Second 2018 DXL Frisco Bowl Notes

NEWS & UPDATES
Dec 20, 2018 | THE FRISCO BOWL

Second 2018 DXL Frisco Bowl Notes

Second 2018 DXL Frisco Bowl Notes – Dec. 19, 2018 – Frisco, Texas – Toyota Stadium

Final Score: Ohio 27, San Diego State 0

General Notes

Ohio wins the first ever game between the schools and takes a 1-0 series advantage. The two opponents tonight have played a combined 223 seasons on the gridiron and 2,125 all-time games.

The Bobcats are 3-9 in their 12thall-time bowl appearance while the Aztec are 8-9 in bowls. This is the Bobcats first shutout win in a bowl and first overall since blanking Hampton 59-0 in 2017.

Ohio is 572-559-48 (.506 winning percentage) all-time over 125 seasons.

San Diego State is now 509-404-32 (.556) all-time for 98 seasons.

Bobcats head coach Frank Solich is 106-75 (15 seasons) at Ohio and 164-94 (21 years, including six as head coach at Nebraska from 1998-2003) overall. Solich also was a standout 145-pound fullback (not a typo; he once put weights in his thigh pads to add a few pounds for his game roster weight recognition) at Nebraska from 1963-65 where the I-back on those teams was Larry Frost, father of current Huskers head coach Scott Frost. Solich is the third-longest tenured head coach in NCAA FBS, and the Bobcats are the only program in the NCAA to have had the same head coach, offensive and defensive coordinatorsover the last 14 seasons.

Aztecs head coach Rocky Long is 71-35 (eight seasons) with SDSU and 136-104 (19 years) overall with a 11-year tenure as head coach at New Mexico where he starred at quarterback from 1969-71. He is the winningest head coach in Mountain West Conference annals and was the first head coach (18thHC in school history) in SDSU annals to lead the Aztecs to a bowl contest in his first season. Long also is the winningest coach in UNM history with 65 triumphs from 1998-2008. He also is no stranger to football in Texas as defensive backs coach at TCU under the late Jim Wacker from 1988-90.

Both coaches Solich and Long rank among the Top 15 among active NCAA FBS coaches in total victories with a combined 300 overall wins during 40 years as college head coaches. The two head coaches also are among the most experienced in FBS with a combined age of 142 – Solich (74) and Long (68).

The Bobcats are 1-1 in bowl games played within the state of Texas while the Aztecs are 0-2 after making their first postseason appearance in Texas in 2017 with a 42-35 squeaker against Army West Point across the DFW Metroplex in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl. Ohio played its first postseason clash in 1962 at the El Paso, Texas, Sun Bowl and fell 15-14 to West Texas A&M.

Mid-American Conference schools are now 1-2 in post-2018 bowl contests while Mountain West Conference schools are a composite 2-1.

MAC teams are 44-70 all-time in bowl games since the league was formed in 1947 while MWC squads are 54-42 in bowls since the conference began play in 1999.

The MAC is now 7-19 in all bowl games over the last five seasons while MWC members are a composite 16-15 in postseason encounters since 2014.

The MAC is 20-33 against non-conference opponents (including bowls) in 2018 while the MWC is 30-23 vs. outside foes this year. The two conferences had 14 total schools, which reached necessary FBS bowl qualification with six victories, and 12 composite bowl bids.

San Diego State is 13-1-1 historically against seven different opponents from the MAC since 1965.

This is the third of six bowl games for both MAC and MWC teams in the 2018 postseason.

Ohio has been a member of the MAC since 1947 while SDSU joined the Mountain West Conference in 2000 after previously being in the Pacific Coast Athletic Association from 1969-78 and the Western Athletic Conference from 1979-99 in football.

The three games of the Miami Beach Bowl (predecessor of the DXL Frisco Bowl) had these results:

Dec. 22, 2014 – Memphis 55 BYU 48, 20,761 attendance

Dec. 21, 2015 – WKU 45 USF 35, 21,712

Dec. 19, 2016 – Tulsa 55 Central Michigan 10, 15,262

The first DXL Frisco Bowl was a 51-10 win by Louisiana Tech (Conference USA) over SMU (American Athletic Conference) at Toyota Stadium on Dec. 20, 2017. This is the first collegiate game shutout in 10 games (eight FCS championships and two DXL Frisco Bowls) at Toyota Stadium.

Previous and 2018 MVPs have been:

2014 Paxton Lynch Memphis QB

2015 Brandon Doughty WKU QB

2016 Dane Evans Tulsa QB

2017 J’Mar Smith La. Tech (offense); Amik Robertson La. Tech (defense)

2018 A.J. Ouellette, Ohio (offense); Evan Croutch, Ohio (defense)

Conference Records in 2018-19 Bowls (7 Bowls Total) – Through Dec. 19 (tonight)

AAC 1-0ACC 0-0Big Ten 0-0Big 12 0-0C-USA 1-2Independents 0-0MAC 1-2MWC 2-1Pac-12 0-1SEC 0-0Sun Belt 2-1The Dec. 20 bowl is the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl, Marshall at USF, Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Fla, 8 p.m., ESPN

Total 2018-19 Attendance 7 Total Bowls: 157,164, average: 22,452. Tonight’s attendance was 11,029.

Ohio downed 2018 Conference USA champion UAB 41-6 to cap off a 9-4 seasion in 2017. The Bobcats also returned 15 starters from that team with eight on offense, four on defense and three specialists. Tonight’s projected starting lineup with specialists included 11 seniors, five juniors, seven sophomores, and one freshman.

The Aztecs opened with eight seniors, 10 juniors, five sophomores, and two freshmen, including specialists.

The Bobcats began the season with the same offensive and defensive coordinators since 2005 and sported new assistant coaches Bart Miller (offensive line) and Tremayne Scott (defensive tackles).

SDSU now has the 18th-best winning percentage in FBS since 2010 at .677.

The Aztecs are second among FBS teams from the state of California since the start of the 2010 season with their .677 winning percentage – behind Stanford at .775 and ahead of No. 3 Southern California at .661.

SDSU is one of only seven NCAA FBS schools with a least 10 wins in each season from 2015-17. The others were Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Wisconsin. Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, and Oklahoma extended that 10-win minimum through their 2018 campaigns. The Aztecs also are 12thamong NCAA FBS members with their ninth consecutive bowl trek tonight. The two schools in the 2018 DXL Frisco Bowl have combined for 18 bowl appearances in the last 20 seasons with Ohio going bowling nine times in the last 10 years.

Last year’s DXL Frisco Bowl was the first NCAA FBS game ever played in Frisco, Texas, or Toyota Stadium, though Texas Tech held its 2017 and ’18 spring intrasquad games some eight miles north of this stadium at the indoor venue The Star at Ford Center in Frisco. Toyota Stadium has been host for the NCAA Division I football championship contest annually since 2010.

San Diego State was shut out in the first half tonight for the first time since October 2017 against Boise State – a span of 19 games. Ohio has scored in the first quarter of 11 of its 13 skirmishes in 2018.