Two fun, local teams late at night? Yeah, the New Orleans Bowl is going to be great

Louisiana Tech pulled a mini-Memphis, losing key contributors and a defensive coordinator (Manny Diaz) from a breakthrough team (the Bulldogs went 9-5 in 2014 and ranked 34th in S&P+), watching its defense regress, and winning with offense.

Skip Holtz’s Bulldogs can’t defend the pass, but they stuff the run, and they outscore you ... usually. In their eight wins, they scored 41 points per game, and in their four losses, they allowed 46.

Tech finished on a down note. The Bulldogs were comfortable home favorites against Southern Miss in the Conference USA West title decider, but got run out of their own building in the second half and fell by a 58-24 margin. Still, this is a team capable of big gainers on offense and havoc on defense.

Holtz has built an intense squad, one led by a familiar name: Former Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel. Driskel’s redemption experiment in Ruston, where he came as a graduate transfer, led to a lovely senior season: 3,575 passing yards, 24 touchdowns, only eight interceptions and 415 pre-sack rushing yards (6.3 per carry). In running back Kenneth Dixon (1,354 combined rushing and receiving yards, 22 touchdowns), receiver Trent Taylor (1,133 receiving yards), and big-play weapons Paul Turner and Carlos Henderson (combined: 75 catches, 17.1 yards per catch), Driskel’s got a nice battery.

Driskel also gets a unique final chapter. As a sophomore at UF, he helped to lead the Gators to an 11-1 campaign and a Sugar Bowl bid, but Florida got upset by Louisville in the Superdome, 33-23. After throwing only three interceptions in the regular season, he threw two against the Cardinals. Now his final college game comes against another red-and-white opponent in the same building.

Appalachian State whipped Georgia Southern in the Sun Belt’s showcase game. That was supposed to clear the way for the smoking hot Mountaineers to roll to the conference title and maybe flirt with the Playoff committee for a top 25 vote. They were playing incredibly. Two weeks later, Arkansas State smoked them at home.

After an iffy 1-3 start that featured blowout losses at USC and Toledo and a 27-20 home loss to Missouri that ended up looking less impressive, Blake Anderson’s Red Wolves rallied in conference play. The schedule eased up -- since September, ASU has played only two games against teams that rank better than 100th in S&P+: No. 42 Appalachian State and No. 90 Georgia State. But they beat those two by a combined 27 points and cruised to an 8-0 record and Sun Belt title.

ASU’s biggest strength, field position, is boring, but they bring a level of aggressiveness that usually plays well in bowls. Running back Michael Gordon (1,060 rushing yards) is a home run threat, as are receivers Tres Houston and Dijon Paschal (combined: 60 receptions, 18.2 yards per catch). And while quarterback Fredi Knighten was horrific against USC and Missouri (combined: 19-for-46, 183 yards, two TDs, three INTs), he was awesome down the stretch.

On defense, the Red Wolves attack the run on standard downs and the pass on passing downs. They want to force you to stray from your script. They aren’t good enough at defending the run to get away with it, but they force mistakes. Anderson has crafted an aggressive mentality, and ASU might end up with its third 10-win season in five years because of it.

Check out the monstrous stat preview here.

Looking at how defenses choose to attack a team is often enlightening. It is especially so for these two.

Despite playing in the Sun Belt, where the two (other) best teams, Appalachian State and Georgia Southern, feature run-first offenses, ASU faced a higher rate of passing than almost anybody in the country. You could run on the Red Wolves (72nd in Rushing S&P+), but they render run attacks all-or-nothing. They’re willing to risk a big gain if it means a series of stuffs.

It’s the same for Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs have one of the best mid-major run defenses in the country (29th in Rushing S&P+), but if the pass rush doesn’t get home, they are vulnerable (94th in Passing S&P+). They take chances when the ball is in the air -- corners Bryson Abraham and Adairius Barnes have combined for three interceptions and 25 break-ups -- but the risks backfire.

Opponents don’t want to throw on these teams, which could be interesting for ASU, which features a run-first spread attack. If this becomes a one-dimensional affair, which senior quarterback (Driskel or Knighten) does that favor? The hedging answer is “probably Louisiana Tech,” but ASU will have opportunities.