Appalachian State Mountaineers: Camelia Bowl Cometh and Right Soon

The Appalachian State Mountaineers kick off for the final tie this season on Saturday.

The Appalachian State Mountaineers will be kicking off the bowl season in just two days against the Toledo Rockets in the Camelia Bowl in Montgomery, AL. This is the second straight Camelia Bowl for the Mountaineers which pits a Sun Belt team against a Mid-American Conference team. Toledo is slightly favored to win according to the ESPN Win % index.

This will be the last call for the senior leaders at Appalachian State. This will be the last chance for Marcus Cox to grab 1,000 rushing yards on the season. He needs 130 to do the trick. Given App’s penchant for running the ball, Cox will most likely get his chance. This will also mark the last game for linebacker John Law.

Toledo and Appalachian State have never met on the football field before, but Coach Scott Satterfield did spent some time on the Toledo staff back in 2009. As it so happens the current Toledo coach Jason Candle was on the staff at the same time. So the two men are not complete strangers.

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Candle has more balance on his team. A tough running game behind Kareem Hunt is only the beginning of the story. Toledo quarterback Logan Whiteside led the FBS in touchdown passes with forty-three. He was accurate with nearly a 70% completion percentage. This firepower surge brought Toledo back into contention is the MAC.

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With this in mind, the key goal of the Mountaineers is to keep that offense off the field. Regardless of what Toledo does with the ball, the Mountaineers need a grinding running game to bleed the clock and rest their defense. If the game comes down to the final plays, they will be much better off with the more rested defense. The predictors seem to think that this will be the case.

Whatever happens, congratulations to Marcus Cox on a great career at Appalachian State. Long live Count Dacula.