MOBILE, Ala. – Two consecutive trips to the same bowl turned out well for Appalachian State. Now the Mountaineers will go for a second straight win against a familiar bowl opponent.
Looking to improve its postseason record to 3-0 in its three years with full-fledged bowl eligibility, App State (8-4) will face Toledo (11-2) on ESPN at 6 p.m. CT (7 p.m. ET) in the Dollar General Bowl at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
Appalachian went 2-0 in the Camellia Bowl, winning 31-28 against the Rockets last year during a back-and-forth game in Montgomery, Ala., and a rematch with Toledo will occur about two and a half hours southeast of where the first meeting was held.
"I said this the other day — there's two things that are consistent in December: Santa Claus is coming, and App State is going to be good at football and playing for something meaningful," Toledo coach Jason Candle said Friday.
Moving forward from a 7-1 run through its Sun Belt Conference schedule, App State will play the Mid-American Conference representative in one of only three bowls with two league champions involved. The others are the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (Ohio State vs. USC) and the College Football Playoff at the Rose Bowl (Oklahoma vs. Georgia).
App State's
Scott Satterfield and Clemson's Dabo Swinney are actually the only two FBS head coaches who led their programs to back-to-back conference titles in 2016 and 2017, as the Mountaineers closed the regular season with a three-game winning streak in which they outscored their opponents 121-30 and averaged 311.0 rushing yards.
The Camellia Bowl loss to App State in 2016 capped a 9-4 season for Toledo, which has reached double-figure victories this year by going 7-1 in the MAC and taking a 38-7 lead in a 45-28 title-game win against Akron. The Rockets are 20-6 in the last two seasons under Candle, a close friend of Satterfield's dating back to their 2009 season together as offensive assistants at Toledo.
Last year's game was billed as a matchup with two star running backs in
Marcus Cox (5,103 career rushing yards) and Kareem Hunt (4,945 career yards). The two teams still have potent running attacks led by App State's
Jalin Moore (912 rushing yards in the equivalent of nine games) and Toledo's Terry Swanson (1,319 rushing yards with 14 touchdowns), but the efficiency of two senior quarterbacks has become one of the primary storylines.
Joined in elite company by Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma, App State's
Taylor Lamb and Toledo's Logan Woodside are two of only three FBS players who completed the regular season with more than 25 touchdown passes and less than eight interceptions.
"I'm trying to play within myself and play my game," Lamb said. "He's got a different game than me, and they've got a different offense than us, so I'll just try to do what's best for my offense."
With four seasons of more than 436 rushing yards, including a career-high 539 this season, Lamb is only 37 yards away from becoming only the fourth Sun Belt quarterback to rush for a career total of 2,000.
Toledo's two setbacks this season were a 52-30 loss to Miami and a 38-10 loss to Ohio, which benefited from quarterback Nathan Rourke's 115 rushing yards. Another elusive quarterback, Tulsa's Chad President, accounted for 130 of his team's 423 rushing yards in a 54-51 loss to the Rockets.
Lamb rushed for a career-high 126 yards and had a hand in two touchdowns in the 2016 victory against Toledo.
"That was a big key to winning that football game last year," Satterfield said. "It will be a big key again this year."
In trying to slow down the Mountaineers' offense, Toledo will play the first half without defensive end Ola Adeniyi, who was disqualified for targeting in the fourth quarter of the MAC title game. He has 63 tackles, 8.5 sacks and 19.5 tackles for loss this season.
App State lost star defensive end
Tee Sims (9.5 sacks in 10 games) to a season-ending injury last month, but the Mountaineers still led the Sun Belt by allowing only 211.8 passing yards per game. Woodside threw for 242 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions against them last year, and Appalachian is tied for 18th nationally this year with 15 picks.
"Defensively, we have to play our best game of the season," Satterfield said. "This is the best offense we've faced this year, and they've got a lot of weapons."
