By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com
The Mountaineers will see a familiar foe this Saturday at Kidd Brewer Stadium.
Appalachian State will host South Carolina State in the first round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs this Saturday.
The announcement was made Sunday. South Carolina State is the MEAC champions and has a 10-1 record. The Bulldogs' lone loss was to South Carolina.
Appalachian State won its fifth straight Southern Conference championship with a win over 27-10 win over Elon, and won it outright with a 19-14 win over Western Carolina last Saturday. The Mountaineers are 9-2, but have won nine straight games.
"I think we've gotten better all the time and I think that's what's important and I think they have too," Mountaineers coach Jerry Moore said. "It should be one of the best games on the docket next Saturday."
"I'm happy because now we know who we play," ASU cornerback Cortez Gilbert said. "We've actually played them before, so we've got film on them with us on it, I'm just happy to be in it, to be honest."
The Mountaineers beat South Carolina State 37-21 in the first round of the playoffs last year. Appalachian State quarterback Armanti Edwards threw for a school record 433 yards and four touchdowns in the win. He also ran for a touchdown.
However, South Carolina held a 14-10 lead in the second quarter until Edwards found CoCo Hillary for a 27-yard touchdown that put the Mountaineers up 17-14 at halftime.
"We played them in a terrific ballgame last year," Moore said. "Number one, and of course we knew were in the playoffs last week, but there are 16 good football teams there and you just got to start a new season and take them one at a time and hopefully we'll be healthy and play well."
Should Appalachian State beat South Carolina State, the Mountaineers would face the winner of the Elon-Richmond game, which is in Virginia. Richmond is the No. 4 seed of the playoff tournament and would host the Mountaineers if the Spiders beat Elon.
Appalachian State was eliminated by Richmond 33-13 in the second round of the playoffs last year, but beat the Spiders 55-35 in the semifinals of the 2007 playoffs.
 "We're not worried about Elon," Moore said. "We're going to worry about South Carolina State. I know about Richmond and I know about Elon. The worst thing in the world we can do is to be thinking about one of those teams and not do the very best we can do against South Carolina State. We're going to be 100 percent on  those guys and nobody else."
Montana (11-0), the Big Sky Conference champ, is the No. 1 seed and hosts South Dakota State. The Grizzlies, which beat Appalachian State 19-16 in overtime in the semifinals in 2000, could play Appalachian in the third round again if both teams survive that long.
The other game in Appalachian State's bracket pits Eastern Washington from the Big Sky at Stephen F. Austin, the co-champion of the Southland Conference. Both teams received at-large berths.
In the other bracket, Villanova, the Colonial Athletic Association champion, is the No. 2 seed and hosts Patriot League champion Holy Cross. No. 3-seeded Southern Illinois (10-1), the Missouri Valley Football Conference champion, hosts Eastern Illinois.
New Hampshire plays at McNeese State, and Weber State plays at William & Mary.
Moore said he was disappointed in the Mountaineers not getting a seed. Had they received one, they would host at least two games if they lasted that long.
"I don't really put that much emphasis on that," he said. "It's a little perk. We lost those two games early and I think if you're a good football team, you can overcome that."

FCS playoff pairings
South Dakota State (8-3) at (1) Montana (11-1)
Eastern Washington (8-3) at Stephen F. Austin (9-2)
South Carolina State (10-1) at Appalachian State (9-2)
Elon (9-2) at (4) Richmond (10-1)
Holy Cross (9-2) at (2) Villanova (10-1)
New Hampshire (9-2) at McNeese State (9-2)
Weber State (7-4) at William & Mary (9-2)
Eastern Illinois (8-3) at (3) Southern Illinois (10-1)