Year later -- after Michigan -- App State still glowing with pride

Banks was going to play in the SEC, there was no doubt about that. He committed to Ole Miss five years ago and was about to sign before the David Cutcliffe regime had questions about his height.

"As soon as Ole Miss offered, I jumped on that," Banks said. "That was October. In December they said, 'You look 6-2, 6-3 on film.' I'm 5-11. They pulled their scholarship."

At that point, Banks didn't have many options with schools filling up with commitments. Even prestigious Duke wasn't an option because it was in Durham.

"It was too close to home," Banks said. "Durham, man, is no place you really want to be. There's nothing to do there except get in trouble."

The service academies were an option. Specifically, Air Force Academy Prep. It was football except you don't go to Air Force (or Army or Navy) to necessarily play football.

"I didn't like anything about it," Banks said. "I went to play football. They wanted me to be a soldier. Consequently, I was getting in trouble for things I didn't know. You have to walk a certain way, eat a certain way. It finally came to a head."

Banks walked, left Air Force after a couple of months. It was too much. He wasn't a bad guy, just not an Air Force guy. The nomad linebacker remembered that Moore had recruited him and asked if there were any openings. From Ole Miss to Air Force to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Not too many players have traveled that road to stardom. Two-hundred seventy-five career tackles later, Banks is part of the program's lore. He fulfilled his wish to play in the SEC, if you count a 24-0 loss at LSU in 2005.

"I was about to piss myself," he said.

A return to Death Valley on Saturday isn't as big a deal, not after what Banks accomplished a year ago. His sack of Michigan's Chad Henne set the tone early on in the Michigan game. Later, he recovered a fumble.

"It wasn't like Michigan wasn't playing hard. It wasn't like they weren't a great team," Banks said. "They definitely didn't expect us to be that fast. That's the one thing we had on them is team speed. That's the one thing that killed them."

Speed, right up until the final play. Usually on the field-goal block team, teammate Corey Lynch rushes from the outside. Banks has an inside position. Lynch suggested at some point in the game that they switch. On Michigan's game-deciding attempt, Lynch can be seen coming through untouched to block the kick.

"I'm glad he switched," Banks said. "I probably wouldn't have blocked it."

That's another way of saying miracles still do happen, or at least are passed down a generation. Lynch is married to the granddaughter of Rev. Billy Graham.

The program

God, it's beautiful here. Squint and you could be in any mountain town in Colorado. Charlotte has all the humidity and heat. There are ski slopes surrounding Boone.

Kidd Brewer Stadium is going big time. Nestled into a mountain slope, it is getting 4,400 new seats. A 120,000-square-foot football complex is going up. It almost looks to the naked eye that this is a I-A program. That's the next logical step, but there is no momentum to move up. That would ruin everything that has been built. App State would be competing in a low-level I-A conference instead of ruling I-AA.

"I think we'd do pretty well (in I-A)," Edwards said. "I've played in two 15-game seasons. It wouldn't be nothing to us."

It is mentioned to Moore that it seems like none of his players ever get in trouble in his Carolina paradise. Maybe it is being up in the mountains where even XM radio is scratchy, or being in Division I-AA or maybe that, until last week, liquor by the drink was prohibited.

"I guess that is a good thing that it's isolated," defensive back Leonard Love said. "There's not a lot of trouble we can get in."

Moore has another theory.

"If you know some guy is fixing to screw it up, you won't let him," he said of his players.

After practice, Moore will shout out, "Don't forget about bible study," and it means something. Each Wednesday, players gather for pizza and talk about scripture. If nothing else, they bond. Leading up the stairs of the football complex are key words that players have to pass every day. Yes, they are hackneyed trigger words like "trust" and "respect."

"If you see that every day, you're going to get brainwashed," Moore said.

Banks has his own theory as to why this program is so good, so pure and so damn hard to beat.

"Trouble has to come up the mountain," he said.

When it does, App State usually wins.