Appalachian State (9-3) faces Toledo (9-3) from the Mid-American Conference at 5:30 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN. The telecast will be App State’s eighth on national TV this season, the most in school history.
ASU puts a wrap on head coach Scott Satterfield’s fourth season on Saturday and, regardless of the outcome, the Mountaineers’ transition to the FBS level has been extremely successful and, at times, flat out dominant as the team tries to add another record to the move.
The Mountaineers are 25-2 in their last 27 games against Group Five opponents and, with a win on Saturday, would become the first team to win bowl games in their first two eligible seasons.
The majority of ASU’s game prep is in the rearview mirror for the second-place team out of the MAC West, behind 12-0 and Cotton Bowl-bound Western Michigan. The final days in Montgomery are spent fine-tuning and building up to Saturday’s finale.
“We got most all off our prep done in the days before coming (to Montgomery),” Satterfield told the local media at App State’s team hotel. “We’ll go through our finals few days, our normal game week routine, these three days before the game here in Montgomery. We know the focus is a little tougher once you get down here in the bowl setting, among the fans. We did a good job last year of focusing in toward game time.”
App State has been practicing at Alabama State University and visited the Civil Rights Museum on Thursday morning in downtown Montgomery, before a closed practice on Thursday afternoon.
App State has 20 wins the last two seasons heading into Saturday’s bowl, while Toledo is a win behind with 19. ASU is 10th among FBS programs, despite not having a conference championship game, tied with the likes of Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Navy. Toledo is tied for 16th place with Boise State, Florida State and Washington.
Alabama (27), Clemson (26) and Ohio State (23) lead the total wins list for FBS programs.
