Dollar General Bowl 2017: Appalachian State vs. Toledo preview, prediction, live stream

The MAC and Sun Belt champions meet in the Dollar General Bowl. Here’s your full preview of Toledo vs. Appalachian State.

Sometimes the serendipity of bowl sponsor and bowl participants is uncanny. Dollar General is not a prestigious store, but you can get some surprisingly good stuff at a decent price. (Side note: Not everything at Dollar General is a dollar, which might be a bit of false advertising.) The same is true for the Dollar General Bowl.

This is a sneaky good pairing of teams. For one, you are getting two conference champions. For two, both these teams average more than 30 points per game. Finally, Appalachian State and Toledo have something most bowl opponents don’t have: history. They played each other last year in the Camelia Bowl.

Toledo rattled off 11 wins, including a victory over Akron in the MAC Championship game. The game was more of a blowout than the 45-28 score would even indicate.

Appalachian State won their final three games to capture a share of the Sun Belt title for the second straight season. This will be their third bowl game after going to the Camelia Bowl the last two season.  Their only loss this season by more than one score came in the season opener against Georgia.

Here’s how you can watch Saturday’s Appalachian Mountaineers (8-4) vs. Toledo Rockets (11-2) game:

Date: Saturday, Dec. 23
Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
Location: Mobile, AL
Venue: Ladd-Peebles Stadium
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: WatchESPN

Keys to Victory

Appalachian State won the previous meeting in last year’s Camelia Bowl 31-28. Toledo missed a 30-yard field goal in the final minute to tie the game. The quarterbacks remain the same from that game.

App State’s Taylor Lamb completed less than 50 percent of his passes and threw for only 119 yards and a touchdown. However, he ran for 126 yards on just nine carries and had another touchdown. This year, he is averaging more than eight yards per attempt passing and has 27 touchdowns to six interceptions. He is the second leading rusher on the team.

Toledo’s Logan Woodside had a decent statistical game in that last year’s meeting with just shy of 250 yards and two touchdowns. However, that would be a little bit disappointing given how he has played this season. The senior quarterback is completing 64.9 percent of his passes while averaging 9.84 yards per attempt.

These two teams sling the ball. It might come down to one of the quarterbacks making a rare turnover mistake. Last year’s game was played without a turnover.

Tery Swanson has taken over for Kareem Hunt, the rookie who has gained fame with the Kansas City Chiefs. Swanson rushed for 1,319 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Next: 2018 NFL Mock Draft: Complete first round pre-bowl season

Prediction

Toledo was favored by as many as eight points, but they are now a 6.5-point favorite over Appalachian State. It is crazy Toledo is better offensively without an NFL player like Kareem Hunt. Appalachian State doesn’t have the defense to slow down Toledo and doesn’t have the offense to outgun them. Toledo wins the Dollar General Bowl.

Final Score: Toledo 35, Appalachian State 30