Camellia Bowl Opponent Set, South Alabama vs Bowling Green
On Sunday the University of South Alabama learned who they would face in the inaugural Raycom Media Camellia Bowl. South Alabama and Bowling Green University will face off on Saturday, December 20 at 8:15PM CST at the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery.
Bowling Green, who lost to Northern Illinois in the Mid-American Conference Championship Game on Friday, will make their third consecutive bowl appearance.
In anticipation of a bowl invite, head coach Joey Jones and his staff had already scheduled practice on Wednesday. Then after word reached them that they had been selected on Tuesday, the Jaguars scheduled three days of practice last week where their primary focused was on fundamentals and repping young players. They could not being prepping for their opponent since they did not know who it was just yet.
“Obviously we don’t know that much about them, we’ll be looking at film here real soon, but I know traditionally they’ve been a real good program and we have a lot of respect for Bowling Green,” South Alabama head coach Joey Jones said.
Bowling Green will enter the game with a 7-6 record after winning the MAC’s eastern division title for the second consecutive year. However they were outmanned by Northern Illinois in the title game in a 51-17 loss, and the Falcon’s third consecutive loss of the season.
The Camellia Bowl will be the Falcon’s third consecutive bowl game, but they have lost their previous for appearances.
South Alabama enters with a 6-6 record in their second season of full FBS membership in which they were bowl eligible for both. The Jags tied for fourth in the Sun Belt and enter the bowl game with a two-game losing streak after a spirited first half against South Carolina and a heartbreaking loss to Navy at home.
“We’re excited,” Camellia Bowl executive director Johnny Williams said. “We’ve got the No. 2 team in the MAC coming; they played in the championship game. They didn’t get the results they wanted, but they’re a high-quality team. They beat Indiana this year and Indiana beat Missouri.
“They’ve got tradition and they’ve got a great fan following. They’ve been in Mobile (for bowl game) in the past.”
“(The selection process) got a little hairy, things trickle down, but we’re excited,” Williams continued. “We think it’s going to be a very, very entertaining game.”
“There’s a lot of excitement here because they sense the excitement that is coming up from Mobile,” Williams said of Montgomery. “The hotel rooms are starting to fill up and social media has been really active. The alumni base of South Alabama lives north of them, you can’t go south, and so we’re real excited to have South Alabama in this game. To have a team from Alabama in our inaugural game, you can’t ask for much better, so we’re pretty excited.”
South Alabama has a home-and-home series scheduled with the Falcons in 2021 and 2022 seasons.
South Alabama’s priority has been to sell tickets since the announcement on Wednesday. Their battlecry has been “Mission: Montgomery” as they want and need to sell as many tickets and possible and to get those fans to show up in Montgomery for the game.
Dr. Joel Erdmann, Director of Athletics for South Alabama, stressed that in his speech on Wednesday. The University needs to sell tickets and have fans show up in droves because future bowl considerations will look back at this game to help determine if the Jaguars should be invited.
Erdmann boils it down simply. “We need to make sure that we have a strong presence in the city of Montgomery and at Cramton Bowl that night.”
Ticket sales exceeded their expectations on Thursday, the first day of availability for season ticket holders and JAF Donors. Monday is the last day of exclusive rights for JAG and season ticket holders. Beginning Tuesday tickets will go on sale to the general public and will be available through the USA Athletics website.