Why North Texas Will Win
– The offense can explode. The passing game was the best in Conference USA, the downfield throws open things up, and there’s balance. North Texas led the conference in rushing, too. It didn’t matter if it was Austin Aune of Jason Bean under center – the O moved. Bean is a better runner, and they can both bomb away to …
– Jaelon Darden. The 5-9, 174-pound explosive weapon has already declared he’s entering the NFL Draft, but first he’s going to close out his career in the bowl game. He caught 74 passes for 1,190 yards and 19 touchdowns, coming up with over 100 yards in six of his last seven games and over 200 twice.
– Appalachian State has a wee bit of a turnover problem. North Texas doesn’t really do the whole defense thing the kids are all into, but it needs to at least hold serve once in a while with a few key stops and takeaways. Appalachian State has turned it over 17 times on the year and eight times in the last three games. North Texas came up with four picks in its last outing against UTEP.
Why Appalachian State Will Win
– Yeah, the North Texas defense. How do you want to move the ball on it?
The Mean Green allowed 443 rushing yards to UTSA, 301 to UTEP, and over 200 in six of the last eight games. Appalachian State is going to prefer to get going on the ground with the nation’s tenth-best bowl game that ripped through just about everyone but Marshall.
The Mountaineers are going to run for over 200 yards getting off the bus.
– The Appalachian State defense isn’t bad, either. Coastal Carolina is the only team to score more than 26 points against the Mountaineers, and that was helped by a few key picks. The pass defense finished sixth in the nation allowing just 170 yards per game, and that was without much of a pass rush. That all feeds into …
– Time of possession. If it feels like Appalachian State is going to have the ball all game long, it’s because it will. The running game sets up lots and lots of third down conversion, and it all leads to holding the ball for close to 33 minutes per game. Not only does North Texas not come up with a whole lot of third down stops; it moves so quickly on offense that the D is always on the field.
Appalachian State will have the ball for well over ten minutes more than UNT.