The 2022 LA 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 17, 2022, at SoFi Stadium in

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay ...

. The second annual LA Bowl, the game featured Fresno State from the Mountain West Conference and

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

from the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

. The game began at 12:37 p.m. PST and aired on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

. It was one of the 2022–23 bowl games concluding the 2022 FBS football season. Sponsored by late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel and independent investment bank

Stifel Stifel Financial Corp. is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company created under its present name in July 1983 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange on November 24, 1986. Its predecessor company wa ...

, the game was officially known as the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl presented by Stifel.

Teams

The LA Bowl featured the

Washington State Cougars The Washington State Cougars (known informally as the Cougs) are the athletic teams that represent Washington State University. Located in Pullman, Washington, WSU is a member of the Pac-12 Conference in NCAA Division I. The athletic program co ...

from the

and the Fresno State from the Mountain West Conference. This was the fifth meeting between Washington State and Fresno State, and Washington State entered the game leading the series three games to one. They first met in the 1987 season-opener, with Washington State winning 41–24; their last meeting came on September 10, 1994, in Pullman, with the Cougars winning 24–3. Washington State made their 18th bowl appearance, with an 8–9 record in prior games. Their last bowl appearance came in the

2021 Sun Bowl The 2021 Sun Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 31, 2021, with kickoff at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time Zone, EST (10:00 a.m. local Mountain Time Zone, MST) and televised on SEC on CBS, CBS. It was the 87th edition of the ...

. Fresno State, whose last bowl game was the

2021 New Mexico Bowl The 2021 New Mexico Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 18, 2021, with kickoff at 2:15 p.m. EST (12:15 p.m. local MST) on ESPN. It was the 16th edition of the New Mexico Bowl, and was one of the 2021–22 bowl ga ...

, made their 30th bowl appearance, with a prior record of 15–14. Both teams made their first LA Bowl appearance.

Washington State

Jake Dickert Jacob Dickert (born August 23, 1983) is an American college football coach. He is the head coach at Washington State University. Prior to this, he served as defensive coordinator in Pullman, beginning in 2020. Dickert attended school and played f ...

's second season at Washington State began with a rivalry matchup with

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

, which the Cougars won by a touchdown. They earned another win the following week with an upset of No. 19

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, and improved to 3–0 by beating

Colorado State Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

the next game. Their first loss of the season came in their Pac-12 opener, played at home against No. 15

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, After defeating

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

for

homecoming Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni or other former members of an organization to celebrate the organization's existence. It is a tradition in many high schools, colleges, and churches in the United States, Canada and Liberia. ...

, the Cougars entered a three-game losing skid that started with a road contest at No. 6

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

, which Washington State lost by sixteen points. They then fell to Oregon State for the first time in eight games, and the third of their three consecutive losses came at home to No. 14

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

by four points. Now 4–4, the Cougars turned the tides and went on a three game winning streak, starting with a dominant road win over

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

and continuing at home against Arizona State, a win that earned the Cougars bowl eligibility. Their season's seventh win came the following Saturday at

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

by eleven points, though they finished the campaign with a home loss in the Apple Cup to rivals No. 13

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. The Cougars entered the game with a record of 7–5 and a conference mark of 4–5. Linebacker

Daiyan Henley Daiyan Henley (born November 18, 1999) is an American football linebacker for the Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Nevada and Washington State. Early life Henley was born on November 18, ...

, who was named first-team all-Pac-12 on December 6, announced three days later that he would opt out of playing in the bowl game, with Dickert saying that Henley would serve as an assistant linebackers coach instead.

Fresno State

Fresno State kicked off their 2022 season with a home win against in-state FCS opponents Cal Poly, a four-touchdown win for the Bulldogs. Their first loss came the following week, as the Bulldogs fell at home by three points to Oregon State. A three-game road stretch followed, as the Bulldogs traveled to No. 7

and lost by four touchdowns, before falling by five points at UConn and dropping a rivalry matchup 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 ...

by twenty. The Bulldogs put a stop to the losing streak with a homecoming victory over San Jose State, and won their first road game with a 41–9 showing against

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

the next week. Two

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

s in the final 69 seconds of the Bulldogs' next game against

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 ...

earned them a come-from-behind win that brought them back up to .500. Fresno State kept up their good form with a rout of

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 ...

to begin November, and followed that up with a pair of road wins over

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

, by seven points, and

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, by 27 points; the latter won them the MWC West Division title. The Bulldogs won their final regular season contest at home against

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

in a

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

, and faced Mountain Division champions Boise State in a rematch in the Mountain West Championship the next week. In their second game this season against the Broncos, Fresno State got the win by twelve points, earning them the conference championship. The Bulldogs entered the bowl game on an eight-game winning streak, with an overall record of 9–4 and a conference mark of 7–1. The day following the conference championship, a pair of Bulldogs defenders–cornerback Cale Sanders and nickelback Emari Pait—entered the transfer portal rather than opting to play in the bowl game. A week later, wide receiver Josh Kelly announced that he was entering the transfer portal as well.

Game summary

The game's officiating crew, representing the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

, was led by referee Lee Hedrick and umpire Michael Moten.

Statistics

References