BOONE, N.C. — Mack Brown turned ground beef into steak - eventually.
Brown coached Appalachian State for one season, and a 27-25 victory at Wake Forest to open the 1983 schedule ranks No. 4 on the list of top moments in the 22-game series. The countdown will continue this week, with No. 1 being unveiled before the rivalry resumes Saturday afternoon with the Demon Deacons' first-ever visit to Kidd Brewer Stadium.
TOP MOMENT NO. 5
After going 3-7-1 in 1981 and 4-7 in 1982, the Mountaineers climbed to as high as No. 10 in the national rankings before finishing 6-5 during Brown's lone year in Boone. The victory in front of 25,711 fans in Winston-Salem ignited a 4-1 start.
"The culture started changing when he took the program over," said Everett Withers, who played defensive back at App State from 1981-84 and is now in his second season as the head coach at Texas State, which lost 20-13 to the Mountaineers last weekend.
After coaching LSU's quarterbacks in 1982, Brown was 32 when he made his head-coaching debut for App State at Wake Forest. When he arrived in Boone, players voiced concerns over the quality of pregame meals in past seasons, leading Brown to initiate a switch to steaks.
That was at least the plan going into the Wake Forest game.
"I had it all worked out to where we'd have the pregame meal and then drive down to Winston-Salem, but it ended up being hot dogs and hamburgers," Brown told the Winston-Salem Journal last year. "The chef forgot to change it."
With App State trailing 7-0 in the second quarter at Wake Forest, linebacker Joel Carter recorded the first of his two interception returns for touchdowns by scoring on a 48-yard return.
A 54-yard field goal from Billy Van Aman helped App State take a lead into halftime, and Carter intercepted Wake Forest's first pass of the third quarter before returning it 30 yards for another touchdown. In addition to the two TDs, Carter finished with 18 tackles (16 solo) and one fumble recovery.
The Demon Deacons used a short touchdown and 27-yard field goal to tie the game in the third quarter before Van Aman pushed App State ahead 20-17 with a 29-yard kick. James Howard's fumble recovery at the Wake Forest 33 set up Cliff Reid's 12-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, and the Demon Deacons cut their deficit to 27-25 by converting the two-point play after a touchdown with 1:14 remaining.
When Alonzo Upshur recovered the onside kick, the Mountaineers could begin a celebration that began in Winston-Salem and continued on App State's campus.
"By the time we got back, Boone was rocking," Brown said.
The Mountaineers did eat pregame steaks before the home opener the following week.
A James Madison team that included future NFL stars Charles Haley and Gary Clark won 24-20 in Boone, but victories against VMI and The Citadel to close September vaulted App State to No. 10 in the national poll.
