Sept. 28, 2003

Charleston, SC - Scooter Johnson was having a bad day.

He dropped a pass.

He dropped a punt.

He didn't catch a pass until the fourth quarter.

As Johnson sat on the bench with his head down after the muffed punt -- which set up a tying touchdown for Appalachian State -- his coach came over and patted him on the head.

"Sometimes when you are patting them on the head, you are saying something very different," said Citadel coach Ellis Johnson. "But the only way you are going to have a chance to win is for guys like Scooter, when they don't make plays, to have confidence in them that they will come back and make plays."

Quarterback Willie Simmons was thinking the same thing when he caught Scooter's eye on the sideline. He didn't have to say anything.

"Sometimes," Simmons said, "you just need a look to know that guys believe in you."

Scooter's day finally turned good in the fourth quarter. His 44-yard touchdown run on a reverse tied the game at 21-21 with 9:34 to play, and the Bulldogs pulled out a 24-21 victory over App State.

"I dropped that punt and got down on myself," Scooter Johnson said. "But I saw in the end that my teammates needed me. I had to step up and make a play for my team."

Scooter's run followed a 20-yard dash by punter Travis Zobel on a fourth-and-7 fake punt designed by wide receivers coach Jonathan Sarratt. One play later, Scooter caught his first pass, an 11-yarder from Simmons. Two plays after that came the call for the reverse.

"I was skeptical," Simmons said. "Their defensive ends had been coming up field hard. I didn't know if Scooter could make it around the corner."

Once he did, receiver Bud Pough and 6-6, 265-pound tackle Lew Dawson made big blocks down field.

"It just parted for me," said Scooter, who ended up with two catches for 30 yards. "It just opened up."

DOG TRACKS

-- Tight end Chris Franklin's first catch of the season was a 2-yard TD pass from Simmons, good for a 14-7 lead right before halftime ... TB Nehemiah Broughton's 33-yard TD run was his longest run of the season.

-- LB Julian West, out for two weeks with an ankle injury, returned to action and forced a fumble ... LB Shawn Grant had 6-1/2 tackles and three tackles for loss ... DE James Wilson had a big game with two sacks ... James Greene and Michael Ballentine recovered fumbles ... FS Anthony Roberts, whose interception set up Travis Zobel's game-winning TD, almost had another. He dropped one on App State's final drive that could have turned into a TD.