Dollar General Bowl

Bowl History: The Dollar General Bowl is a postseason NCAA-sanctioned Division I FCS college football game that has been played annually at Ladd Peebles Stadium in Mobile Alabama, since 1999. The game currently matches teams from the SBC and the MAC. The game was known as the Mobile Alabama Bowl from 1999 to 2000. It was then known as the GMAC Bowl from 2000 to 2010 when its corporate sponsorship was GMAC Financial Services, then known as first the GoDaddy.com Bowl from 2011 to 2013 when Go Daddytook over sponsorship and then the GoDaddy Bowl from 2014 to 2015. From 1999 to 2009, the bowl pitted a C-USA team against a team from either the MAC or the WAC (Defunct). For the2010 Game the ACC was to participate in the bowl as its ninth bowl tie-in. The ACC failed to have sufficient bowl-eligible teams to fill the slot, and the bowl chose Sun Belt conference champion Troy as a replacement. The Mid-American Conference was the other conference tie-in. The 2001 game between the Marshall and ECU set the record as the highest-scoring bowl game of all time, and Marshall achieved what was then the greatest scoring comeback in bowl history. In this contest, Marshall battled back from a 38–8 deficit to win 64–61 in double overtime. Thundering Herd quarterback Byron Leftwich threw for 576 yards in the game. When the GoDaddy Bowl first began, it was played as one of the first games of the bowl season and occupied a pre-Christmas date. The 2006-07 season saw the game moved to after New Year’s Day, and it served as one of the last bowls played before the national championship game of either the BCS or now the CFP For the 2015-16 season, the GoDaddy Bowl was moved back to its pre-Christmas slot. In the first January playing the Southern Miss knocked off the Ohio, 28–7. The 2008 game became the largest blowout in bowl history, with Tulsa beating Bowling Green, 63–7. On October 18, 2010, it was announced that the GMAC Bowl was renamed the GoDaddy.com Bowl. The 2013 edition of the GoDaddy.com Bowl was played on January 6, 2013, and featured No. 25 Kent state from the MAC and Arkansas State from the SBC. On May 15, 2013, it was announced that GoDaddy, in accordance with new generic top-level domain extensions being rolled out later in the year, had dropped the “.com” from the bowl’s name, rebranding it as the GoDaddy Bowl. Dollar General, a variety store chain, took over sponsorship on August 17, 2016!

Dollar General Teams:  Ohio vs Troy

Bowl Location: Ladd Peebles Stadium, Mobile, Alabama

Day, Date & Time: Friday, December 23, 2016, 7:p.m. CST

Network: ESPN

Best Win(s): Ohio: Beat Toledo, 31-26; Troy: Beat Southern Miss (7-6), 37-31, Appalachian State (10-3), 28-24

Worst Losses: Ohio: Texas State (2-10), 56-54 OT; Troy: Georgia Southern, (5-7) 28-24

Common Opponents: None

Vegas Hotsheet Favorite: Troy -5

Offensive Team Data: Ohio ; Total Yards,  393 YPG; Passing Yards, 219 YPG; Rushing Yards, 174 YPG; Scoring Average, 27 PPG, Turnovers, 1.54 TPG; Percent of 3rd Down Conversions, 37.5%; Percentage of all scores in Red Zone, 80% & Percentage of TD’s in Red Zone, 44%

Offensive Team Data: Troy ; Total Yards, 439 YPG; Passing Yards, 263 YPG; Rushing Yards, 176 YPG; Scoring Average 34 PPG, Turnovers, 1.5 TPG; Percent of 3rd Down Conversions, 36.4%; Percentage of all scores in Red Zone, 91% & Percentage of TD’s in Red Zone, 66%

Defensive Team Data: Ohio ; Total Yards, 363 YPG; Passing Yards, 257 YPG; Rushing Yards, 106 YPG; Scoring Average, 22 PPG, Turnovers, 1.85 TPG; Percent of 3rd Down Conversions, 38%; Percentage of all scores in Red Zone, 88% & Percentage of TD’s in Red Zone, 55%

Defensive Team Data: Troy ; Total Yards, 364 YPG; Passing Yards, 241 YPG; Rushing Yards, 124 YPG; Scoring Average, 22 PPG, Turnovers, 2.08 TPG; Percent of 3rd Down Conversions, 34.9%; Percentage of all scores in Red Zone, 78% & Percentage of TD’s in Red Zone, 59%

Sully’s CFP Game Simulator is a statistical analysis / predictor of how these teams will preform, based solely on their numbers, when they face off on the gridiron! Keep in mind, these stats were established against different teams and conferences and these differences must be taken into account to get a complete picture when attempting to predetermine a winner. If you are interested in how the Simulator works … read this part … if not … skip it! The process used is … we take Arizona’s total yards on offense, add it to what Nevada gives up on defense, … get a total and then divide that number by 2 … to get the mean. We then invert the process by taking Nevada’s total offense, add it to what Arizona gives up on defense, get a total and divide that number by 2 to get the second mean… the greater number (with the exception of Turnovers) is then determined to have the advantage ( please note …. statistical advantage). We repeat this process in each of the eight statistical categories assessed! That said… here are the results of the Head to Head Analysis:

Total Yards Advantage: Troy 401 to 378.5

Passing Yards Advantage: Troy 260 to 230

Rushing Yards Advantage: Ohio 149 to 141

Scoring Advantage: Troy 28 to 24.5

Turnovers Advantage: Troy 1.675 to 1.81

3rd Down Conversions Advantage: Troy 37.2 to 36.2

Red Zone All Scores Advantage: Troy 89.5 to 79

Red Zone TD’s Only Advantage: Troy 60.5 to 51.5

Game Simulator Says:  Troy wins satistically 7 to 1, but does not cover the 5! Game Simulator believes it’s Ohio and the 5 points as Troy wins 28-25

Individuals to Watch: Troy: QB Branden Silvers,22/10 Ratio TD’s to INT”s & passed for 2945 yards, RB Jordan Chunn, 1232 Rushing Yards, 13 TD’s, & 102.7 YPG; Ohio: RB Dorian Brown, 802 Rushing Yards,  4TD’s, & 66.8 YPG, QB Greg Windham, 1580 yards passing & 12/4 Ratio Td’s to INT’s

Sully Says: Game Simulator stayed out to late last night! Troy wins and covers the 5!