DeKALB – After finishing the regular season 7-5 to secure its first winning season since 2021, it was announced Sunday that NIU football (7-5, 4-4 MAC) will face off against the Fresno State Bulldogs (6-6, 4-3 MWC) in the 2024 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on Dec. 23 in Boise, Idaho.
The Huskies’ trip to the Potato State will be the team’s second consecutive bowl appearance after defeating Arkansas State University in the Camellia Bowl last season. It’ll also be the third appearance of head coach Thomas Hammock’s six-year tenure.
Fresno State enters the matchup with a five-game bowl winning streak – the longest in the Mountain West Conference and second in the country. The Bulldogs are led by newly named head coach Matt Entz, who was hired Wednesday after one season as an assistant coach at the University of Southern California.
Interim head coach Tim Skipper, who took charge of the program in July after head coach Jeff Tedford resigned due to health concerns, guided Fresno State to a 6-6 regular season finish, with a 4-3 record in Mountain West play, to clinch its fourth consecutive bowl berth. Last year, Fresno State dispatched New Mexico State University in the New Mexico Bowl – with Skipper serving as the acting head coach.
This will be the second time that NIU and Fresno State go head-to-head in Boise. The two schools last met in the 2010 Humanitarian Bowl, where the Huskies trounced the Bulldogs 40-17 behind Chandler Harnish’s 372-yard, three-touchdown performance.
The 28th annual Famous Idaho Potato Bowl will kick off at 1:30 p.m. CT Dec. 23 at Albertsons Stadium, on the campus of Boise State University. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN.
