It took a few rings for him to pick up, but once Appalachian State coach Jerry Moore answered his office phone it was immediately clear he wasn't going to deny an interview request.
After briefly introducing myself as a student newspaper reporter covering the football team at Penn State, Moore gave me this response:
"Where's that?"
What? Huh? I'm sure he knew where Penn State was.
"Oh, I'm just saying what everyone else has been asking us," Moore said, understanding I was oblivious to the joke. "We're just finishing up a meeting here. Can you call back in five minutes or give me your number?"
I'll call back, I said, resorting to my pessimistic feelings when dealing with sources -- they won't call you unless you call them, multiple times. Sure, I'll call back, of course, and I hung up.
Wait. What was that? A meeting? Did this guy, in his 19th year at Appalachian State actually pick up the phone and give me a respectable answer while he was doing something significant? Indeed, he did.
This is the way people should be.
I ended up getting back on the phone about 10 minutes later because some commotion broke out in the Collegian office when one of our Footblog posts (about Jared from Subway being at Saturday's game) got linked to by Deadspin.com.
This moment was the equivalent of Lewis and Clark reaching the Pacific, I would imagine, but I had to calm down and refocus.
The coach of Appalachian State -- the Appalachian State that executed a 34-32 upset at Michigan that will be talked about for years -- allowed me some time to talk to him. The Collegian hasn't had a one-on-one interview with Joe Paterno in at least the four years I've been here. So the least I could do is follow through with a five minute promise. Respect deserves to be exchanged.
"Three people called since the time I told you to call back," Moore said when I dialed again. But before an apology could be offered, he added, "All right, let's go," ready to answer any questions I had.
At this point, I was so refreshed I felt like the man with the Southern twang was going to invite me down to Boone, N.C., for supper.
So away we went.
Afraid the big boys won't want to schedule you anymore?
"We're not that kind of football team," Moore said. "We keep
things pretty objective. Ain't nobody gonna run from us. I can tell you that. It was a nice thing for our program, and we're moving on from it."
What do you think of the Associated Press' decision to allow Division I-AA (now known as Football Championship Subdivision) teams to receive votes in its top-25 poll, the so-called "Appalachian State rule"?
"It's good for football," Moore said. "It's not like any of us expect to be top 10 in the country. If you get a few votes, it's nice. ... In I-AA, to win it all, you've got to play 15 ball games, including playoffs. If you end up 13-2, 14-1 maybe you end up 15 or 16 in the country."
Moore would know how to do that. Appalachian State has won the last two I-AA national titles.
When did you see the confidence from your players that they could beat Michigan?
"When Dexter Jackson scored the 7-7 touchdown [on a 68-yard pass five minutes into the game]. ... But what I also think that what happened is we scored 21 points in the second quarter, and there were no flukes. They were big drives."
Was the media attention a distraction after the win?
"The first part of the week was really a distraction. We had the national media trucks, they didn't leave 'till 7 Wednesday night. It was just constant out here, seemed like 16 hours a day from 7:30 in the morning. Y'all probably used to it, we're not."
Any luster off the victory now that the Wolverines appear in disarray?
"I don't care what kind of year Michigan has, it's still Michigan," Moore said.
How's that for honesty. If only everyone was as sincere.
Corey McLaughlin is a senior majoring in journalism and anthropology and a Collegian football writer. His e-mail address is cpm167@psu.edu.
