. Saturday in the Park  116
13. Corey Lynch: A Fisher of Men  126
14. The French Connection Strikes Again  139
15. Armanti Edwards: Money  150
16. Hart Showing Heart  167
17. Jerome Touchstone: It Takes a Village  173
18. The Nation Takes Notice  183
19. Nic Cardwell: Salvation and Forgiveness  190
20. “That Armanti Magic”  202
21. Julian Rauch: The Hebrew Hammer  211
22. “Yard Sale at the Big House!”  222
Epilogue: Love Brings Change  231
Chapter Notes  249
Bibliography  254
Index  257

• “A valuable addition to the library of any college football fan”—Sport in American History
• “Probably the most comprehensive work yet on the game and is one that Mountaineer fans and most college football enthusiasts would love to add to their libraries”—High Country Magazine
• “Marmins and Feit describe the life stories of the head coach Jerry Moore and players of the Mountaineers, as well as their training and the play-by-play of the game”—ProtoView