“I had to google this team to make sure they’re even real” those are the now infamous words spoken by a Texas A&M University’s yell leader at the traditional midnight yell that took place the night before the Texas A&M vs Appalachian State football game.

The Aggies who came into the game favored to win by 17 points quickly found out who Appalachian State, hailing from the small town of Boone North Carolina, was as the Mountaineers put up over 315 yards of total offense and upset the Aggies 17-14. 

When it comes to overall talent Texas A&M had a clear advantage over Appalachian State. The Aggies have 56 total 4 and 5-star recruits on their roster compared to just one for Appalachian State. The Aggies also had the top-ranked recruiting class across the nation last year while Appalachian State had the 90th-best class. Furthermore, Texas A&M spent $36.8 million on its football program last year compared to $9.7 million from Appalachian State. The Aggies’ head football coach Jimbo Fisher has a $9 million annual salary compared to $425 thousand from mountaineers coach Shawn Clark. Most signs pointed to a Texas A&M blowout, but all football fans know the game is won on the performance on the field, not in funding or recruiting. 

This was proven true as Texas A&M missed a field goal late in the fourth quarter ensuring the Mountaineer’s upset victory. The win was Appalachian State’s first win over a team ranked in the top 10 since they beat Michigan in 2007 and it’s the third time they’ve beaten a team ranked in the top 25 in program history. 

One of the keys to the Appalachian State winning was their ability to control the ball as they held the ball for over 40 minutes, wearing down the Aggie’s defense as running back Camrun Peoples was able to run for 112 yards. 

The Aggies had very few opportunities to score during the game but even when they did they were inefficient as quarterback Haynes King threw for just 97 yards and were only able to run seven total plays in the Appalachian territory. 

The result of the game is extremely disappointing for many Aggie fans as there were high expectations for this team going into the season after beating the number one ranked Alabama last season and recruiting the previously mentioned number one ranked recruiting class.