HAWAI'I BOWL
SOUTH FLORIDA vs. SAN JOSE STATE
Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex | (15,194/AstroTurf)
Honolulu, Hawaii
Television
ESPN
Tiffany Greene, Jay Walker and Marilyn Payne
Live Statistics
StatBroadcast
THE GAME
The Hawai'i Bowl has been held in the Honolulu area since 2002, when it began at Aloha Stadium … The game moved to the Clarrence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex in 2022 … The game has been a fixture on Christmas Eve for much of its existence … The American Athletic Conference has had two teams play in the Hawai’i Bowl and is looking for its first win in the game … Memphis was slated to play in the 2020 game, which was canceled … South Florida is making its first appearance in the Hawai’i Bowl, while San Jose State plays in the game for the second time … The teams have one prior meeting on the ledger, a 42-22 South Florida win in San Jose to start the 2017 season.
SOUTH FLORIDA
6-6, 4-4 American
Head Coach
Alex Golesh (Ohio State ’06)
13-12, second season
South Florida is making its 12th bowl appearance and its first trip to the Hawaii Bowl after the Bulls went 6-6 overall and 4-4 in The American under second-year head coach Alex Golesh … The game in Honolulu will mark the farthest destination from Tampa for a South Florida football game in program history … South Florida has gone 7-4 in its 11 previous bowl appearances, including a 45-0 win against Syracuse in last year’s Boca Raton Bowl … The Bulls went 4-2 down the stretch to clinch bowl eligibility in 2024 … Golesh has registered 13 wins in his first two years at South Florida after the Bulls had four total wins in the three previous years … South Florida ranks fifth nationally in tackles for loss, averaging 9.3 per game, and has 12 fumble recoveries, which stands at fourth nationally … The Bulls are 12-0 under Golesh when leading after three quarters … QB Bryce Archie has started the last seven games and has thrown for 1,679 yards and nine touchdowns with nine interceptions … Archie took over as the starter after QB Byrum Brown was injured in the second half against Tulane Sept. 28 and has not returned to action since … RB Kelley Joiner Jr. has 766 rushing yards with 11 touchdowns, ,while RB Nay’Quan Wright has 494 yards with seven TDs … WR Sean Atkins has 68 receptions for 677 yards and two touchdowns and enters the bowl game with school-record 189 career receptions … WR Michael Brown-Stephens leads the team with four touchdown receptions … The defense is led by DE Decarius Hawthorne, who earned second-team all-conference honors after he had 9.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks in the regular season … LB Mac Harris has a team high 74 tackles with 4.0 sacks and 10.0 tackles for loss to go with two forced fumbles … LB Jhalyn Shuler leads the Bulls with two interceptions along with three forced fumbles … P Andrew Stokes was South Florida’s lone representative on the American Athletic Conference first team … Stokes averages 44.8 yards per punt and has 16 punts of at least 50 yards this season … K John Cannon has handled most of the placekicking duties, going 9-for-13 on field goal attempts, while K Nico Gramatica is the long-distance specialist with three field goals of at least 50 yards.
SAN JOSE STATE
7-5, 3-4 Mountain West
Head Coach
Ken Niumatalolo (Hawaii ’89)
7-5, first season at San Jose State
116-88, 16th season as collegiate head coach
San Jose State is bowl eligible for the third consecutive season and will play in Bowl Season for the fourth time in the last five years … The Spartans will make their 14th bowl appearance in program history and have gone 7-6 in their first 13 bowls … San Jose State’s last bowl win was a 27-16 victory against Georgia Sate in the 2015 Cure Bowl … The Spartans are looking for their first eight-win season since 2012 … Head coach Ken Niumatalolo is no stranger to American Athletic Conference opponents, with 52 wins in The American as Navy’s coach between 2015-22 … Niumatalolo’s seven wins are the most by a first-year San Jose State coach since Ron Turner won seven games in 1992 … Niumatalolo, who notably ran the triple-option offense at Navy, comes into the Hawaii Bowl with the nation’s fifth-ranked passing offense at San Jose State … The Spartans have averaged 325.3 passing yards per game … The top player for San Jose State in the regular season was WR Nick Nash, a unanimous NCAA Consensus All-America selection who led all FBS players in receptions (104), receiving yards (1,382) and touchdown receptions (16) … Nash has opted out of the Hawaii Bowl, however, to prepare for the NFL Draft … QB Walker Eget finished the regular season by throwing for 385 yards in and four touchdowns in the win against Stanford and has passed for 2,224 yards and 11 touchdowns … Emmett Brown, a transfer from Washington State. has completed 125 of 217 passes for 1,621 yards with 16 touchdowns against five interceptions … RB Floyd Chalk is the leading rusher with 661 yards and nine touchdowns on 139 carries … With Nash’s absence, WR Justin Lockhart, himself a first-team All-Mountain West selection, becomes the primary receiver … Lockhart has 52 receptions for 973 yards and five touchdowns … The defense is led by LB Jordan Pollard, who has 110 tackles and 12.0 tackles for loss … DE Soane Toia has a team-high 4.5 sacks, while CB DJ Harvey leads the Spartans with four interceptions … Pollard and Toia both earned first-team honors from the Mountain West coaches, while Harvey and S Rocket Rahimi were second-team choices.