BOONE, N.C. — Injuries replaced losses as the biggest source of pain.
Starting again as a redshirt senior, outside linebacker
Rashaad Townes is thrilled to have a shot at winning another Sun Belt Conference championship.
When Townes graduated from Howard High School in Macon, Ga., the Huskies had lost 24 consecutive games. He started immediately as a true freshman at Appalachian State in 2013, but a series of injuries cut short each of his first two seasons and contributed to a redshirt year in 2015.
He returned to competition last year and helped the Mountaineers earn a share of their first Sun Belt title. They could improve to 2-0 in the league with a homecoming victory against New Mexico State on Saturday.
"I'm just really grateful and appreciative that I'm here," Townes said. "I didn't come from a winning school. Winning wasn't really in my blood when I came here, and I've learned how to win."
Townes played an important role as a reserve in 2016, filling in at three defensive spots and being a regular member of the Mountaineers' third-down package. After recording 14 tackles with one sack in a career-high 10 game appearances, he's totaled 13 tackles with one sack while starting all four games this year in the spot previously held by
Kennan Gilchrist, who is now with the NFL's Houston Texans.
Townes made the PFF College Football site's Sun Belt team of the week after he forced a fumble on a sack and posted six tackles to earn a grade of 89.1 in App State's league opener against Texas State.
"He can rush the passer, and that's what we need in the position he's at," App State head coach
Scott Satterfield said. "We're expecting big things out of him. He's finally healthy, and he's feeling good about himself – feeling confident. He's over 230 pounds and can fly. He's so powerful.
"All that stuff combined, it's why that fifth year really means a lot."
After playing several offensive and defensive positions in high school, Townes left a program that went a combined 0-20 over his final two seasons to join an App State program with three FCS national titles to its credit. As a fifth-year senior who redshirted in the middle of his college career, not the start of it, he's the only remaining Mountaineer to have appeared in Southern Conference games.
Townes started in his 2013 college debut at Montana and made seven starts in eight games before a torn labrum against Georgia Southern led to season-ending surgery, triggering Gilchrist's first start. Townes tore the labrum in his other shoulder the following spring and had to play a good portion of his sophomore year with a bulky upper-body brace that protected both shoulders.
"It was a hassle to run around and breath," Townes said. "At first, it was really hard. It was hard to get the right arm movements, and it was just tough emotionally because it really affected me as a player."
With Gilchrist starting throughout 2014 at the other outside linebacker position, Townes totaled 24 tackles while starting each of the first five games as a sophomore. He moved into a backup role before a knee injury ended his year prematurely, and his absence created the opening for
Devan Stringer to become a full-time starter.
Townes sat out the entire 2015 season to get completely healthy. With 62 tackles and 14 starts to his credit over his first two years, he returned to action as a backup in 2016 with Gilchrist and Stringer still in starting roles.
"I was kind of behind the 8-ball, but the redshirt year was really good because it gave me a chance to catch up with everybody," Townes said. "It was the hardest thing in my life, but I was glad to experience the redshirt year because it gave me a different perspective on football.
"When you're in the game, it's kind of hard to see some of those things going on. When you look at it from the outside in, you see the little things that happen in the game. Everybody has a role. Everybody has a job no matter if you're third string, first string, no string. You still have a job, and I feel like that's the biggest thing I've learned since I've been here."
Stringer has started 37 straight games at the same spot since he replaced Townes with seven games left in the 2014 season, so Townes is finishing his App State career at one outside linebacker position after beginning his career at the other one.
Despite playing two games against Power Five conference opponents with a combined record of 9-1, the Mountaineers rank 19
th nationally by allowing only 17.8 points and 302.8 total yards per game. They were in their SoCon swan song when Townes arrived, and he's a key figure in the pursuit of another Sun Belt championship.
"I'm just really glad I'm still here," Townes said. "I'm really appreciative of the opportunity the coaches gave me a few years ago, and this year I'm really going to try to make the best of it."
