The 2019 Gasparilla Bowl was a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

played on December 23, 2019, with kickoff at 2:30 p.m. EST on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. It was the 12th edition of the

Gasparilla Bowl The Gasparilla Bowl is an annual NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game played in the Tampa Bay area. It was first played in 2008 as the St. Petersburg Bowl at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. The game was renamed the G ...

, although only the third under that name, and one of the 2019–20 bowl games concluding the 2019 FBS football season. Sponsored by lawn mower manufacturing company Bad Boy Mowers, the game was officially known as the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl.

Teams

The game matched the

UCF Knights The UCF Knights are the sport, athletic teams that represent the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. The Knights participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I (NCAA Division I F ...

of the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

(The American) and the

Marshall Thundering Herd The Marshall Thundering Herd is the intercollegiate athletic collection of teams that collectively represent the Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Thundering Herd athletic teams compete in the Sun Belt Conference, which are membe ...

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

(C–USA). It was the fourth appearance in the Gasparilla Bowl for both teams (although their first Gasparilla Bowl against each other), leading all teams in Gasparilla Bowl appearances. It was the twelfth overall meeting between UCF and Marshall; entering the game, UCF led the all-time series, 8–3. From 2002 to 2012, UCF and Marshall were in the same conference; they both played in the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

from 2002 to 2004, then both joined C–USA in 2005 and played in that conference until UCF left to join The American in 2013.

UCF Knights

UCF entered the bowl with a 9–3 record (6–2 in conference), having finished in second place in the East Division of The American.

Marshall Thundering Herd

Marshall entered the game with an 8–4 record (6–2 in conference); they finished tied for second in the East Division of C–USA. The Thundering Herd were the defending Gasparilla Bowl champions, their 2018 team having won that season's

over

South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...

, 38–20.

Game summary

Statistics

Notes

References

External links

*
Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{Marshall Thundering Herd bowl game navbox

Gasparilla Bowl

Marshall Thundering Herd football bowl games UCF Knights football bowl games