Following the Mountain West Championship win over Boise State, the Fresno State football team accepted the invitation to compete at the 2022 Jimmy Kimmel Los Angeles Bowl.
The ‘Dogs will travel to SoFi Stadium on Dec. 17 to take on Washington State at 12:30 pm.
“It’s a great honor to go play in a bowl game like this to represent the Mountain West Conference as the champions against such a great opponent like Washington State,” said Fresno State Head Coach Jeff Tedford in a media conference for the upcoming bowl game on Dec. 17.
Tedford noted the team’s excitement to travel and play in one of the more renowned NFL stadiums in the nation. Fans of the Red Wave have shown excitement that the Bulldogs’ season isn’t over yet.
Being that many Bulldogs are natives to Los Angeles, such as Raymond Scott, Elijah Gates, Jaylen Henderson, Emari Pait, Johnathan Arceneaux and Malachi Langley, they are excited to return home and compete. During the media conference, Tedford said that it is likely the Red Wave will travel to the game, citing their strong presence in past games against University of Southern California (USC) and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
“We’ve had a great contingent, great following and I know our fans here are excited for it. I’ve had a lot of text messages today about people excited to attend the game. It’s a great honor to be in any ballgame, and especially this one, representing our conference,” he said.
The Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl is presented by Stifel. The bowl game is an annual collegiate football game held at SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers in Inglewood.
“We are thrilled to welcome back the Mountain West and Pac-12 Conferences to our second annual bowl game at SoFi Stadium,” said Jason Gannon, managing director of SoFi Stadium.
Along with the invitation for a bowl game, Bulldog senior Jake Haener has also been invited to participate in the Reese’s Senior Bowl on Feb. 4, 2023.
Earlier this season, the ‘Dogs fell to the Boise State Broncos 40-20, but returned to the blue turf to avenge their name and win a MW championship win at Boise.
Heading into the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl, the ‘Dogs have won eight straight games after their four straight losses in the beginning of the season, all against bowl eligible teams. Two of the losses were up against two of the top Pac-12 teams, USC and Oregon State.
Before last weekend’s game, Fresno State was ranked at the top in offense for the MW conference, averaging 30.9 points per game and 407 yards per game.
The ‘Dogs’ defense ended fifth in the conference, giving up 20.8 points per game and 354 yards per game.
Washington State will be the third Pac-12 team that the ‘Dogs will take on this season. The Cougars are ranked No. 5 in their conference, finishing the year 7-5. All five losses came from the top teams in the Pac-12.
This season the Cougars averaged 27.8 points and 375.5 yards per game and their defense was fifth in the conference, giving up 22.4 points and 394 yards per game.
