2016 Dollar General Bowl final score: Troy beats Ohio and gets to 10 wins

Troy beat Ohio, 28-23, in a turnover-filled clash at the Dollar General Bowl in Mobile, Ala., on Friday night. The win moved Troy to 10-3 on the year and got the Trojans to double-digit wins for the first time since becoming an FBS (or Division I-A) program in 2001. Ohio finished the season 8-6.

The teams traded scores throughout the game, and they also traded turnovers, though the Bobcats supplied most of them. By the time the night was over, the Bobcats had given the ball away five times, the Trojans twice, not counting turnovers on downs.

One of Troy’s interceptions of Ohio quarterback Greg Windham was a Piesman Trophy-like pick from defensive tackle Trevon Sanders, which set up a Trojan touchdown.

Piesman season’s already over, but still, it’s impressive.

Because Troy’s first four scores of the night were touchdowns and two of Ohio’s were field goals, the Trojans had a 28-20 lead with five minutes left to play. The Bobcats got down to Troy’s 11-yard line, needing a touchdown and a two-point conversion to tie. But a personal foul flag on OU center Jake Pruehs pushed them back, and they had to settle for a field goal that only cut their deficit to 28-23.

A defensive stop got the ball back to the OU offense with a little more than two minutes on the clock and the Bobcats needing a touchdown to win. They didn’t get one. Troy forced a turnover on downs at Ohio’s 35, and the game was over.

The Dollar General Bowl has only been called the Dollar General Bowl for this year. It is the artist formerly known as the GoDaddy Bowl, its name from 2011-15. Before that, from 2001-10, it was the GMAC Bowl. The game’s been played in Mobile since its inception in the 1999 season, when TCU beat a ranked East Carolina, 28-14.

Troy and Ohio both had quietly solid seasons. The Trojans missed out on a share of the Sun Belt title by losing on the last day of the season against a bad Georgia Southern, but they still went from 4-8 to a 9-3 regular season in Neal Brown’s second campaign. That’s impressive stuff, and so is topping off the year with a 10th win.

Ohio lost to unbeaten, Cotton Bowl-bound Western Michigan in the MAC Championship Game, but the Bobcats pulled an 8-4 regular season and produced a top-30 scoring defense. They’ve now played in a bowl in seven out of eight years and eight out of 12 under Frank Solich, the erstwhile Nebraska head coach. Losing two in a row to end the year isn’t great, but the Bobcats kept up a run of respectable play this year.