July 14, 2006

Tony Haynes Archive

By Tony Haynes

Raleigh, N.C. - The official date of NC State's homecoming game this fall is November fourth when ACC foe Georgia Tech pays a visit to Carter-Finley Stadium. But for one former Wolfpack football player, homecoming will be September 2nd. One year into his tenure as the athletics director at Appalachian State, Charlie Cobb has already been anticipating the mixed emotions he'll no doubt be feeling when the reigning Division 1-AA champion Mountaineers kick off their season against coach Chuck Amato's Pack.

"NC State is where I went to school, where I worked, and I have a lot of friends and memories," said Cobb, who was a Wolfpack offensive lineman for Dick Sheridan in the late 1980s. "People ask me all the time who I'm going to pull for. That's the easiest question I've gotten because once you see the investment put in by the coaches and players you work with on a daily basis, it's pretty easy to say that I'll be 100 percent behind Appalachian on that day."

It's hard to imagine what Cobb will do for an encore.

After spending several years as an assistant athletics director at NC State, Cobb was hired to take over in Boone last June. Six months later, he was celebrating the school's first national championship in football.

At a time when Appalachian State is raising funds to modernize its athletics facilities, the timing couldn't have been better. Now, Cobb is using his experience from NC State to formulate a blueprint for facility improvements.

"It reminds me of where we were at State in 1998 and 99," Cobb said. "We had ambitious facility plans and there were people who were saying we couldn't get it done, while the bulk of people were standing behind it. Now you see what's happened over the last six or seven years. That's the model for us. I show them what's happened in Raleigh. I say `here's what you can do if you're willing to dream a little bit and see what can happen.'"

Last year's thrilling run to the national title certainly helped to put Appalachian State on the national map. Noting that the Mountaineers were on ESPN for three consecutive weeks during the Division 1-AA playoffs, Cobb said "we had nearly 12,000 kids apply for 2,800 spots. It was easily the largest admissions request for the university."

Since the December championship run, orders for Appalachian State merchandise have tripled and season ticket sales for football are up by 40 percent over last year.

The team that will clash with the Pack on September 2nd at 6:00 p.m. returns 17 starters from last year's championship squad. The biggest hole to fill will be at quarterback, where junior Trey Elder will replace all everything signal caller Richie Williams.

"We've got starters coming and back they're excited about the challenge," said Cobb. "For us, it's like playing at LSU last year. We went to LSU and competed, the kids played hard and they enjoyed the experience of playing in front of 90,000 people. That's what athletics and competition are all about."

It remains to be seen if NC State and Appalachian State will continue to schedule games in the future, although Cobb would like to schedule games against all of the State's Division one schools on a rotating basis.

"The idea for us is to play a 1-A game every year," Cobb said. "In 2007, we go back to LSU, but we don't have one in 2008. In 2009 we play Georgia; in '10 we play at Florida; and in '11 we're playing Virginia Tech. We're trying to keep it regional in nature so our fans and our students can go to stadiums that they wouldn't otherwise go to. Ideally, I'd like to play North Carolina, East Carolina and Wake so we can spread the wealth a little bit. We're working on that but football scheduling is a unique animal."

By the time opening night rolls around on September 2nd, Carter-Finley Stadium will be completely enclosed for the first time ever. With the north end zone addition continuing to take shape, the stadium in which Cobb played from 1987-89 now looks like a totally different facility.

"There's no question it's a brand new stadium," said Cobb, who visited Carter-Finley about a month ago. "Our coaches and boosters who have been to Raleigh before are anxious to see it. I tell them all the time that they won't believe the changes that have occurred because some people got excited and bought into what was going on. To stand in the middle of that thing now, you say `holy smokes, it doesn't look anything like it did 20 years ago.'"

Cobb still has plenty of red and white in his heart, but his new job requires that he remain loyal to his employer. As for his eight-year old son Harrison, well let's just say he's a work in progress. Harrison may in fact have more mixed emotions that his dad on September 2nd.

"We've been having that debate," Cobb said, chuckling. "I think his heart with be with Appalachian, but I'm sure he'll have some red on."