Ohio Sports Information

ATHENS, Ohio — The Ohio football team (8-4, 6-2 MAC) has accepted an invitation to play in the DXL Frisco Bowl against Mountain West Conference foe San Diego State (7-5, 4-4 MWC). The game will be played on Wednesday, Dec. 19, at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.

Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET, and the contest will be nationally televised on ESPN. The game can also be heard on the radio on the Ohio IMG Sports Network, with “Voice of the Bobcats” Russ Eisenstein and Rob Cornelius on the call.

The Frisco Bowl is owned and operated by ESPN Events, a division of ESPN. The Frisco Bowl’s mission is to deliver the highest quality post season college football experience for our student-athletes, teams, fans, attendees, and stakeholders, while showcasing the positive sports-centric climate of the community. Toyota Stadium is the home of the MLS team FC Dallas and host to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Championship since 2010. It has a capacity of 17,200.

The Bobcats are making their 12th bowl appearance in program history, 10th in the last 13 years and fourth in a row. Ohio has won three bowl games in its history, defeating Utah State, 24-23, in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in 2011, knocking off ULM, 45-14, in the Advocare V100 Independence Bowl in ’12 and rolling to a 41-6 win over UAB in the Bahamas Bowl last year.

The DXL Frisco Bowl will mark Ohio’s first postseason matchup against a team out of the Mountain West Conference and will mark the first-ever meeting between the Bobcats and the Aztecs. Utah State is currently a member of the MWC but was a member of the Western Athletic Conference when the Bobcats beat them in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in 2011.

The 2018 regular season saw Ohio win at least eight games for the ninth time under 14-year head coach Frank Solich, who has gone 105-75 (.583) during his tenure in Athens. The Bobcats won at least six conference games for the eighth time in the last 13 years. Ohio went a perfect 6-0 in its home games at Peden Stadium this year, marking the first time the Bobcats won all of their home games in a season since 1968.

The Bobcats placed nine student-athletes on the 2018 All-Mid-American Conference Awards list, which was announced last Wednesday (Nov. 28). Redshirt senior offensive lineman Joe Anderson (Torrance, Calif.), redshirt junior punter kicker Michael Farkas (Mishawaka, Ind.), redshirt junior defensive back Javon Hagan (Jacksonville, Fla.), redshirt senior offensive lineman Joe Lowery (Tallmadge, Ohio), redshirt senior running back A.J. Ouellette (Covington, Ohio) and redshirt senior wide receiver Papi White (Seminole, Okla.) all garnered All-MAC First Team selection. Senior linebacker Evan Croutch (Youngstown, Ohio), junior quarterback Nathan Rourke (Oakville, Ontario, Canada) and redshirt senior offensive lineman Durrell Wood (Columbus, Ohio) represented the Bobcats on the All-MAC Second Team.

The Aztecs are making their ninth-straight bowl game appearance. San Diego State will enter the DXL Frisco Bowl having lost their final three regular season games, but their year was highlighted by wins over a pair of ranked teams, defeating then-No. 23/25-ranked Arizona State, 28-21, on Sept. 15 and topping then-No. 24-ranked Boise State, 19-13, on Oct. 6.

The Aztecs faced a MAC team this season, defeating Eastern Michigan, 23-20, in overtime on Sept. 22. San Diego State is led by Rocky Long, who has been the head coach of the Aztecs since 2011. The Aztecs boast two All-Mountain West First Team selections in sophomore offensive lineman Keith Ismael and junior linebacker Kyahva Tezino. Senior offensive lineman Ryan Pope, senior placekicker John Baron II and sophomore defensive back Tariq Thompson all earned spots on the All-Mountain West Second Team.