FRISCO BOWL INFO
Sponsor: Tropical Smoothie Cafe
Date: Friday, December 20, 2019
Time: 7:30 p.m. EST
TV: ESPN2
Stadium: Toyota Stadium
Location: Frisco, Texas
Frisco Bowl Facts
The 2019 Frisco Bowl Kent State vs Utah State: Just The Facts for Friday
In the 2nd bowl game of the 2019 bowl season, The Kent State Golden Flashes and The Utah State Aggies will face-off in Frisco, Texas. Everyone will be watching because we as college football fans love football and are going through withdrawals as the F.A.D or Football Affective Disorder is starting to set in. So any football game is better than NO football game. The Golden Flashes finished with a 6-6 record and a 5-3 record in the Mid-American Conference. While the Aggies come into the game with a 7-5 overall record and 6-2 in the Mountain West.
Utah State Fun Facts
This is Utah State’s Gary Anderson’s second stint with the Aggies. His first stint was 2009-2012. His fourth and final season the Aggies finished with 11 wins, a win in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, and a #16 ranking in the final AP poll. He was announced as the head coach to replace Bret Bielema at Wisconsin six days after the bowl game. On December 9, 2018, he returned to Utah State to replace Matt Wells, the coach who replaced him in 2012. Anderson had two stops after leaving Wisconsin. He was at Oregon State 2014-2017 and Utah for one season before landing back in Logan with the Aggies.
Tropical Smoothie Begins Sponsorship:
This is the first year as The Tropical Smoothie Café Frisco Bowl. In fact, this is only the 3rd year the Frisco bowl has been played. The first two seasons were sponsored by DXL. The first matchup was Louisiana Tech with a 51-10 victory over SMU and Ohio shut out San Diego State 27-0. Hopefully this year the game will be more evenly matched and give us something to get invested in on Friday night.
Kent State Getting Acclimated to this Bowl thing
This is Kent State’s 4th bowl game. Ever. Their bowl game appearances are very few and very far between. Their first appeared was in 1954 in the now-defunct Refrigerator Bowl. They made it to a bowl game again in 1972, The Tangerine Bowl which included players who names you may recognize. Gary Pinkel (former Missouri head football coach) and Nick Saban. They wouldn’t make it to a bowl game again for 40 years. Where they would play in the godaddy.com bowl after finishing the 2012 (double-check year) season 11-1 and ranked 25th in the AP poll. They have yet to record a bowl victory which should have them considerably fired up and ready play Friday night.
Players to watch
Five Players to watch for during the game: Utah State’s Jordan Love with NFL potential. He has 3,085 passing yards and 17 touchdown passes this season. While his wide receiver Siaosi Mariner has 874 yards in 56 catches for and eight touchdowns. On the defense Safety Shaq Bond leads the Aggie defense, he has three interceptions including a pick-six.
Meanwhile, Dustin Crum leads Kent State’s offense. Crum has 18 touchdown passes with 2,333 passing yards. Crum has just two INTs this season. Wide receiver Isaiah McKoy leads all receivers with 767 receiving yards, 51 catches, and seven touchdowns.
Final Word
First, Kent State won three consecutive games to end the season to get to bowl eligibility for the first time since 2012 and only the second time since 1972. However, there could be an element of just being happy to be there. Comparatively, Utah State is used to success over the last few years and will be the final game for Love which is one of the best quarterbacks in program history. Like most bowl games, mentality and interest is key. If Kent State is not just happy to be there this can be a competitive game into the fourth quarter.
