The 2019 Hawaii 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 24, 2019, with kickoff at 8:00 p.m. EST (3:00 p.m. local HST) 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 18th edition of the

Hawaii Bowl The Hawaiʻi Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played in the Honolulu, Hawaii area since 2002. The game was originally held at Aloha Stadium in Halawa, Hawaii, a suburb of Honolulu, before moving to the Clarence T. C. Ching Athle ...

, and was one of the 2019–20 bowl games concluding the 2019 FBS football season. Sponsored by the

SoFi Sofi may refer to: *Sofi (mascot), the Mascot for 2010 ISF Women's World Championship *Sofi Marinova (born 1975), Bulgarian singer SOFI may refer to: *Swedish Institute for Language and Folklore * Spray-On Foam Insulation, used on the Space Shutt ...

personal finance company, the game was officially known as the SoFi Hawaii Bowl.

Teams

The game was played between

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

of the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

, and

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

, an FBS independent. This was the 32nd meeting in this rivalry that dates back to 1930, and first in the postseason. Both teams were previously members of the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

; BYU from 1962 to 1998, and Hawaii from 1979 to 2011. BYU led the rivalry series, 23–8.

Hawaii Rainbow Warriors

Hawaii entered the bowl with a 9–5 record (5–3 in conference). The Rainbow Warriors finished atop the West Division of the Mountain West Conference, with the same conference win–loss record as

San Diego State San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

, whom they defeated during the regular season. Hawaii accepted their bowl invitation following their loss to

Boise State Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees It became a publ ...

in the

Mountain West Conference Football Championship Game The Mountain West Conference Football Championship Game is an annual postseason college football game played to determine the champion of the Mountain West Conference (MW). History From 1999 to 2012, the champion of the Mountain West was determi ...

. This was their third Hawaii Bowl appearance under head coach

Nick Rolovich Nicholas Robert Rolovich ( ; born February 16, 1979) is an American football coach and former player, who was most recently the head football coach at Washington State University (WSU). Rolovich majored in economics at the University of Hawaii, ...

, having won in 2016 and lost in 2018. Overall, this was the 13th bowl game for Hawaii (ninth Hawaii Bowl), with a prior record of 6–6 (4–4 in prior Hawaii Bowls).

BYU Cougars

BYU entered the bowl with a 7–5 record, having started the season 2–4, then winning five consecutive games, and losing to San Diego State in their regular season finale. Led by head coach

Kalani Sitake Kelaokalani Fifita "Kalani" Sitake (born October 10, 1975) is a Tongan–American football coach and former player. He has been the head football coach at Brigham Young University (BYU) since December 2015, and is the first Tongan to become a ...

, the Cougars accepted an invitation to the Hawaii Bowl on November 16. This was BYU's first

appearance, and their second postseason game in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

; they played in the

1992 Aloha Bowl The 1992 Aloha Bowl was played on December 25, 1992, at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii. 1992 Kansas Jayhawks football team, Kansas earned its first bowl win in 31 years over an 8-4 1992 BYU Cougars football team, BYU team led by reserve quarter ...

, where they fell to

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

by three points.

Game summary

Statistics

Notes

References

External links

*
Game program
via issuu.com
Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{BYU Cougars bowl game navbox

Hawaii Bowl

BYU Cougars football bowl games Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football bowl games 2010s in Honolulu