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SoCon Notebook: ASU banged up, new wrinkles for Wofford
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    Appalachian State garnered unprecedented notoriety for a Southern Conference school following its season-opening win at Michigan, but the marquee win came with a price. The Mountaineers are still pretty banged up from the Sept. 1 game, most notably at quarterback where star Armanti Edwards hasn’t been the same since the visit to Ann Arbor.
    Edwards, who’s nursing a shoulder injury, missed another start last weekend at Elon. Appalachian coach Jerry Moore said Edwards won’t play during ASU’s home game with Garner-Webb Saturday and the Mountaineers (4-1, 1-1) are off the following week. Moore is unsure if Edwards will play again this season, but he’s hoping to have the sophomore sensation back in time for Georgia Southern’s visit to Boone, N.C., on Oct. 20.
    “He gets better then he has a setback,” Moore said. “We’re not going to play him if he can’t play, that’s for sure. We’re not going to jeopardize him.”
    Edwards started against Wofford two weeks ago but left the game after aggravating the injury. Backup Trey Elder has made three starts in Edwards’ absence.

Wofford adds
new looks
    League-leading Wofford (4-1, 2-0) has added several new wrinkles to its traditional wingbone attack, effectively frustrated opposing defensive coordinators. The new dimensions have made the Terriers even more difficult to get ready for, said Furman coach Bobby Lamb, whose team suffered a 45-20 home loss to Wofford last week.
    “They were tough to prepare for already, but now being in the shotgun and doing the things they are doing, plus they’re throwing the ball down the field a little bit more — that always adds extra pressure on your defense,” Lamb said. “Their staff is doing a great job, and they’re even more difficult to defend.”
    Wofford coach Mike Ayers said the changes have helped the team mainly by causing confusion for defenses.
    “When you look at it, it’s the same concept for us, but it’s a different concept for the defense,” he said. “When you are looking at a three-back concept — which is our older-type of running game — when we would go in motion, you’ve got 10 people chasing the motion guy. Out of the gun, you have split flow, you divide half of the defense, and then we try and do the same thing as far as the option — pitching the football when they let us pitch the football, then we give it when they tell us to give it.
    “Quite frankly, all the stuff we do is dictated by what the defense does not by what we are doing.”

A high-scoring league
    Southern Conference schools are lighting up the scoreboard this season, and five league teams are ranked in the top 20 in the nation in scoring. Leading the way is The Citadel — the third highest scoring Football Championship Subdivision school with 45.75 points a game — following by Georgia Southern (fourth, 43.75), Appalachian State (seventh, 39.2), Wofford (11th, 38.8) and Elon (16th, 36.5).
    “I think that’s just amazing, the kind of offenses this league has right now,” Elon coach Pete Lembo said.

Around the SoCon
    Along with Garner-Webb’s visit to Appalachian, The Citadel (3-1, 1-0) hosts Wofford, Chattanooga (1-3, 1-1) travels to Arkansas, Elon (2-2, 0-1) heads to Western Carolina (1-4, 0-1), Furman (1-3, 0-1) hosts Coastal Carolina and Georgia Southern (3-1, 1-1) welcomes South Dakota State.
    
    Alex Pellegrino can be reached at (912) 489-9413.