ECU To Meet USF In Inaugural Papajohns.com Bowl
December 03, 2006 | Football
Dec. 3, 2006
GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina and USF will meet in the inaugural Papajohns.com Bowl at historic Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday, Dec. 23. The game, which will be televised by ESPN2, has a 1:00 p.m. EST kickoff.
"We are certainly looking forward to having the opportunity and challenge of playing an opponent the caliber of USF," ECU Head Coach Skip Holtz said. "We have great respect for their program, especially the way they compete at a high level in a BCS conference like the Big East. This matchup will also present us with another chance to see how far we have progressed as a program in two years."
This will mark the fourth meeting between the two former Conference USA schools, with USF holding a 3-0 advantage picking up wins from 2002-04.
The Pirates (7-5, 5-3 Conference USA) will be making their 13th bowl appearance in program history, seventh since 1990 and first since facing off against Marshall in the 2001 GMAC Bowl.
East Carolina is 7-5 all-time in its bowl history and has split its last six contests. Bowl wins during that span for the Pirates include a 37-34 win over North Carolina State in the 1992 Peach Bowl (Atlanta, Ga.), a 19-13 victory against Stanford in the 1995 St. Jude Liberty Bowl (Memphis, Tenn.) and a 40-27 decision over Texas Tech in the 2000 galleryfurniture.com Bowl (Houston, Texas).
The Bulls (8-4, 4-3 Big East), who are headed to their second consecutive bowl, closed out the regular season with a road win over nationally-ranked West Virginia, 24-19, before 52,790 fans.
USF started playing football in 1997 and moved to Division I-A in 2001. The Bulls joined the BIG EAST Conference in 2005 and played in their first-ever bowl game that same season against North Carolina State falling 14-0 in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.
