The Ambassador of Appalachia

Jerry Moore still remembers when he finally got the chance to suit up to play the game he loves more than anything. He had wanted to play football ever since 3rd grade but didn’t make it onto a team until 7th grade. Pretty soon, he was playing positions on both offense and defense.

“I never had so much fun,” he says. 

But the winningest football coach in Appalachian State history, the three-time national coach of the year, the man who has become one of the deans of his profession over a 47-year coaching career, started out his freshman year in high school with a losing season. 

At Bonham High School in Texas, the squad went 0-10. 

In his first stint as a head coach at North Texas, he started with a 5-6 record. Over five tough seasons at Texas Tech, he never had a winning season. If you’ve been in the business as long as Moore has, you get a taste of losing in your mouth, that gut punch, dirt-in-your face feeling that fills you full of doubts. Most coaches who find themselves in that position simply move on to another career. Moore did plenty of soul-searching after leaving Texas Tech and working as an assistant for a year at Arkansas under Ken Hatfield. He might have gone to Clemson, which was in the middle of a string of Atlantic Coast Conference titles. Head Coach Danny Ford offered him a job, but Moore’s daughter was a senior in high school, and he didn’t want to relocate the family to South Carolina. 

Along the road through victory and defeat, Moore had his share of mentors — from high school coaches to Hall of Fame icons. He learned to pick the best of what these coaches could teach. In Hayden Frye at Southern Methodist University, he saw an expert motivator who wasn’t afraid to try new things. Under the legendary Tom Osborne at Nebraska, Moore learned the virtue of consistency. In Ken Hatfield at Arkansas, Moore saw a people person who was willing to give someone a chance. 

Now that Moore is the elder statesman, he’s the one lending advice to players and coaches. With three straight national championships and the winningest coaching tenure in Southern Conference history, Moore has garnered plenty of accolades both as player and coach. But because of the school’s second tier status in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA), those records didn’t seem to register with the national media.

Until the sunny Saturday afternoon of Sept. 1, 2007, when Moore’s Mountaineer squad achieved the unthinkable. In one of the biggest upsets in college football history, Appalachian State earned some serious “cleat” cred by beating the #5-ranked Michigan Wolverines, 34-32, at the famed “Big House” in front of 109,218 fans. It was the first time in history that an FCS division team had defeated a nationally ranked Football Bowl Subdivision school — a David over Goliath match that ended with a last-second field goal block taking a giant down. A stunned sports world soon scrambled to find Appalachian State on the map. 

After the plane ride home from the big game, a crowd of fans and media, including an ESPN crew, greeted the team in Boone. All this at 2 a.m.

“That’s when we knew our life changed,” Moore says. 

The victory has, no doubt, been a huge boost to school and regional pride – not to mention a bump in ticket sales and more school jerseys and memorabilia being sold. Last year’s average regular season home crowd at ASU’s Kidd Brewer Stadium was 27,140 — tops in the nation among FCS schools. 

Don’t get Moore wrong, he loves that Michigan win, but he’s learned to compartmentalize it.

“Nobody’s ever done anything like that,” he says. “You gotta be able to enjoy it.”

But fame plays funny games with your head, and Moore’s not about to let distractions get in the way of his team’s success. While the Michigan victory gave their school some national respect, it didn’t put any rings on their fingers. 

“We’ve tried to handle it the best we can,” he says. “We’ve worked hard to get where we are.”

But success can be an eerie fate. 

“After Michigan, we were beat up,” Moore recalls.

Appalachian State’s All-American quarterback, Armanti Edwards, missed four and a half games with a shoulder injury. In a tight game against conference rival Wofford, the Mountaineers lost 42-31. A month later, unranked Georgia Southern beat them by a field goal. Other key injuries started to pile up. After salvaging a share of the Southern Conference title, ASU had to struggle through two tight playoff games before steamrolling on to win its third national championship in a row — this time against Delaware. 

In spite of this astounding record, you won’t see Moore flaunting his bling like some newfound lottery winner. He wears the national championship rings only on special occasions. Likewise for Edwards, who admits he doesn’t even like jewelry. 

Moore still cuts his own grass, still stays active in various church and civic organizations.

“We’ve tried to be ourselves,” Moore says, even if that means being a little guarded at times. “Almost to the point you’re afraid to enjoy it,” he adds. 

Ambassador of Appalachia

During a summer media blitz to kick off the football season for the Southern Conference universities, head coaches and a few players from each respective school come to chat with reporters at the Embassy Suites just outside of Greenville, S.C.

In walks Moore, quiet, unassuming, shorter than you might expect.

A couple of reporters hover.

“Hey Jerry, how’s your golf game?” one asks. 

“Non-existent,” Moore shrugs. 

He goes on a tangent about NASCAR. The reporters let him. He could be talking about antique furniture, and they would nod just the same. There’s an unspoken reverence for this man. He’s been through the fire and captured the crown. 

Before he gets a chance to sit at his school’s table, there are tape recorders aimed at his mouth to capture every word, pens scribbling, cameras flashing, lights from a TV camera.  

Moore has little leisure time these days, even in the off-season. Typical days might include multiple speaking engagements on the road. He flew out to L.A. to attend the ESPY Awards. 

His “never say no” philosophy keeps him traveling across the Southeast in the off-season, appearing at banquets, clinics and various events as many as five nights a week. Moore doesn’t offer prepared speeches. He tells you what’s on his mind, using the fame he’s been given to help out where he can, to make a difference—even if that means being on the road 22 days in May.

“It’s a good thing,” he says. “I’m not begrudging it, but it’s different for us.”

When he and his wife, Margaret, thought about having some friends over this summer, their friends suggested finding a break when the Moores would be home for three days straight. 

“Haven’t done it yet,” Moore concedes.

Lately though, he admits to feeling more like an ambassador than a coach. (At least now, more people might finally start pronouncing the word “Appalachian” correctly.) 

A New Look

Steve Behr, who has chronicled Moore’s seasons at Appalachian State as sports editor at The Watauga Democrat, remembers when Moore first arrived in the sleepy mountain town in 1989. According to Behr, some 53 players left to follow outgoing coach Sparky Woods. Undeterred, Moore started a freshman quarterback, tallied a 9-3 season, and finished second in the conference. 

After 15 seasons with the traditional Power I offense that emphasized a strong, but predictable running game, Moore started looking at changing his game plan. In 2003, the squad finished 7-4 and missed out on the postseason for the first time in seven years. Maybe it was time for an old dog to learn some new tricks. Most coaches at the age of 63 might have thought about planning to retire, but Moore started reviewing game tapes of Utah’s potent, high-powered offense.

He and the coaches couldn’t afford to travel to Utah, so instead they went to West Virginia where a similar offensive strategy was used. After a few days there, they brought back a no huddle, spread offense scheme to Boone. The spread offense, just as its name suggests, spreads the offensive players out across the line of scrimmage, and the defense is spread thin trying to cover three, four and even five receivers at a time. Without huddles, the offense can further confuse defenses that don’t have enough time to react to changing plays. 

There was no one “a-ha” moment for the coaching staff to bring this new offense in, but the changes gradually revolutionized the team.

“We just bought into it,” Moore said. 

The Mountaineers unveiled their new look in the opening game of the 2004 season against Wyoming. Perhaps as a momentous omen, an electrical storm struck the stadium and both teams were temporarily sidelined. Appalachian State was losing badly. 

“I was hoping we wouldn’t come back out,” Moore recalled. 

The Mountaineeers went on to lose 53-7 and stumbled through a 6-5 season, once again missing the playoffs. Their final loss was to Western Carolina, a particularly bitter defeat to an old foe. 

That loss to Western, according to Behr, served as a catalyst for changing a lot of things in the ASU football program. Moore and his staff redid practices, changed to new uniforms and started showing inspirational sports movies like “Miracle on Ice.”

Call it growing pains. Call it the chrysalis off-season. Call it hard work and shrewd recruiting. Whatever happened next turned out to have all the right moves. 

In 2005, the Mountaineers vaulted to the top of their conference once again for the first time in six years and went on to win their first national title—also becoming the state’s first national champion in football. 

Then came the reign of quarterback Edwards. Along with talented running back Kevin Richardson and a stingy defense, the team marched through an undefeated conference season, a national championship and a school-record 14 victories. As a freshman, Edwards became only the fifth quarterback in NCAA history to compile more than 2,000 yards of passing and more than 1,000 yards rushing in a single season.     

Edwards is quick to give Coach Moore the admiration of a prodigy to his mentor. 

“Just a great man,” Edwards says. “He speaks the truth.”

When Moore first showed up at Edwards’ house on a recruiting visit, Edwards wasn’t even sure where Appalachian State was. But the two recognized the opportunity they had in each other. 

“He gave me a chance,” Edwards says. 

Moore may well say the same of Edwards. 

Though immensely talented coming out of high school, Edwards was small for a quarterback and not widely sought after by the big schools. Even as a pre-season candidate for national player of the year, Edwards, at 6 feet, 185 pounds, is not considered big enough to be an NFL quarterback, so unlike his counterparts at other larger schools, he probably won’t be eying an early exit out of college. Good news for Moore and the Mountaineer faithful.   

Edwards and Moore have a mutual respect for each other—both in their passion for the game and their off-the-field charity work. While Edwards reads to students at local schools and day care centers, Moore gives speeches to various clubs and organizations, donating much of the honorarium fees to Kids Across America, a Christian sports camp for inner-city and underprivileged youth. 

Success Story

What Appalachian State has accomplished in recent years has inspired other small schools to dream big. 

After the upset over Michigan, all those underdog teams suddenly don’t feel as daunted when they match up against bigger schools in larger stadiums. Rodney Allison, head football coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a long-time friend of Moore’s, will be facing off against perennial powerhouse Oklahoma in his team’s season opener. 

“Coach Moore and them have given us hope,” Allison says.

But success also begets inevitable expectations. If you win three national championships, they expect you to win four. That feat has never happened at this level. It would also give the graduating class a special luster as the winningest class in school history. Plus, six more wins would give Moore his 200th career victory as a coach. 

Whatever happens, Appalachian State has become a media darling, exporting a mountaineer work ethic, small town pride, and big game gusto.

“When football season rolls around, they’re who a lot of people pay attention to,” says Ron Green, Jr., a sports columnist with The Charlotte Observer. “It seems to be the perfect combination of coach, school, fan base — it all works.”