Boca Raton Bowl 2019 - FAU vs SMU - FAU Stadium 3:30pm Dec 21, 2019
SMU is South Florida bound for the second time this season, earning a bid in the Cheribundi Boca Raton Bowl against Florida Atlantic out of Conference USA, the school announced Sunday afternoon. The matchup between the two 10-win teams will take place on Dec. 21 in FAU Stadium at 3:30 p.m. ET with ABC set to broadcast the game to a national audience. The Mustangs capped their second season with Sonny Dykes at the helm with a 37-20 win over Tulane in the regular season finale in Gerald. J. Ford Stadium. SMU's 10-2 record on the year was short of an American Athletic Conference Championship game appearance, losing to Memphis and Navy by a touchdown in each contest. The Owls meanwhile have had an eventful week with head coach Lane Kiffin accepting the head coaching job at Ole Miss on Saturday evening. It's unclear if Kiffin will lead FAU in the game, but he departs having brought a Conference USA Championship to FAU with a 49-6 win over UAB in the title game on Saturday. The Boca Raton Bowl is an annual National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sanctioned post-season Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football bowl game played in Boca Raton, Florida, since December 2014 at FAU Stadium on the campus of Florida Atlantic University. Since 2017, the game has been sponsored by the New York-based beverage company Cheribundi and for sponsorship reasons was the Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl that year; it has been the Cheribundi Boca Raton Bowl since 2018. Willie Taggart will become the next head coach at Florida Atlantic, the school announced Wednesday night. Last month, Taggart was fired by Florida State after just 21 games, where he went 9–12. He went 7–5 as the head coach of Oregon in 2017. He also previously coached at Western Kentucky from 2010 to 2012 and South Florida from 2013 to 2016. The coaching vacancy at Florida Atlantic opened up after Lane Kiffin left for Ole Miss. The Owls have a 10–3 record in 2019, including winning the C-USA championship over UAB last weekend. They're scheduled to play in the Boca Raton Bowl against SMU on Dec. 21.
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