The Georgia State-SJSU Cure Bowl is the ultimate ‘too many bowls’ bowl. It should be fun!

If you think there are too many bowls -- actually, let’s clarify: if you think there are too many bowls and you think this is a bad thing -- you’ve probably referenced the Cure Bowl. It features two teams with a combined 11-13 record. One is from 2,800 miles away, and the other averaged 10,300 in home attendance this year. This has all the makings of a pointless football game, and to add insult to injury, it’s being played in the same venue as two other bowls.

It’s also a game between two teams that play fun, optimistic football and, thanks to youth, might get something out of playing a 13th game.

This year’s Appalachian State plays at the Georgia Dome.

Last year, ASU began 1-5, then flipped a switch, finishing with six consecutive wins and riding that into a 10-win 2015.

Georgia State just pulled off something similar. Miles’ Panthers were rudderless early, losing to Charlotte and Liberty, barely getting past NMSU and starting 2-6. There was reason to wonder if Miles was going to get fired, but with the state of the facilities and the fledgling program’s lack of anything resembling success, there was reason to wonder if there was any point to hiring someone different.

Then November came. Following a home loss to UL-Lafayette, the Panthers took off. They averaged nearly 9 yards per play in a 41-19 win over Texas State, and they allowed only 4.2 in a 24-10 win over South Alabama. A 10-point conquest of Troy in the home finale got GSU to within one game. And then came the unthinkable.

Last season, Georgia Southern outdrew Georgia State in the Georgia Dome, then racked up 660 yards in a 69-31 win. After just one year at the FBS level, Southern had firmly established itself as the big brother program.

So, it was quite a surprise when GSU not only pulled an upset in Statesboro, but ran away from the Eagles. Tied at halftime, the Panthers went on a 27-0 run and cruised to a stunning, easy win. Nick Arbuckle threw for 346 yards and three touchdowns, Penny Hart caught six for 119 and the GSU defense allowed 54 second-half yards. Georgia State -- 1-23 in 2013-14, a commuter school without a built-in fan base or on-campus stadium -- was bowling.

You never know how an “I can’t believe we made it to a bowl!” team will perform once it gets there. Sometimes the bowl is a victory lap, sometimes it’s played with a hangover. But while the defense has been spotty, GSU is a team with a legitimate offense (Arbuckle: 4,160 yards, 26 touchdowns; Hart: 71 catches, 1,095 yards) that creates big plays galore.

“SJSU outrecruited Iowa. Now what?” That was the title of my 2015 San Jose State preview. It’s pretty hilarious considering that part of the title was a rib at Iowa, which started the season 12-0. But it also made me curious about the Spartans’ prospects in 2016 and beyond.

So, how quickly can one great recruiting class make a difference? At Western Michigan following a coup of a 2014 class, the answer was “very quickly!” WMU improved from 1-11 to 8-5 and nearly won the MAC West. But can a bunch of freshmen fix some serious explosiveness issues (and lack of size) on offense? Can freshmen and a couple of JUCOs shore up a defensive front seven that was already iffy before it lost four of its top six linemen?

We toss around words like “upside” quite a bit, and there’s no question that San Jose State will have a lot more of it in 2015 and beyond than it did in 2014. But the Spartans are probably a year or two away from turning potential into any major sort of production. Then again, I said the same thing about WMU last year. Regardless, you’ve got quite a few more reasons than normal to keep an eye on SJSU.

So, how did it go this year?The Spartans improved from 3-9 and 114th in S&P+ to 5-7 and 92nd. That they are playing in a bowl is a technicality of sorts -- hooray, decent APR scores and wins over New Hampshire, Fresno State, UNLV, New Mexico and Hawaii, all of whom rank 99th or worse -- but Ron Caragher’s budding young program scored a trip to Orlando and the opportunity for extra practices.

And how young ARE the Spartans? Not extremely. The Spartans start seven sophomores, a redshirt freshman and six seniors. There are more juniors than anything else on the two deep, though there are seven true freshmen (mostly on the second string of the defense). Star signee Kanya Bell was arrested over the summer and never made it to campus, and other well-touted frosh like running back Malik Roberson are playing only minor roles. The biggest freshman effect might have come from two-star linebacker Frank Ginda, a starter who has four tackles for loss.

This might be good news. SJSU improved as a young team, but it wasn’t because of a single class that will phase out in a few years. We’ll see what the Spartans can do after losing only six seniors next year.

Check out the monstrous stat preview here.

GSU has 82 plays of at least 20 yards (ninth in FBS), and SJSU has allowed just 47 (34th). The Spartans employ a pretty passive, bend-don’t-break approach, and it works sometimes.

But GSU will test it. Count the big plays, and you’ll probably figure out who won. (That goes for most games, yes, but it goes double here.)