The 2018 New Orleans Bowl was a

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

played on December 15, 2018, with kickoff scheduled for 9:00 p.m. EST (8:00 p.m. local CST). It was the 18th edition of the

New Orleans Bowl The New Orleans Bowl is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually since 2001. It is normally held at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans; when the Superdome and the rest of the city suffered damage due t ...

, and one of the 2018–19 bowl games concluding the 2018 FBS football season. Sponsored by freight company

R+L Carriers R, or r, is the eighteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ar'' (pronounced ), plural ''ars''. The lette ...

, the game was officially known as the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.

Teams

The game featured the

Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders The Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders are the men's and women's athletic teams at Middle Tennessee State University, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. MT athletic teams participate in NCAA Division I ( Bowl Subdivision in football) in Conference USA. MT co ...

from

Conference USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas. Mem ...

and the

Appalachian State Mountaineers The Appalachian State Mountaineers are the athletic teams that represent Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, United States. The Mountaineers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and were ...

, the 2018 Sun Belt Conference champions. The teams previously met three times (1974, 1989, and 1992) with Middle Tennessee holding a 2–1 edge in the series.

Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders

Middle Tennessee was defeated in the 2018 Conference USA Football Championship Game on December 1; they subsequently received and accepted an invitation to the New Orleans Bowl on December 2. The Blue Raiders entered the bowl with an 8–5 record (7–1 in conference). Blue Raider quarterback Brent Stockstill is the son of head coach

Rick Stockstill Richard Wilson Stockstill (born December 23, 1957) is an American college football coach. He is an offensive analyst for Florida State University, his alma mater, a position he has held since 2024. He was the head coach at Middle Tennessee from 2 ...

Appalachian State Mountaineers

Appalachian State defeated

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

in the

2018 Sun Belt Conference Football Championship Game The 2018 Sun Belt Conference Championship Game was played on December 1, 2018, between the Mountaineers of Appalachian State and the Ragin' Cajuns from Louisiana. The game was played at Kidd Brewer Stadium in Boone, North Carolina, due to Appalac ...

to secure a berth in the New Orleans Bowl. The Mountaineers entered the bowl with a 10–2 record (7–1 in conference). Due to the resignation of head coach

Scott Satterfield Fredric Scott Satterfield (born December 21, 1972) is an American college football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at the University of Cincinnati, a position he has held since the 2023 season. Satterfield served as the hea ...

, who took the same position with the

Louisville Cardinals The Louisville Cardinals (also known as the Cards) are the NCAA athletic teams representing the University of Louisville. The Cardinals teams play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, beginning in the 2014 season. While playing in the Big East Co ...

on December 4, the Mountaineers were coached in the bowl game by interim head coach

Mark Ivey Mark Ivey (born July 11, 1973) is an American college football coach who is the linebackers coach at the University of Louisville. A longtime high school football coach in Florida, he joined the college coaching ranks at his alma mater, Appalach ...

Game summary

Scoring summary

Statistics

References

External links

*
Box score
at

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

{{Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders bowl game navbox

New Orleans Bowl

Appalachian State Mountaineers football bowl games Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders football bowl games