Athlon Sports grades coaching hire of Dowell Loggains at Appalachian State

There is a high standard to meet at Appalachian State. Dowell Loggains knows that, and he knows that it means he’s going to need to hit the ground running in Boone and help the Mountaineers once again compete for a Sun Belt Championship.

Ahead of the season, Athlon Sports took the time to grade various coaching hires. That included Dowell Loggains at Appalachian State, who they were mixed on and gave a “C+” grade.

In the end, Athlon didn’t have much to say about the hire. They wrote, “Loggains’ work in developing LaNorris Sellers helped the redshirt freshman emerge as one of the top quarterbacks in the SEC in 2024.”

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Appalachian State was consistently among the best teams at the FCS level before making the jump to the FBS ranks. Success followed the Mountaineers and they’ve won the Sun Belt four times since joining in 2014. However, they haven’t won it since 2019 when the Mountaineers were coached by Eli Drinkwitz. He’d leave for Missouri the next season and be replaced by Shawn Clark.

Under Shawn Clark, Appalachian State went 40-24 and played for the Sun Belt Championship twice. They did so without winning it, though. Then, after going 6-6 in 2022, he went 5-6 before being let go at the end of the season. Now, the Mountaineers are turning to Dowell Loggains to get them back to among the top teams in the Group of Five.

Loggains is coming over from South Carolina where he was the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach for two seasons. Prior to that, he had been the tight ends coach at Arkansas for two seasons. However, the vast majority of his career has been spent as an assistant coach in the NFL. That includes being the offensive coordinator with four different NFL teams, most recently the New York Jets from 2019 through the 2020 season. Notably, however, he has no experience as a head coach.

Last season, Appalachian State was 76th in scoring offense, averaging 26.6 points per game. So, there is certainly room to improve. Still, the passing offense from the Mountaineers proved to be a strength. They’d finish 19th nationally in passing offense, averaging 273 yards per game through the air.

Appalachian State is going to open its 2025 season with a game against Charlotte. Sun Belt play is then expected to begin on September 13th against Southern Miss.