Myrtle Beach, SC – Appalachian State and North Texas both held 90-minute workouts on Sunday afternoon, wrapping up preparations for the inaugural Myrtle Beach Bowl at Brooks Stadium on the Coastal Carolina campus in Conway.
The kickoff is set for 2:34 p.m. ET and the game will be televised by ESPN. Courtney Lyle, Eric Mac Lain, Marty Smith and Ryan McGee will call the action from the first-ever NCAA sanctioned bowl game in the state of South Carolina.
North Texas head coach Seth Littrell is glad his team has another opportunity to play in the first bowl game of the bowl season.
“It is awesome, a great opportunity to come to a wonderful community and just being in a cool place,” North Texas head coach Seth Littrell said. “The bowl staff has been awesome and done a great job communicating and everything. They have tried to make is good as possible in these times. I think it is an awesome place and believe it will be a great bowl game for years to come.”
Appalachian State head coach Shawn Clark is the third different head coach for Mountaineers in the last three years. Still, though, ASU has won 32 games in that three-year stretch, almost 11 wins per year.
“It goes back to the culture, back to when Coach (Jerry) Moore was the head coach here and Scott Satterfield, Eliah Drinkwitz, and me,” Clark said. “I know what the program was founded on, the pillars of the foundation of what the program was built. Continuing to bring in the right type players that want to come here and get a world class education at our university and play for championships.”
While the 2020 season has been anything but normal, both teams had to adjust to a shortened bowl week schedule.
“It was a quick turnaround, but it was awesome,” Littrell added. “Our guys had a lot of energy this week and really excited to be here. The Myrtle Beach Bowl has taken great care of us, the hotel has been great, and the guys are excited to play tomorrow.”
“Anywhere in college football is a quick turnaround right now, if you look all across the country everyone is only getting about eight or nine days,” Clark said. “We treat it like a normal week and came down a day early. Let the players enjoy Myrtle Beach, took them out to do a little Grand Prix racing and it was the first time I have seen our players cut loose and have a good time.”
“I think it is fantastic, we get the chance to put our names in the record book as the first champion of the bowl game. The city of Myrtle Beach has been very gracious to us and we are excited for it. Any time you can get away and play football and enjoy ourselves it is the reward for the whole program.”
The Myrtle Beach Bowl will be the first-ever meeting between Appalachian State and North Texas.
ESPN Game Link: https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=71a8472b-61b9-4d2e-90a8-74d3a3a74336
Stats Link (Fans): http://myrtlebeach.statbroadcast.com
