2018 College Football Playoff, bowl game predictions with confidence picks
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
Middle Tennessee (8-5) vs Appalachian St (10-2)
New Orleans, Louisiana
December 15 – 9 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Losing Scott Satterfield affects my confidence some, but I wouldn’t overthink this one too much. Appalachian State was demonstrably the better team all season long, and was among the best teams from the group-of-five in 2018.
The Mountaineers opened the season by pushing Penn State to the brink, and then ran through the Sun Belt with relative ease aside from a turnover riddled defeat to Georgia Southern. They captured the Sun Belt crown by knocking off Louisiana.
MTSU has five losses, but three of those defeats came to SEC opponents, with Rich Stockstill consistently being unafraid to test his team out of conference. They split a pair of games with UAB in Murfreesboro to finish the season, unfortunately dropping the one that mattered most to finish runner-up in the C-USA.
App State has a ferocious defense that will make life tough on Brent Stockstill, and the Blue Raiders will have a tough time with the dual threat ability of Zac Thomas, with RB Darrynton Evans also continuing his torrid finish to the season.