The throw was well short of the end zone because the launch point was the 43-yard line. It looked as if the magic might have ended. For reasons no one can explain, in these mountains, there's always a little more magic.
The zeroes were on the clock, but time was not recorded. It was possible to recount all the craziness of the past three weeks in detail -- the 40-point fourth quarter against UNC, the shocking upset of sixth-ranked Texas A&M, and the weeklong celebration that culminated with College GameDay broadcasting live.
Christian Horn looped toward the sideline and found no one in front of him after the ball tipped into his hand at the 6. He caught the ball in the end zone. There's a lot of chaos.
I'm like Ricky Bobby because I see him running. I don't know what to do with my hands.
He figured he would just make a loop around the field. A sea of black and gold flooded the field as fans poured over the wall.
"So I thought I could help them," he said.
He said that some people fell. Men who'd had too many beverages to hold their balance were not fit for the event. They were steady in their descent. He didn't notice the camera.
He said he was shocked.
That's how it happened that America's new favorite quarterback managed two viral moments in the span of just a few seconds, one for performing a miracle, and the other for genuine humility, all on the same day when the center of the nation's attention was located in North Carolina To understand the history of Appalachian State to see how the two fit together makes sense.
He wasn't on the depth chart in college. There was a golden-armed five-star recruit at the school. There was a project going on.
He stated that he had to find his role.
Brice was looking for ways to make a difference. He was on the council. The defensive line was invited to his house for a cookout. He helped people who were getting reps if he wasn't playing.
Billy said that Chase was the only one. He's wired that way.
Billy Brice took his son to a recruiting camp when he was young. When Billy found his kid on the field, Chase was busy playing football.
Billy said that the other guys were throwing and he was grabbing balls for them.
Billy tried to get his son to fight for his place in the spotlight.
He said that the guys weren't getting the ball back to them quickly enough.
He ran the scout team during his time at the school. It's an often thankless rule, made more difficult by the Tigers' demanding then-defensive coordinator, who never believed the scout team was challenging his unit enough
"Coach V would get frustrated and say, 'I'm taking over,'" said a former scout team player. The quarterback would be told to play receiver.
Venables' alter ego was Jimmy Greenbeans, the country's oldest scout team quarterback.
It was good for a few jokes, but not for comedy. He was the quarterback, and he wasn't handing it over to someone else.
He was the man who stood up to Venables. I'm doing this." Grab some cards. Everyone knows Chase has some things to say to him. He's a person who likes to play video games.
Lawrence was enamored with the team's love for it.
He was my biggest fan. He loved going in and playing. I was pretty sure that this guy was going to put up crazy numbers so I could play.
After Lawrence had won, most of the snaps came in mop-up duty. It's most. It's not all. It wasn't a sure thing that the game that made Brice famous would happen.
It was the fifth week of the season and the tigers were playing Syracuse. Lawrence is the new quarterback for the team. Kelly Bryant left the team a year after leading them to the College Football Playoff. Lawrence was out for the rest of the game after taking a hit near the sideline.
The team was losing by 17 points. The only other options were to take over or not. In his career, he had thrown eight passes.
The second half was not a great one. The quarterback was just 7-of-13 for 83 yards. He engineered his first miracle on the final drive, converting two fourth-down plays and setting up a touchdown with 41 seconds to go.
In the national title game, Alabama was defeated by a 27-23 score.
We don't have a national championship without Chase Brice.
He entered the transfer market after three years at the school because he wanted to start at another school. He decided to go to Duke. The time was terrible.
The world was shut down in the spring of 2020. Duke's players did not return to campus until late July. That was a problem for a quarterback who was strong in personality.
"I'm a person who likes to interact with others." It was difficult to get to know my team. There are two locker rooms, one half and one full. We had to be in the room for 30 minutes at a time. Every day we get tested. You didn't know if you would play. It wasn't easy.
On the field, it was obvious. The Blue Devil finished with a dismal 2-9 record, and Brice was responsible for a large part of that. Every game, he started.
After the season was over, he was ready to move again. He was unsure of where.
There was a lot of doubts. I might have needed to go be a backup or an emergency guy. I was aware that I could play.
He was given a chance to start fresh, but it was not a good idea. He wasn't promised the starting job, but he was an outsider on a team and in a community.
After trying his luck at two Power 5 schools, he settled on App State. He's got so many clothes, he broke the rack in the closet, according to his roommate.
If he was a cultural misfit at App State, he mostly stayed out of the public eye. His professor noticed that he was wearing football gear in class.
The professor wanted to know what position you play.
"I'm the starter," he sheepishly said.
The more people saw from the new quarterback, the more obvious it was that he was a good one.
On the day he arrived on campus, he received a message from Teddy. Imagine moving to lose to some kids from the beach. If you win the job, that will happen.
He saved the screen shot on his phone.
He won the starting position. He had a chance to knock off Miami in Week 2. He was a good player in the early season. App State was 4-2 through the first six games.
There was a game between the Mountaineers andCoastal Carolina. The person was prepared.
He threw for 347 yards in the game. He led a nine-play, 55 yard drive that ended with a 24 yard field goal as time expired. The winning team was the WVUs.
After the game, he searched for something on his phone. He added a handshake symbol to his post. There was nothing more to be said.
🤝 pic.twitter.com/py0dtR2W3I
— Chase Brice (@chasebrice7) October 21, 2021
"Chase's biggest crime is that he wasn't recruited out of high school and didn't develop here," said Alex Johnson, who hosts the popular "Black and Gold" show. We're a little leery of outsiders. He represented himself well. Hefits like a glove.
David Jackson is the president of the Boone Chamber of Commerce and he said that the culture of the town is reflected in the story of Brice. He's a person who likes to play. He delivered again and again.
There is a spirit of perseverance in the Appalachia culture. It's important to do things in a way that's realistic. The reward is worth it even though the journey is hard. I don't recall a reclamation storyline being as deep as it is with him. He was able to rewrite his story in a place that appreciated the little guy.
After Saturday's win over Troy, a photo was taken in the locker room with former App State quarterback ArmaniEdwards. No one is more famous in the area than the man who led the team to the upset of Michigan, Edward.
This week, there's been a lot of talk about the win in Ann arbor, comparing it to the start of the season.
The win over Michigan was a turning point in App State's history. The number of applications went up. The football program moved to the Sunbelt. There were new buildings across the campus. It was a single game.
They are going to have to build more dorms and parking decks.
Which one was bigger?
Jackson said it was difficult to decide. SportsCenter highlights and newspaper stories were the main sources of information about the heroics ofEdwards. GameDay is hosted by Boone and is a hit on social media. There has been a change in the world. App State has also done so.
The idea that a kid from Georgia could show up four years into his college career and have the town ask if he'd surpassed the fame of a famous person, that says something.
Jackson said that Chase will always be remembered for the throw. That's great. It's now a part of App State.
Hannah Decubellis, a shift leader at the Brewery, said that people crowd in daily wearing their West Virginia gear. They were featured on GameDay thanks to Brice's heroics, and she's noticed the past few weeks, when she greets a table, customers are talking about App State and the team's hotshot quarterback.
Is that professor who didn't know about the quarterback a liar? Chris didn't think to ask because he wasn't a football fan. After the Texas A&M win, he was watching MMA and the commentators talked about App State. The class gave a standing ovation to Brice.
Billy's TV was in the background as Brice talked on the phone with his father.
Billy said they were showing you on SportsCenter again.
Austin Shook has sandy blond hair and a beard that resembles that of Brice.
Shook said that he's a bit shorter.
Shook noticed a couple students looking at him. They told him to go somewhere.
Is that you?
Shook had a good laugh. He sent a text to Brice to let him know about the encounter.
Brice shrugs off the mention of his celebrity status and says he's not even the most famous member of his family. One of his sisters is a social media star.
Beth Anne is well-known. Brice said that he was the lesser of the two. It's like being followed by a group of people.
He is hoping that he can get back to normal soon. He doesn't want this story to go on for too long. He would like the next chapters to be less dramatic. The Troy game is important to him. App State almost blew its big moment on the center stage.
The 40-point quarter against North Carolina is old news. The page is about to be turned.
West Virginia's football building has signs taped to the glass doors. They said to beat JMU. It was one nil.
Johnson and his co- host, Charles Haynes, believe that fate has changed App State's fortunes this season, and most people in the area don't think so. After all, Saturday's win was actually dubbed "Miracle on the Mountain II" -- a sequel to the miracle win over Furman in 2002, in which, on the final play, Josh Jeffries picked off a pass and ran it back for a touchdown.
Haynes said that they have some type of magic here.
"That's just the thing." The success of this year is not magic. Work is what it is. He isn't an overnight sensation. Six years have passed since he was waiting for this.
App State coach Shawn Clark told them to take that. His team plays two times a week.
Clark said that he could show you how it worked out.
Maybe a bit of magic can help.
It probably wouldn't work because we could play that many more times. It worked out just how we practiced it.
There is no guarantee that the perfect formula will keep working forever.
Early in his career with theTigers, Brice learned a lesson from his coach. It was important that there were traditions at the school. Football games are not won by tradition. It was the job of the players to build their own legacies.
The chapter where the hero rises from the ashes is the final one. He thought it was a good feeling. It isn't the end.
"From being a backup to my downhill year at Duke and then coming here to App, I want to see how far I've come," he said. It's insane. I know what reality is because I have been up and down.
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