Huskies Heading to St. Petersburg Bowl to Take On Marshall

[huskymedic]

http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/120615aab.html

>>The University of Connecticut has accepted an invitation to play in the 2015 St. Petersburg Bowl on Saturday, December 26 against Marshall University at Tropicana Field. The game will kickoff at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time and will be televised on ESPN.

Ticket and travel information for Husky fans will be announced later Sunday night and all bowl information is available at UConnBowl.com.

“The entire University of Connecticut Division of Athletics is excited and proud to accept an invitation in the 2015 St. Petersburg Bowl,” said UConn Director of Athletics. “Our football student-athletes and coaching staff have worked very hard this season and the results of those efforts have shown on the field. UConn Nation has a strong presence in Florida and we look forward to a strong showing of Husky fans at the game.”

“The UConn football family is very honored to be playing in the 2015 St. Petersburg Bowl,” said UConn head football coach Bob Diaco. “I am especially excited for our senior class, who are an outstanding group of young men and have worked so hard for this. I also want to congratulate Marshall on their selection to the bowl and on an excellent season. We look forward to the challenge of meeting an outstanding football program. I know our strong fan and alumni base in Florida will be supportive of the St. Petersburg Bowl and will make their presence known.” <<

 

[Dooley]

Two words: DONATE TICKETS!

Two more: GO HUSKIES!

 

[huskymedic]

http://stpetersburgbowl.com/

 

[ucjoet]

Two words: DONATE TICKETS!

Two more: GO HUSKIES!

Almost any other bowl ( minus Hawaii) would have worked for me., But having 18 people over for Christmas makes attending impossible. But as Dooley mentions above, if you can't make it buy and donate a few tickets. Go Huskies

 

[huskymedic]

UConnHuskies 3:43pm via Twitter Web Client
The Huskies are going bowling in Florida! @UConnFootball will play Marshall in the @StPeteBowl on 12.26.#BleedBlue

 

[huskymedic]

StPeteBowl 3:39pm via Twitter Web Client
It's official! @American_Conf@UConnHuskies vs @CUSAFB@HerdFB will battle for the @StPeteBowl trophy! #stpetebowl

 

[huskymedic]

 

[Redding Husky]

I hope we bring some fans, because if we don't it will feed into the unfair reputation we got from the Fiesta Bowl.

I've seen Marshall play at SMU. Even though it's about 1,200 miles away, Marshall had a big crowd in Dallas. They travel pretty well.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

Post Announcement Teleconference w/ HCBD notes:

desmondconner 4:18pm via TweetDeck
Diaco on bowl: Players are so excited and on fire...#UConnFootball

desmondconner 4:20pm via TweetDeck
Diaco: "we have finals week before bowl have to be cognizant players can do well on finals and finish strong, try to get 3 practices this wk

desmondconner 4:21pm via TweetDeck
Diaco said he would like to get down to#St. Pete Bowl a week before the Dec.26 game...#UConnFootball

Kendavis55 4:21pm via Twitter Web Client
#UConn coach Bob Diaco calls St. Pete Bowl, the "quintessenial bowl experience" with salt water, etc.

desmondconner 4:21pm via TweetDeck
Diaco: "timing has to be on. This is not a vacation we're working to win a football game" #UConnFootball

NeillOstrout 4:21pm via TweetDeck
Diaco: "It needs to be a fun time. You have to guard against it feeling like a grind."

NeillOstrout 4:23pm via TweetDeck
“There’s only two of the players on whole team that have ever been to a bowl. So it’s new for everybody. So that’s just an awesome thing."

desmondconner 4:24pm via TweetDeck
Only two players on #UConnFootballroster have been to a bowl and they both transferred in LBs G. Stewart (Florida) n E.J. Levenberry (FSU)

desmondconner 4:27pm via TweetDeck
Diaco said practice schedule this week is Tue, Thur and Sat and award show is Friday.

NHRJimFuller 4:28pm via TweetDeck
QB Bryant Shirreffs has been cleared to practice without restriction according to #UConn coach Bob Diaco

NeillOstrout 4:28pm via TweetDeck
Diaco says Shirreffs was not medically cleared to play against Temple.

desmondconner 4:31pm via TweetDeck
PR Brian Lemelle may be ready for #St. Pete, LB Matt Walsh, day to day but looking good, both lower body/leg/whatever

NHRJimFuller 4:32pm via TweetDeck
LB Matt Walsh (injured in Temple game) is day to day but #UConn coach Bob Diaco hoping that he (and WR Brian Lemelle) can play in bowl

Kendavis55 4:39pm via Twitter Web Client
#UConn and Marshall expected to receive payout of $537,500 per team for playing in St. Petersburg Bowl on Dec. 26

 

[Palatine]

I hope we bring some fans, because if we don't it will feed into the unfair reputation we got from the Fiesta Bowl.

I've seen Marshall play at SMU. Even though it's about 1,200 miles away, Marshall had a big crowd in Dallas. They travel pretty well.

W don't have any bad reputation from the Fiesta Bowl. The bowl was pleased and we brought a ton of people.

The only bad thing about the game was the way we played.

 

[Dooley]

Most important news of the press conference...

Jim Fuller ‏@NHRJimFuller 7s8 seconds ago
QB Bryant Shirreffs has been cleared to practice without restriction according to #UConn coach Bob Diaco

 

[Dooley]

Neill Ostrout ‏@NeillOstrout 14s15 seconds ago
Diaco says no new injuries. LB Matt Walsh "looking more and more like he’ll be able to go.”

 

[uconnfan68]

W don't have any bad reputation from the Fiesta Bowl. The bowl was pleased and we brought a ton of people.

The only bad thing about the game was the way we played.

Too bad the talking heads didn't get your memo. We are exhibit A of why the bowls should be "more selective", according to most of them. Never mind that we played a very good team, and hung with them for a while, despite some bad luck.

 

[TheDoggPound]

I meant to ask a while ago what happened to Ormsby. What was his injury?

 

[Redding Husky]

W don't have any bad reputation from the Fiesta Bowl. The bowl was pleased and we brought a ton of people.

The only bad thing about the game was the way we played.

I disagree. In Dallas, or on the other college websites, if you bring up UConn and bowls most people talk about us not showing up for the Fiesta Bowl (no fans). It's an unfair characterization for many reasons, but I still hear it.

As for the game, we were down 34-20 and we had the ball with 7 minutes left against Oklahoma. The game was competitive until we gave up two TD's in the last few minutes. I thought we played ok. The 48-20 score was misleading.

 

[huskymedic]

I meant to ask a while ago what happened to Ormsby. What was his injury?

"Lower extremity injury" back in October during Cincy game.

 

[TheDoggPound]

"Lower extremity injury" back in October

Thanks, Medic.

 

[uconnphil2016]

Two words: DONATE TICKETS!

Two more: GO HUSKIES!

Stupid question on my part, but I'm not really well versed on CFB finances and such--why is it so important to donate tickets? Who are we donating them to? Or is the purpose just to have bought up tickets regardless of whether or not anyone actually comes? Forgive my ignorance

 

[Dooley]

Stupid question on my part, but I'm not really well versed on CFB finances and such--why is it so important to donate tickets? Who are we donating them to? Or is the purpose just to have bought up tickets regardless of whether or not anyone actually comes? Forgive my ignorance

One of the metrics used for future bowl selection invites (and maybe power conference invite) is how many tickets did the school sell. For example, UConn only sold 2700 or so to the Fiesta and have been hammered by national morons for it..."UConn has a small fanbase", "UConn fans don't travel", etc. Most fans went to the game through StubHub but because there is really no way to tell just how many fans UConn brought to the Fiesta, UConn earned this ridiculous reputation that they had 3000 fans at the Fiesta.

The more tickets the school sells, the better the reputation that it has a full, supportive fanbase and will get invited to future bowls. It didn't materialize this year, but if there were too many 6 win teams for the bowl lineup, some 6 win teams would not get invited to bowls. Case in point: Temple last year. Their fan reputation is horrendous and didn't get an invite as a good 6-6 team. Bowls are trying to sell tickets first and create a good, competitive game second. The better the reputation UConn has, the better it is for its bowl (and maybe CR) future.

 

[huskymedic]

Marshall Official website:http://www.herdzone.com/index-main.html

Official Twitter account of Marshall Athletics. https://twitter.com/HerdZone

Marshall Football Twitter: @HerdFB

 

[junglehusky]

Stupid question on my part, but I'm not really well versed on CFB finances and such--why is it so important to donate tickets? Who are we donating them to? Or is the purpose just to have bought up tickets regardless of whether or not anyone actually comes? Forgive my ignorance

What Dooley said. Just as a side note, with the Fiesta bowl ticket prices were set pretty high and the school wanted you to buy hotel rooms since they were obligated to sell x number of packages. Fans did the sensible thing which was to look on the secondary market. Incidentally, the Fiesta bowl chairman was later investigated and convicted for improper funneling of campaign contributions and cushy perks.

There may be some media types who ding UConn for not travelling but I don't think it's as damaging to our reputation as some here make it out to be. It's annoying, yeah. But the goal for the program should probably be to add butts in seats at the Rent, those are the people who will travel to bowl games in the future. Just not this year on the day after Christmas.

 

[huskymedic]

DowntownHWV 3:48pm via Twitter Web Client
IT'S OFFICIAL: @HerdFB to take on @UConnFootball in the St. Petersburg Bowl on Dec. 26!! #HerdNation#BeatUCONN

 

[huskymedic]

Bowl season is a brave new world for UConn players
http://runwayramblings.blogspot.com/2015/12/bowl-season-is-brave-new-world-for.html

 

[uconnphil2016]

One of the metrics used for future bowl selection invites (and maybe power conference invite) is how many tickets did the school sell. For example, UConn only sold 2700 or so to the Fiesta and have been hammered by national morons for it..."UConn has a small fanbase", "UConn fans don't travel", etc. Most fans went to the game through StubHub but because there is really no way to tell just how many fans UConn brought to the Fiesta, UConn earned this ridiculous reputation that they had 3000 fans at the Fiesta.

The more tickets the school sells, the better the reputation that it has a full, supportive fanbase and will get invited to future bowls. It didn't materialize this year, but if there were too many 6 win teams for the bowl lineup, some 6 win teams would not get invited to bowls. Case in point: Temple last year. Their fan reputation is horrendous and didn't get an invite as a good 6-6 team. Bowls are trying to sell tickets first and create a good, competitive game second. The better the reputation UConn has, the better it is for its bowl (and maybe CR) future.

Okay great, thanks for clearing that up. Definitely an odd/interesting metric to use to measure fan support, especially considering that UConn is notorious for providing really poor offers/accommodations to students looking to travel to bowls/NCAA tourney. Seems like just as we make a more concerted effort to buy up tix/travel, the low numbers are also a result of poor planning and accommodation on behalf of the administration. Yes?