The Mountaineers return six starters on offense and six on defense from a team that went 10-3 including a 31-28 victory over Toledo in the Camellia Bowl.
RB Jalen Moore is a three-time Sun Belt offensive player-of-the-week he runs behind an OL that had three members first-team All-Sun Belt. QB Taylor Lamb has been setting program records in 2017. Most pundits had Appalachian State as the preseason Sun Belt Champion. They are currently tied for the conference lead with Arkansas State. As several blog commenters have pointed out App State's wins have come against less than stellar opposition. They lost to Georgia 10-31 and lost to Wake Forest by one point 19-20.
Still, Appalachian State is night and day compared to Georgia Southern. This will probably be a shoot out. We need to keep our DB's in the game and not get injured. UMass needs Lee Moses, Isaiah Rogers and Jesse Monteiro in the game, not on the sidelines. I think the Minutemen will score in the thirties. Can we keep the Mountaineers to a lesser score? So far in the second Whipple Era we have been in a number of high scoring games, but have yet to win one.
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Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" previews Saturday's game against Appalachian State.
Kevin Dillon of MassLive reports UMass looks for its second consecutive win.
Matty Vautour says the Minutemen look to build off their first win.
High County Press says the Mountaineers could win "in a rout" and predicts App State 47 UMass 20.
Metro USA reports UMass TE Adam Breneman takes a leap up in NFL draft position.
Rivals.com says take the Mountaineers to cover the spread against UMass.
SB Nation says take UMass to beat the spread against Appalachian State.
Athlon Sports predicts Mountaineers 30 UMass 17.
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This article features Mississippi State's OL coach John Hevesy, who originally was a three-year starter at Maine.
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BYU plans to be more aggressive against San Jose State.
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FIU features 15 seniors who are starters this year.
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