App State, a Sun Belt finalist again, looks to finish strong in Cure Bowl on Saturday

App State goes bowling on Saturday.

The Mountaineers (8-5), who play Miami (Ohio) in the Cure Bowl at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Orlando, snapped a five-game win streak in last week’s Sun Belt Conference championship.

That streak — which included a win against 10-0 James Madison as ESPN’s College Gameday visited Harrisonburg, Virginia — lifted the perennial Sun Belt contender back to the postseason after sitting under .500 late in October.

“We’re all taught to finish strong,” defensive back Nick Ross told reporters after Saturday’s 49-23 loss to Troy. “As a program, we pride ourselves on the grit and keeping on digging. We’ve just got to move on to the next one, reset and finish strong.”

Saturday’s bowl game will air on ABC from UCF’s FBC Mortgage Stadium. App State is looking to slow down the RedHawks (11-2), who won the Mid-American Conference and are having one of their best seasons in program history.

Along with Ross, one of the Mountaineers’ captains, Tyrek Funderburk is a key player on the defense. Funderburk — an Indian Trail native and Metrolina Christian Academy graduate — started his career at Richmond, where he made seven interceptions and 77 tackles in 41 game appearances (22 starts). This year with App State, Funderburk ranks fifth on the roster with 46 total tackles.

“I’m a lot closer to home,” Funderburk told reporters before the SBC title game. “Just having the opportunity to play here has been great so far. We came here, and this is what we wanted to do. To be in this position.”

Miami will be onto its third- and fourth-string quarterbacks in Henry Hesson and Maddox Kopp, as starter Brett Gabbert is out for the season and backup Aveon Smith entered the transfer portal. A win Saturday would give the RedHawks their second-best record in school history — after Ben Roethlisberger’s 13-1 2003 team.

App State, which will play the Charlotte 49ers in the Aug. 28, 2025, Duke’s Mayo Classic at Bank of America Stadium, set a record by reaching a bowl game in each of its first seven FBS-eligible seasons after it made the jump in 2014.

Its offense is led by junior quarterback Joey Aguilar, who owns a school-record 3,546 passing yards and is tied for third nationally with 33 touchdown passes.

“We are excited to play in the Cure Bowl against Miami (Ohio),” Mountaineers head coach Shawn Clark said in a release. “Our team kept digging all season. We have battled through adversity, and we won the Sun Belt East division. We will be proud to travel to Orlando and represent our university and one of the best conferences in America.”

How to watch the Cure Bowl

Game: Avocados from Mexico Cure Bowl

Place: FBC Mortgage Stadium (University of Central Florida, Orlando, Fla.)

Date: Saturday, Dec. 16

Time: 3:30 p.m.

TV: ABC (Bob Wischusen, Robert Griffin III, Kris Budden)

Streaming: ESPN App

Radio: 99.1 FM/1060 AM/1030 AM in Charlotte

Line: App State -6, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.

Last year’s game: Troy beat UTSA, 18-12.