ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (December 3, 2017) – The Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl has announced that FIU (8-4, 5-3) from Conference-USA and Temple (6-6, 4-4) from the American Athletic Conference have accepted invitations to play in this year’s game.
SEE SOME GREAT BCP NEXT LEVEL IMAGES OF BOTH FIU AND TEMPLE FROM THIS SEASON
The tenth edition of the bowl game will be played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Thursday, Dec. 21, at 8 p.m. ET and air on ESPN. Tickets for the 2017 Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl start as low as just $40 and are available for online purchase from Tickets.com.
FIU won its eighth game of the season on Saturday defeating UMass 63-45, tying the 2011 team for the most wins in an FIU season. Ironically that season also resulted in a bowl trip to St. Petersburg. The Panthers, then in the Sun Belt Conference and led by future NFL star T.Y. Hilton, was upended by Marshall 20-10.
“We’re very excited to be headed to the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl,” said FIU head coach Butch Davis. “Our guys have worked really hard this year, and I’m proud that we’ll end this season in a bowl.”
FIU will be lead by QB Alex McGough. The senior leader, is one of six FIU players to earn Honorable Mention All-Conference honors. He is currently FIU’s all-time career leader in touchdown passes (66) and second in career completions (805) and passing yards (9,084). He has completed 231-of-354 passes for 2,791 yards with 17 touchdowns and eight interceptions in 2017, while recording a career-best 65.3 percent passing mark. McGough also ranks in the top five in C-USA in passing yards per game (232.6) and passing efficiency (142.8). Not only has McGough found the end zone through the air, but he has matched a career-high with four rushing touchdowns of his own.
A total of 11 members of the FIU football team have been recognized by Conference USA, including First-Team All-C-USA selection WR Thomas Owens, and second team selections OL Jordan Budwig, DE Fermin Silva, LB Anthony Wint and DB Brad Muhammad, as the league announced its all-conference football teams on Tuesday. Also recognized were: QB Alex McGough, RB Alex Gardner, TE Pharoah McKever, LB Treyvon Williams, DB Bryce Canady and K Jose Borregales as all-conference honorable mention selections, as selected by the league’s 13 head football coaches.
Temple, which won three of its final four games, including a season-ending 43-22 road win over Tulsa, is making its first bowl trip to St. Petersburg. First-year head coach Geoff Collins returns to familiar territory in Florida. Collins was the defensive coordinator at Florida in 2016. He served as FIU’s defensive coordinator in 2010 and was also a defensive coach for UCF in 2009 when the Knights played Rutgers in the 2009 bowl game in St. Petersburg.
“We are very excited to participate in the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl and we are certainly looking forward to spending time in St. Petersburg to see all it has to offer,” said Collins.
The main characters of any football story, the head coach and quarterback, would not return for Temple’s sequel to a 2016 American Athletic Conference Championship, the program’s first since 1967. The Owls immediately filled the head coaching position with a bright new star but auditions for the star quarterback role took a little longer.
On December 14, 2016, Collins took over as head coach and brought an innovative and energetic recipe formulated from 23 years of coaching experience, including nearly a decade in the Southeastern Conference.
The “Minister of Mayhem” arrived and, with his experience on the defensive side of the ball, that unit quickly took on his identity and was a fast, aggressive bunch throughout most of the season. Junior safety Delvon Randall and senior safety Sean Chandler starred for the defense, each earning all-conference honors. The veteran cast of defensive linemen led by seniors Sharif Finch, Jacob Martin and Jullian Taylor, stole the show often, with Finch and Martin among the nation’s best in both sacks and tackles-for-loss. Temple featured newcomers at the midlevel linebacker position, starting a trio of sophomores who not only played well, but should be one of the strongest units in the country moving forward.
“It’s always great to have two teams coming to our game after closing the regular season with big, dominating wins,” said Brett Dulaney, Executive Director of the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl. “We look forward to providing FIU and Temple with a terrific bowl experience that includes fun times and rewarding community involvement programs.”
The Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl is owned-and-operated by ESPN Events, a division of ESPN.