— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — For the second straight year, Marshall is bound for Tampa to play in a bowl game.
The Thundering Herd, second-place finishers in Conference USA’s East Division, will face Central Florida in the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl on Monday, Dec. 23.
Kickoff at Raymond James Stadium is at 2:30 p.m.
The Knights finished second in The American Athletic Conference’s East Division behind Cincinnati.
Marshall (8-4, 6-2) and UCF (9-3, 6-2) played two common opponents this season. The Herd lost to Cincinnati 52-14 and beat Florida Atlantic 36-31, while the Knights lost to the Bearcats 27-24 and beat FAU, 48-14.
Marshall won last year’s Gasparilla Bowl, knocking off South Florida 38-20.
The Herd will enter with an .857 winning percentage (12-2) in all NCAA-sanctioned bowl games, the highest mark nationally among programs that have made at least five appearances.
MU has won seven straight bowl games, a streak that started in 2009 with a 21-17 win over Ohio in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in Detroit.
Marshall head coach Doc Holliday is 6-0 in bowl games with the Thundering Herd and will appear in his 28th bowl since entering the coaching ranks.
The Herd and Knights have played 11 previous times when both teams belonged to both the Mid-American Conference and Conference USA. The Knights lead the series 8-3 and won the last eight meetings after Marshall opened with three straight victories over UCF.
The last meeting took place in Huntington in 2012, a 54-17 Knights victory.