2015_New_Orleans_Bowl
2015 New Orleans Bowl
College football game
The 2015 New Orleans Bowl was a postseason American college football bowl game played on December 19, 2015 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The 15th edition of the New Orleans Bowl featured the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs from Conference USA against the Arkansas State Red Wolves of the Sun Belt Conference. It began at 8:00 p.m. CST and air on ESPN. It was one of the 2015–16 bowl games that concludes the 2015 FBS football season. Sponsored by freight shipping company R+L Carriers, it was officially known as the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.[4]
| 2015 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| 15th New Orleans Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | December 19, 2015 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 2015 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Mercedes-Benz Superdome | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | New Orleans, Louisiana | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Louisiana Tech RB Kenneth Dixon[1] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | La. Tech by 2[2] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Adam Savoie (American)[3] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 32,487[3] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Payout | US$TBD | ||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ESPN/ESPN Radio | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Adam Amin, Kelly Stouffer & Dr. Jerry Punch (ESPN) Bill Rosinski, David Norrie, & Joe Schad (ESPN Radio) | ||||||||||||||||||
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The game featured the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs against the Arkansas State Red Wolves. It was the 38th overall meeting between the schools, with Louisiana Tech leading the series 25–12 before this game (both had previously been in-conference foes in the Southland Conference and Big West Conference before Louisiana Tech joined the Western Athletic Conference and later Conference USA and Arkansas State joined the Sun Belt). The last meeting between these two teams was in 1998, when the Bulldogs beat the Indians 69–21 in Jonesboro.[5]
Arkansas State Red Wolves
Sources told ESPN reporter Brett McMurphy that the Red Wolves had officially been invited to the game and accepted.[6]
This was the Red Wolves' second trip to the New Orleans Bowl; they (at the time known as the Indians) had previously played in the 2005 game, losing to the Southern Miss Golden Eagles by a score of 31–19. Notably, that game was played at Cajun Field in nearby Lafayette because of damage to the Superdome done by Hurricane Katrina.
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs
This was the Bulldogs' second straight bowl appearance under third-year head coach Skip Holtz, following a 35–18 victory over Illinois in the 2014 Heart of Dallas Bowl. Holtz had a 3–3 career record in bowl games as head coach at Louisiana Tech, South Florida and East Carolina. The Louisiana Tech program entered 3–3–1 all-time in FBS bowl games.
Scoring summary
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Source:[3]
Statistics
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
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| Red Wolves | 3 | 14 | 3 | 8 | 28 |
| Bulldogs | 10 | 7 | 17 | 13 | 47 |
| Statistics | ARST | La. Tech |
|---|---|---|
| First downs | 23 | 26 |
| Plays–yards | 68–323 | 74–687 |
| Rushes–yards | 39–177 | 36–229 |
| Passing yards | 146 | 458 |
| Passing: Comp–Att–Int | 15–29–2 | 26–38–0 |
| Time of possession | 25:13 | 34:47 |
| Team | Category | Player | Statistics |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARST | Passing | Fredi Knighten | 14/28, 137 yds, 2 INT |
| Rushing | Warren Wand | 12 car, 66 yds, 1 TD | |
| Receiving | Tres Houston | 3 rec, 47 yds | |
| La. Tech | Passing | Jeff Driskel | 26/38, 458 yds, 3 TD |
| Rushing | Boston Scott | 4 car, 106 yds | |
| Receiving | Trent Taylor | 10 rec, 149 yds, 1 TD |
- Smith, Guerry (December 20, 2015). "Kenneth Dixon's record night lifts Louisiana Tech to 47-28 victory over Arkansas State in New Orleans Bowl". theadvocate.com. Capital City Press, LLC. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
- Odds, Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2015
- McMurphy, Brett (December 2, 2015). "Arkansas State, Ga. Southern, App. State accept bowl bids". ESPN.Go.com. ESPN. Retrieved December 2, 2015.