The ReliaQuest Bowl? No. The Pop Tarts Bowl? No. The Holiday Bowl? No. The how or why is just starting to come out, but all the prognostications were wrong and in a surprise, the Irish will play the #19 Oregon State Beavers in the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl. The game kicks off in El Paso, Texas on December 29.
Oregon State will be without their head coach Jonathan Smith who recently was hired away by Michigan State. Wide Receivers Coach/passing game coordinator, Kefense Hynson has been named interim. The Beavers also will be without their starting quarterback, DJ Uiagalelei who has entered the transfer portal. Freshman Aiden Chiles is listed as the back-up. He has completed 24 of 35 passes on the season for 309 yards, with 4 TDs and no interceptions.
On November 18, Oregon State narrowly lost to CFP finalist Washington 22-20. The week before that the Beavers took out their only ND common opponent, Stanford 62-17.
The Irish and Oregon St. have two previous meetings, both times in Bowls. The Beavers defeated the Irish in the 2004 Insight Bowl and in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl.
The Sun Bowl was founded in 1935 making it the 4th oldest bowl game in existence. This will mark ND’s second Sun Bowl appearance. In 2010, at the end of Brian Kelly’s first season, the Irish defeated Miami 33-17 behind two Tommy Rees to Michael Floyd TD passes and three Harrison Smith interceptions.
The game will kickoff at 2 PM EDT and be broadcast on CBS.