The 2019 Gasparilla Bowl was a

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

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

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. It was the 12th edition of the Gasparilla Bowl, 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 unincorporated Orange County, Florida near Orlando, Florida, Orlando. The Knights participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NC ...

of the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...

(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 memb ...

Conference USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas. Mem ...

(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 collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...

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 Gasparilla Bowl over

South Florida South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...

, 38–20.

Game summary

Statistics

Notes

References

External links

*
Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{Marshall Thundering Herd bowl game navbox Gasparilla Bowl Gasparilla Bowl Gasparilla Bowl Gasparilla Bowl Marshall Thundering Herd football bowl games UCF Knights football bowl games