The Connecticut Huskies (6-6) and the Marshall Thundering Herd (9-3) will kick off the post-Christmas bowl games. They’ll kick off at 11 am this morning on ESPN in the St. Petersburg Bowl from Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.
This game will be the first of six bowl games on the day. The first game of the day will go to the Huskies 16-6 over the Thundering Herd, according to our whatifsports.com simulation.
Connecticut lead with 31:08 time of possession, while Marshall had 28:55. The Huskies also had 367 total yards while the Thundering Herd had 298.
UCONN’s Bryant Shirreffs, who was questionable with an injury, went 12 of 17 for 222-yards with a touchdown and an interception. His counterpart, Marshall’s signal caller Chase Litton went 27 of 44 for 261 yards and three interceptions.
Remi Watson led the Herd with 31 rushing yards, while Tony Pittman had 10-yards. Hyleck Foster had five-yards, while Litton had -9-yards.
Davonte Allen led them with 53 receiving yards, while Ryan Yurachek had 45-yards. Justin Hunt added 41-yards, while Emanuel Byrd had 32-yards. DeAndre Reaves had 27-yards with Deon-Tay McManus added 19. Nick Mathews contributed 13-yards, while Watson had 12-yards. Foster added 11-yards and Pittman had 8.
The Huskies had 80 rushing yards from Arkeel Newsome while Ron Johnson had 32-yards. Shirreffs also had 22-yards and a touchdown.
Tyraiq Beals had a game-high 104 receiving yards and a touchdown. Alec Bloom had 49-yards, while Noel Thomas had 48-yards. Thomas Lucas had 13-yards, while Newsome and Johnson had four-yards each.
The Thundering Herd relied on Nick Smith to make two field goals for their lone scores of the game. In the third quarter, Smith converted on a 40-yard field goal as the game went to 16-6.
Smith also had a 21-yard field goal in the second quarter to cut the lead to 16-3.
The Huskies had a 68-yard reception when Shirreffs hit Beals for the long touchdown to make it 16-0. Connecticut kicker Bobby Puyol made a 34-yard field goal to make it 10-0.
