Arkansas State holds off Bowling Green in the 68 Ventures Bowl, 38-31

Bowling Green’s Harold Fannin set the records in Thursday night’s 68 Ventures Bowl, but Arkansas State got the win.

The Red Wolves came away with a 38-31 victory at Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile, eclipsing a record setting feat by the Falcons’ All-America tight end. Fannin caught 17 passes for 213 yards and a touchdown, setting FBS single-season marks for a tight end in both receptions and yards in the process.

Arkansas State (8-5) won for the third time in five trips to Mobile’s bowl game, but did so for the first time on the South Alabama campus. The Red Wolves went 2-2 in bowl games played from 2012-15 across town at city-owned Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

Arkansas State’s Jaylen Raynor passed for 221 yards and two touchdowns, strikes of 79 and 6 yards to Corey Rucker — and also ran for a 5-yard score. The 79-yard TD pass was the longest in Mobile’s 26-year bowl game history.

The Red Wolves also scored on special teams as Courtney Jackson returned a punt 60 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter. Arkansas State’s Marcus Bradley also blocked a field goal in the second quarter.

Bowling Green (7-6) also got its first touchdown of the kicking game when backup quarterback Baron May snuck onto the field in punt formation and threw a 43-yard score to Malcolm Johnson. Regular quarterback Connor Bazelak had a big day in a losing effort, throwing for 390 yards and three touchdowns — eight yards to Jaison Patterson, 23 yards to Rahkeem Smith and four yards to Fannin, who hauled in a ball by Arkansas State safety Justin Parks. when he fell down in the back of the end zone.

Fannin finishes the season with 117 receptions for 1,555 yards, both the most by an FBS tight end. The total catches broke the record of 111 set by Rice’s James Casey in 2008, while the previous total yardage was 1,352 by Texas Tech’s Jace Amaro in 2013.

Arkansas State led 24-21 at halftime, then converted a Bowling Green fumble on the first play of the second half into a touchdown. Raynor capped a 6-play, 34-yard drive when he hit Rucker for a 6-yard touchdown and a 31-21 lead.

Bowling Green’s Zach Long connected on a 38-yard field goal for the only other points in the third quarter. Arkansas State’s Clune Van Andel later kicked left from 33 yards out — his first miss in 18 straight drives dating to early October — and kept it a one-score game entering the fourth quarter.

Bowling Green’s Long missed a 32-yard field goal with 10:19 left in the game, keeping Arkansas State up by seven. The Falcons went just 1-for-4 on field goals on the night, including the one that was blocked.

Arkansas State went back by two scores on Zak Wallace’s 14-yard touchdown run with 3:10 left, but Bowling Green answered with Bazelak’s 23-yard scoring pass to Smith to make it 38-31 at 1:42. The Falcons then attempted an onside kick, but Hunter Summers recovered the Red Wolves were able to run out the clock for the win.

Wallace finished the night with 99 yards on 15 carries, most of it in the second half. In addition to his late touchdown, he also had a 19-yard run on third down to ice the game.

Bowling Green is now 1-3 in bowl games played in Mobile, after beating Memphis in the 2004 GMAC Bowl and then losing to Tulsa in 2008 and Georgia Southern in December 2015. (Two bowl games were played in Mobile this calendar year 2015, when Arkansas State lost the January game to Toledo.)