Chance For One More Game Drove App State To JLab Birmingham Bowl
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - December 29, 2025
Logistically speaking, putting a team together for the 19th JLab Birmingham Bowl was not a simple task for Appalachian State head coach Dowell Loggains.
With a record of 5-7, the Mountaineers were not bowl eligible when the regular season ended. With exams finished, the players splintered throughout the country to spend the holidays. Some had plans to come back for the spring semester while others already announced that they were headed for the transfer portal.
Then the opportunity arose for Appalachian State to fill an empty spot in the JLab Birmingham Bowl with rival Georgia Southern as the opposition. One of the first things Loggains did after getting the word of the possibility of playing from Appalachian State athletic director Doug Gillin was get four team leaders on the phone to ask their opinion. Two of the players were defensive end Kevin Abrams-Verwayne and offensive lineman Will Flowers.
“Both of them were an absolute yes,” Loggains said. “You know, at the time, Will tried to get in his truck and drive back. I'm like, well, we got a little time now, so let's relax.”
Eventually, Loggains pulled a team together that will compete on Monday at Protective Stadium. It won’t be the same team that dropped a 30-29 heartbreaker to Arkansas State in the final game of the regular season. Nearly 30 Appalachian State players are listed in the transfer portal. But it will be a team excited about the opportunity to play one more time this season.
“For me, this is my first year in FBS,” said Flowers, whose six years of college football began with four years at East Tennessee and another at Valdosta State. “It's the only time I've ever been to a bowl game. So it is definitely special and an experience I wanted to have. All the gifts and the events we've been doing are great. But really, just these four days of being with my guys, it's special. You get some time to reflect on that over Christmas. And then being back here, it's been a great week.”
For Abrams-Verwayne it’s a chance to put an exclamation point on what hasn’t been an easy college football journey. The 6-foot-3, 245-pound Marietta, Ga. native began his college career at Garden City Community College in 2019. He’s been at Appalachian State for four seasons but had season-ending injuries early in the 2022 and 2024 seasons.
“Yeah, man, I just say staying true to my roots,” Abrams-Verwayne said of getting through the tough times after his injuries. “You know, always believing in myself, having a great support system, great people around me. That's just how we preach it in my family. You got to keep going. It doesn't matter how hard times get you can always persevere.”
That perseverance led to an outstanding season. Abrams- Verwayne was included on the All-Sun Belt third team after finishing with 41 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, five sacks and four forced fumbles.
Loggains relied on the veterans to lead the way during a process that began with installing the game plan in Boone, N.C. before the team left to celebrate Christmas with their families. They reported to Birmingham on the day after Christmas.
“We needed those three practices because these guys filled up on turkey and had a lot of Christmas in them,” Loggains said. “We had to knock some dust off on the 26th. Every day from the 26th (when) practice was just okay, and then the 27th and 28th, we got better each day. We got a little bit more dialed in. If you're not careful, it feels like you're on vacation. The bowl game has been awesome in that way. Staying in this nice hotel, you got food everywhere and you got gifts. Both of these guys are walking in, like trying not to wrinkle the new Air Force One shoes they got. We got to make sure that ‘Hey guys, we in game mode now and we got an awesome opportunity to play rival in a bowl game.’”
That rival – Georgia Southern – beat Appalachian State 25-23 in the regular season. Getting revenge for that is certainly a factor but Loggains said it’s about much more than that.
“It’s not about who we are playing,” Loggains said. “It’s about a chance that we get to do this one more time together. This 2025 team is special. Obviously, when it’s a rivalry game, the passion is deep. For me, it was my first year, getting to experience this rivalry, you really don’t know what it means until you get to play. Then, when you play the other side, you feel that it’s different.”