Appalachian's response?

Now, we'll find out of this Appalachian State team is a true champion.

After 17 consecutive wins, the Mountaineers dropped a 42-31 decision to Wofford over the weekend.

I had a gut feeling Wofford would present a huge challenge to the Mountaineers, which turned out to be the case. The Terriers won the battle up front, controlled the clock, played smarter, played hungrier and just flat out played better.

It's tough to prepare for an offense that you'll see only once a year - like Wofford's Wingbone. It's also tough to beat a team who plays like its the Super Bowl. That's the way Wofford approached the game, and it worked.

Give all the credit to the Terriers, they played an outstanding game.

Now, let's see how the Mountaineers respond.

Appalachian has not played a good, solid, game since the season-opening win over Michigan. The team sleep-walked (slept-walked? What's the official term here?) to an easy win over Lenoir-Rhyne and showed up in spurts in a win over Northern Arizona.

The defensive line has been suspect, the defense has a whole has not created turnovers and the running game has been grounded. The players still hear about the Michigan game daily.

Perhaps this loss, ultimately, was the best thing that could have happened.