TAMPA, Fla. — University of South Florida football will make its second-straight bowl appearance under second-year head coach Alex Golesh at the Hawai‘i Bowl in Honolulu, Hawai’i on Tuesday, Dec. 24.
The Bulls (6-6; 4-4 American) will take on San Jose State (7-5; 3-4 MWC) out of the Mountain West Conference in the 21st edition of the Hawai‘i Bowl set for a Christmas Eve kick at 8 p.m. ET (3 p.m. HT) from the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex on the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa campus. The game will be televised by ESPN.
The 16,909-seat Ching Athletics Complex, the home stadium for the University of Hawaii, will play host to the Hawai‘i Bowl for the third consecutive year. Last season, Coastal Carolina defeated San Jose State, 24-14.
“We are excited for the opportunity to compete in the Hawai‘i Bowl against a very good San Jose State team,” Golesh said. “Hawai‘i is a unique and beautiful destination that our players are excited to experience, and we look forward to productive bowl practices and a great game as we continue to build our program.”
It will mark the 10th different bowl destination for the Bulls and the sixth different state or province (the Bulls played one bowl in Canada) for USF to compete in a bowl game. The second meeting ever with San Jose State will mark USF’s first-ever game in Hawai‘i and, at over 4,200 miles from Tampa, the farthest destination the Bulls have ever played away from home. USF won at San Jose State 42-22 in the first game of the 2017 season in the first meeting between the programs.
USF won four of its last six games to close the 2024 regular season. The Bulls have won seven of their previous 11 bowl appearances, including three of the last four and a 45-0 victory over Syracuse in the 2023 Boca Raton Bowl. USF’s 12 bowl appearances in its first 24 FBS seasons mark the fourth-most for any program since 1980. San Jose State will mark the first Mountain West Conference opponent for the Bulls in a bowl game. USF is 2-2 all-time vs. the conference.
San Jose State posted a 34-31 victory at home over Stanford to close the regular season, winning two of their four games in November. The Spartans are led by head coach Ken Niumatalolo in his first season. Niumatalolo is the former head coach at Navy and faced the Bulls three times (2015, 2016 & 2019) while leading the Midshipmen. San Jose State will be making its 14th bowl appearance and is 7-6 in bowl games, but has lost its last three in 2020, 2022 and 2023. USF will mark the first American Athletic Conference opponent for the Spartans in a bowl game.
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