App St. head coach says his team will be ready for Death Valley

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Appalachian State head coach Shawn Clark doesn’t look at his program as giant killers. He said his players and coaches expect to win no matter who they play, and that includes this Saturday’s trip to Death Valley.

Clemson and App St. kick off at 8 p.m. Saturday night (ACCN) in Memorial Stadium within the second full week college football. The game features two of the winningest FBS programs in the last decade—since App State made the FCS-to-FBS transition in 2014, the Mountaineers are tied for No. 6 nationally with 96 wins. Clemson ranks No. 2 with 119 wins in the same time span.

App State’s last eight games against P4 foes have all been decided by seven points or less. The Mountaineers are 3-5 in those games: 2023 at North Carolina (L, 40-34 in 2OT), 2022 at Texas A&M (W, 17-14), 2022 vs. UNC (L, 63-61), 2021 at Miami (L, 25-23), 2019 at South Carolina (W, 20-15), 2019 at UNC (W, 34-31), 2018 at Penn State (L, 45-38 in OT) and 2017 vs. Wake Forest (L, 20-19).

Clark was App St.’s starting left tackle when the Mountaineers opened the 1997 season in Death Valley, a 23-12 victory by the Tigers. He said his team is used to big games and doesn’t see themselves as big underdogs.

“People say we are the giant killers, but we expect to win big games and so I guess the secret’s out that we play well in big games,” Clark said this week “But you watch the tape, and they (Clemson) have a very good football team. They just happened to play one of the best in the country on Saturday, and you look at it with 6-0 at halftime, and the game score is what it is. But they gave Georgia all they wanted for three quarters. So, we know the offensive coordinator there, Garrett Riley, he was here as a running back coach. He's one of the best offensive minds in all of college football and he runs a unique offense and it's hard to defend and then their defense, they bring from everywhere. So again, the secret's not there anymore. We're going to go play football, it's the next game on our schedule. Just happens to be one of the best in the country right now.

“It's going to be a tough challenge that we look forward to. Have a lot of respect for Coach (Dabo) Swinney and what he does in his program. You look over the years he's been there and they've competed for championships year in and year out. We have a lot of respect for them and we will have to play our very best to have a chance to win on Saturday.”

Clark said the Tigers are stout along the defensive line.

“This week presents a huge challenge for us up front. You watch the Georgia game this past Saturday when Clemson played Georgia, their front four are some of the best we've played since I've been here as a position coach or head coach. They have four first-round draft picks, and they bring in the second unit, and there's not much drop-off, so we have to get a lot of work done in a hurry.

“What impresses me is everything, and you look at the size of speed they have, there's a reason why they've won national championships. There's a reason why they win ACC Championships because they do the right things all the time and they play the game the right way. They strap it on and say, let's go. So you look at the size, their speed, their scheme, you can all put it in a box and shake it up and there's going to be something positive about Clemson. So again, it's going to be a tough challenge, but one we look forward to. It’s an eight o'clock game on the ACC Network and a chance to put our program on the national stage.”

He then said that Death Valley is one of the best his team will see all season.

“It is going to be a hostile environment. It's, again, one of the best environments of all college football, and they have a very passionate fan base like ours,” Clark said. “We've been in these situations before, so the moment won't be too big for our players, but we will have things throughout practice (to get ready for the noise). We practice with crowd noise and make sure we've checked all the boxes, but again, we're excited to go and play down there. I say it all the time: this is a place kids dream about playing, and our kids will be ready to play this Saturday.”

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