For the second time ever, a UConn team will finish its season at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.
After two weeks of speculation and projections, it was announced Sunday that the UConn football team will face Marshall on Dec. 26 at 11 a.m. in the St. Petersburg Bowl. The game will be televised on ESPN.
The Huskies (6-6) clinched bowl eligibility two weeks ago with a shocking win at home over then-unbeaten Houston.
Marshall comes into our lives out of Conference USA on the heels of a 9-3 season. The Thundering Herd went 13-1 last year and beat Northern Illinois in the Boca Raton Bowl.
While this will be the sixth all-time bowl appearance for UConn, its significance cannot be overstated. The Huskies last appeared in a bowl after the 2010 season when they lost to Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. After that, Paul Pasqualoni took over the program, promptly ran it into the ground, and got fired, clearing the way for Bob Diaco.
Coming off a 2-10 season in his first year, expectations weren’t high for Diaco this season. His goal, nevertheless, was to be bowl-eligible by year two of his reign, and that’s exactly what has happened.
We’ll have a comprehensive preview of Marshall in the coming days, but for now, we’ll give you what you really care about…
The free shit:
The St. Petersburg Bowl (which has a $500,000 payout, if you care about such things) offers the following to each player:
- An Oakley backpack
- Turbine sunglasses
- Commemorative football
Had Navy gone to a New Year’s bowl game and the Huskies went to the Military Bowl instead, players would have gotten an Xbox One. Something to shoot for in the future.
The last time a UConn team played at the Trop:
Ticket info:
Head over to uconnbowl.com for all the ticket and travel info you could possibly want. We’ll be sharing more on the Twitters as the week goes on.
UConn fans have a reputation as a fan base that does not travel well (see the 2010-11 Fiesta Bowl and Final Four debacles). Let’s change that, shall we?*
* highly unlikely
That time UConn shut out South Carolina in a bowl game:
Videos in this post are courtesy of uconnhuskygames.com. Go there unless you hate fun.
