OFFICIAL GAME DAY PROGRAM
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY Ten years have seemingly flown by since the very first edition of the RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl was played on December 23, 2014. Over that span of time there have been great games and standout players and coaches who have helped the bowl game earn the reputation as one of the best pre-Christmas games on the annual bowl slate. From Marshall University’s victory back in the inaugural game to the two trophies claimed by Lane Kiffin’s FAU teams to the record-setting day of Western Kentucky University quarterback Bailey Zappe to last year’s two-point nailbiter between the University of Toledo and Liberty University, there have been so many memorable moments over the past 10 years. This bowl game has also been a launching pad for great teams and great coaches. The Liberty team that lost by two
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points to Toledo last year hasn’t lost since then and takes a 12-0 record and No. 23 national ranking into the Fiesta Bowl against eighth- ranked University of Oregon. Five head coaches f rom past games are now at Power 5 conference schools – FAU’s Kiffin to Ole Miss, University of Memphis’s Mike Norvell to Florida State University, Temple University’s Matt Rhule to the University of Nebraska via Baylor University and the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, SMU’s Sonny Dykes to TCU (and a spot in the 2023 CFP championship game) and UCF’s Josh Heupel to the University of Tennesee. USF’s head coach, Alex Golesh, was the co-offensive coordinator on the UCF team that played in the 2020 RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl and incoming Syracuse head coach Fran Brown was the defensive backs assistant coach for Temple when the Owls came to Boca Raton
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in 2015. Dozens of players f rom the f irst nine years’ games have gone on to play in the NFL, including NFL Draft f irst-round picks Haason Reddick f rom Temple and BYU’s Zach Wilson, who was the overall No. 2 pick in the 2020 draft. Other standouts have been Marshall’s Rakeem Cato (Offensive MVP f rom the 2014 game), FAU’s Devin Singletary (Buffalo Bills, Houston Texans) and Azeez Al-Shaair (2017 Defensive MVP, San Francisco 49ers, Tennessee Titans). Western Kentucky’s Zappe set NCAA single-season records for passing yardage and passing touchdowns, topping the marks of Texas Tech’s B.J. Symons and LSU’s Joe Burrow, respectively. This year’s game promises plenty of excitement with two teams that are on the rise. Under their first-year head coach,
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USF has reached bowl eligibility for the first time since 2018. The Bulls were 16th in the nation in total offense, averaging 455.3 yards per game with the American Athletic Conference’s total offense leader Byrum Brown tallying 318.6 yards per game. Syracuse is fourth in the Atlantic Coast Conference in rushing, averaging 185.0 yards per game and boasting 1,000-yard rusher LeQuint Allen, Jr. Through the years the RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl has been a showcase for offense and this year’s matchup promises more of the same.
Enjoy the game! Doug Mosley Executive Director