Hot take, but I kind of doubt it.
It’s true, they were good, but by a lot of measures, they underwhelmed all year against the weakest schedule we probably ever had in a single season (the weakest OOC schedule, by far).
In addition, App State was just a juggernaut that year, and we would’ve had to beat Joe Flacco and Delaware had we gotten past them in the semis.
Couple that with Bagley’s season-ending injury, and while I think they could have, it’s not like it was a sure thing.
Man, the playoffs that year were nuts. #2 and #3 (
) go down in the first round. JMU had App State beat in the first round, but fumbled the ball away on the goal line trying to run the clock down to kick the winning field goal. Then ASU just smashed Richmond and Delaware. I miss exciting FCS playoffs.