By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Every win in college football is a good win — but shouldn’t this one have been cleaner and more dominating?
After a 74-yard touchdown pass from redshirt junior QB AJ Swann to redshirt senior wide receiver Dalton Stroman on the first play of the football game, App State fell mostly flat, clearly not living up to expectations in a 20-13 win over a tiny FCS opponent in Lindenwood, the St. Charles, Mo. school with an enrollment of just 7,500 and recently elevated from NCAA Division II to the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) of NCAA Division I.
The Mountaineers’ offense produced 503 yards of total offense but somehow survived four turnovers (3 fumbles and an interception), as many as a dozen dropped or errantly thrown passes, and a teamwide nine penalties for 80 yards.
Six of those penalties were on the offense, five of them pre-snap (false start and illegal formations), in the first, third and fourth quarters.
A Look Back to the Future?
In the mid-2000s and even the early days of FBS, App State was the 2025 edition of Lindenwood football: wannabe giant killers, the game underdogs who played bigger than their reality and reputation. They didn’t back down from Michigan in the Big House, in 2007. Fast forward to 2016 when they lost to Tennessee in overtime; to 2018, when they took Penn State to OT; to 2019, when the Mountaineers defeated both North Carolina and South Carolina on the road; to 2022, when the Boone boys trekked to College Station and upset Texas A&M; and to thrilling, one-score losses to North Carolina in 2022 and 2023.
Those Mountaineer exploits aptly describe the Lindenwood Lions on this day, against arguably the most talented App State team in years thanks to the transfer portal and an NFL-pedigreed coaching staff.
Lindenwood redshirt senior quarterback Nate Glantz, a 2024 transfer into the Lions program from McNeese State, spent the 2022 season on the Iowa State roster after earning National Junior College Player of the Year honors as a freshman quarterback at Iowa Western Community College. Against the Mountaineers in front of a sold-out Kidd Brewer Stadium, Glantz was his grittiest, completing six big pass plays to help keep the Lions in the game.
None of those plays were bigger than on 4th-and-14, with 3:47 remaining in the game and trailing App State, 20-6. Glantz took the snap from center, eluded would-be tacklers going backwards to midfield, rolled right and heaved a 50-yard pass to the end zone where wide receiver Rico Bond outjumped three Mountaineer defenders for a TD. The play and subsequent PAT brought the Lions to within a touchdown of their hosts, 20-13.
Lindenwood was successful on an onside kick attempt and with 3:28 remaining with good field position at the App State 46-yard line, the Lions had a sniff of a potential upset, Mountaineer-style.
Once again, though, the App State defense came to the fore. On 4th-and-7, Glantz ran out of miracles. Under pressure, he rolled right and made a desperation heave that was picked off by redshirt junior defensive back Elijah McCantos, a 2024 transfer from Illinois.
With under two minutes remaining, App State’s offense just had to make one first down before running out the clock.
Credit the Mountaineer Defense
Although App State senior running back Rashon Dubinion carried the ball 25 times for 194 yards rushing and redshirt senior wide receiver Dalton Stroman caught three passes for 141 yards and the game’s opening TD, while redshirt junior QB AJ Swann completed 19 of 36 passes for 294 yards and a pair of TDs, it is hard to overlook the four turnovers, dropped passes, errant throws and pre-snap penalties. What seemed to be a key turning point was early in the first quarter, when a Lindenwood defender punched the ball out of the arms of Stroman just before he crossed the goal line after his second long reception.
Often put in difficult situations, the Mountaineer defense won the day and turned back the Glantz-led Lindenwood offense for most of the game, even forcing a pair of Lion turnovers. Altogether, the Mountaineer defense rolled up 16 tackles for loss, 7 pass breakups, 10 QB hurries, and 8 QB sacks to complement a forced fumble and two pass interceptions.
To be sure, App State head coach Dowell Loggains will have plenty of teaching opportunities next week as the Mountaineers prepare for their Sun Belt Conference opener at Southern Miss on Sept. 13, before a bye week ahead of more non-conference action on the road at Boise State (Sept. 27), then back home to face Oregon State on Oct. 4.
GAME STATS (StatBroadcast)
