The 2019 Music City 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 30, 2019, with kickoff at 4:00 p.m. EST (3:00 p.m. local CDT) 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 ...

. The 22nd edition of the

Music City Bowl The Music City Bowl is a post-season American college football bowl game certified by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA that has been played in Nashville, Tennessee, since 1998 in sports, 1998. Since 2020, it has been sponsored by ...

featured

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

member

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi, United States. It is classified among "R ...

and

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

member

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

, and was one of the 2019–20 bowl games concluding the 2019 FBS football season. Sponsored by the Franklin American Mortgage Company, the game was officially known as the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl.

Teams

The 2019 Music City Bowl was contested by the

Mississippi State Bulldogs Mississippi State Bulldogs is the name given to the college athletics, athletic teams of Mississippi State University, in Mississippi State, Mississippi. The university is a founding member of the Southeastern Conference and competes in NCAA D ...

and the

Louisville Cardinals The Louisville Cardinals (also known as the Cards) are the NCAA athletic teams representing the University of Louisville. The Cardinals teams play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, beginning in the 2014 season. While playing in the Big East Co ...

. The teams had met five times previously, with Mississippi State holding a 3–2 edge in the series. Louisville's two wins came via forfeit, as the Bulldogs were forced to forfeit all their wins in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

and

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

for fielding a player who was later ruled ineligible. The teams had last met in the

2017 TaxSlayer Bowl The 2017 TaxSlayer Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game played on December 31, 2017, at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida. The 73rd edition of the Gator Bowl featured the Louisville Cardinals The Louisville Card ...

, won by the Bulldogs, 31–27.

Mississippi State Bulldogs

The Bulldogs entered the bowl with a 6–6 record (3–5 in conference); they finished in fifth place of the SEC's West Division. This was Mississippi State's second Music City Bowl; their 2011 team won that season's

over Wake Forest, 23–17. This was the 10th consecutive bowl appearance for the Bulldogs, dating back to their 2010 season. This was Mississippi State's 23rd overall bowl game in program history. Head coach

Joe Moorhead Joe Moorhead (born November 2, 1973) is an American college football coach and former player. He is the head football coach for the University of Akron, a position he has held since 2022. Moorhead served as the head football coach at Fordham Univ ...

had initially named true freshman

Garrett Shrader Garrett Michael Shrader (born August 5, 2000) is an American professional football quarterback who is a free agent. He played college football for the Mississippi State Bulldogs before transferring to the Syracuse Orange after two years. Early l ...

the starting quarterback for the game, but he was injured prior to the game, resulting in

Tommy Stevens Thomas Mason Stevens (born December 15, 1996) is an American professional football quarterback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football at Mississippi State and was drafted by the New Or ...

(a graduate transfer from Penn State) getting the start.

Louisville Cardinals

Louisville entered the bowl with a 7–5 record (5–3 in conference), including an upset win against No. 19 Wake Forest by three points on October 12. The Cardinals finished in second place in the ACC's Atlantic Division. This was Louisville's second Music City Bowl; their 2015 team won that season's

over

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

, 27–21. This was the first bowl game for the Cardinals since 2017, and the 23rd overall bowl game for the program.

Game summary

Statistics

References

External links

*
Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{Louisville Cardinals bowl game navbox

Music City Bowl

Mississippi State Bulldogs football bowl games Louisville Cardinals football bowl games 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee