Arizona will finish the year against Purdue in the Foster Farms Bowl
Dec 3, 2017, 1:59 PM
After losing three of their last four games, the Arizona Wildcats (7-5) hope to end the season on a positive note in Santa Clara, Calif. against the Purdue Boilermakers (6-6).
The bowl game matchup was announced Sunday afternoon, the fifth bowl appearance for Rich Rodriguez in his six years as coach of the Wildcats.
The Foster Farms Bowl will take place at Levi’s Stadium, home to the San Francisco 49ers, Dec. 27 at 6:30 p.m.
This will be Rodriguez’s 11th bowl game as a head coach. He is 5-5 in his career but 3-1 in bowl games with Arizona, his only loss coming in that 2014 New Years Six game against Boise State.
That season, the Wildcats finished atop the Pac-12 South, while this year they finished third in the division.
The Wildcats return to a bowl game after being left out in 2016. Their last postseason appearance was the 2015 New Mexico Bowl victory against the New Mexico Lobos.
The emergence of Arizona sophomore quarterback Khalil Tate created quite a stir in the national scene this season. Tate racked up an impressive 1,353 yards rushing in 10 games this year, but in the regular season finale against ASU, Dawkins filled in for the injured Tate, whose status is unknown for the bowl game.
Purdue finished third in the Big Ten West behind Wisconsin and Northwestern. It didn’t earn bowl eligibility until they defeated rival Indiana for the Old Oaken Bucket to end the season in Week 13. Purdue finished the season strong winning three out of its last four beating Iowa and Illinois along with the mentioned Indiana Hoosiers.
