TEAMS SET TO SQUARE OFF IN 2011 GODADDY.COM BOWL

MOBILE, AL.- GoDaddy.com Bowl officials announced today that Middle Tennessee State University (6-6, 5-3) and Miami University of Ohio (9-4, 7-1) have accepted invitations to play in the 12th Annual GoDaddy.com Bowl on Thursday, January 6, 2011, in Mobile, Alabama.

The Blue Raiders went 10 – 3 last year and became the first Sun Belt Conference team to ever win 10 games in a season. This will be the third time in five years that the Middle Tennessee State University Blue Raiders have gone to a bowl game under head coach Rick Stockstill and their second consecutive bowl appearance. In last year’s New Orleans R + L Carrier Bowl, MTSU beat Southern Miss 42 -32 as MTSU’s Dwight Dasher an NCAA bowl record breaking game for rushing yards by a quarterback.

MTSU quarterback Dwight Dasher is just the 15th player in NCAA history to pass for over 5,000 yards and rush for more than 2,000 yards in his career.

Defensive end Jamari Lattimore owns a share of the single-season sack record at MTSU with 11.5 and has 20.5 sacks for his career, ranking No. 2 all-time.

Last Friday night, the Miami University Redhawks, led by freshman QB Austin Boucher, WR Armand Robinson (14 catches, 176 yards) and Thomas Merriweather (85 yards, 11 carries), upset the No. 25 Northern Illinois Huskies 26 – 21 to become the 2010 Mid American Conference Champions. This will be Miami University’s second bowl appearance in Mobile. In 2003, the No. 14 Redhawks, with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, beat Louisville 49 – 28.

Redhawk’s head football coach Michael Haywood has been named the 2010 Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year. Haywood and his staff are credited with turning around a 2009 record of 1-11 to an 9-4 overall record in 2010, including a first-place finish in the MAC’s East Division. The 1-7 to 7-1 improvement in MAC play is the greatest single-season turnaround in the 64-year history of the conference.

“The GoDaddy.com Bowl has a reputation of bringing two very offensively tough teams to Mobile every year and this year is no different. We are looking forward to having both teams here in Mobile and to the matchup on January 6th” said GoDaddy.com Bowl President, Jerry Silverstein. The GoDaddy.com Bowl still holds the record for the highest scoring game in college bowl history.

The 12th Annual GoDaddy.com Bowl will kickoff at 7:00 P.M (CST) January 6th 2011, at Ladd Peebles Stadium. ESPN will nationally broadcast the game.