Big 12 Football: Gasparilla Bowl Preview - UCF vs. Georgia Tech
"It's the most wonderful time of the year, with bowl teams footballing and everyone telling you to be of good cheer; it's the most wonderful time of the year."
"It's the hap-happiest season of all, with those college teams meeting, and spectators tweeting when football fans call, it's the hap-happiest season of all."
Ahoy, mates!
College Bowl Season is underway. This year there are 42 games, including the National Championship Game. The first games started on December 16. Nine teams from the Big 12 will play in bowl games this year.
Friday night is the second bowl game featuring a team from the Big 12 as the UCF Knights take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the Gaparilla Bowl. Here's a preview:
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl - UCF (6-6) vs. Georgia Tech (6-6)
Friday, December 22, 5:30 p.m. CT, ESPN
Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, FL
Line: UCF -4.5; over/under – 67.5
Like many other pre-Christmas bowl games, this game features two teams with 6-6 records. UCF, in their first season playing in the Big 12, became bowl-eligible in Week 13 with a 27-13 win over fellow Big 12 newbie Houston. The Ramblin Wreck won their sixth game in Week 12 with a 31-22 win over Syracuse. Then they lost in Rivalry Week to then-No. 1 Georgia to end their season at 6-6.
Quarterback John Rhys Plumlee will lead the UCF Knights as they take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the Gasparilla Bowl.
This will be the sixth meeting between the two teams. They first met in 1996. Their first four matchups were all in Atlanta, with Georgia Tech winning the first three. UCF won in Atlanta in 2020 and then again in Orlando in 2022. This will be the first postseason meeting between the two programs.
UCF is appearing in its eighth straight bowl game. Georgia Tech is playing in its first bowl game in five years.
This game is played in Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL, home of the NFL Buccaneers. This bowl game was first played in 2008 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. It was renamed to the "Gasparilla Bowl" in 2017 and moved to Tampa in 2018. The name comes from Jose Gasper, a legendary mythical pirate who supposedly operated in the Tampa Bay area and who is the inspiration for Tampa's Gasparilla Pirate Festival.
Expect a lot of offense in this game. Both teams can score and score big, while both teams have defenses that have struggled at times this year. UCF is the seventh-best team in total offense with an average of 492.2 yards per game. Georgia Tech ranks No. 30 with 429.1 yards per game. UCF averages 32.5 points per game, while Georgia Tech averages 31.2.
Georgia Tech ranks No. 118 (out of 133) in total defense, giving up 438.2 yards per game while giving up an average of 30.5 points per game. UCF is slightly better and ranks No. 84 in total defense, giving up 392.7 yards per game while giving up an average of 25.42 points per game.
UCF went 3-0 in nonconference play with big wins at home against Kent State and Villanova. They traveled to Boise and won with a walk-off field goal to win 18-16. The Knights went 3-6 in Big 12 play. Two of those wins were to other Big 12 newbies, Cincinnati and Houston, both of which had disappointing seasons. UCF did get a very unexpected blowout win at home over then-No. 15 Oklahoma State, winning 45-3. UCF gave Oklahoma a scare in Norman, and had a late 2-point conversion attempt been successful, that game would have gone to overtime. UCF also had a 35-7 lead over Baylor midway through the third quarter before Baylor scored 29 second-half points to win 36-35.
Georgia Tech, on the other hand, went 1-3 in non-conference play, including double-digit losses to Ole Miss (48-23) and Bowling Green (38-27). Their one non-conference win was against South Carolina State, 48-13. In ACC play, the Ramblin Wreck went 5-3 with wins over Wake Forest, Miami (FL), North Carolina, Virginia, and Syracuse and losses to Louisville, Boston College, and Clemson. They ended up tied for fourth place in the conference with Virginia Tech.
Season Leaders
Passing Yards
UCF – John Rhys Plumlee – 145-227, 2,073 yards, 13 touchdowns, eight interceptions
Georgia Tech– Haynes King – 219-354, 2,755 yards, 26 touchdowns, 15 interceptions
Rushing Yards
UCF – RJ Harvey - 211 carries, 1,296 yards, 16 touchdowns
Georgia Tech – Jamal Haynes - 156 carries, 931 yards, seven touchdowns
Receiving Yards
UCF– Javon Baker - 43 receptions, 966 yards, six touchdowns
Georgia Tech – Eric Singleton Jr. - 47 receptions, 706 yards, six touchdowns
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