A Christmas Without Quarterbacks: The Cure Bowl

When it comes to bowl games dedicated to fighting cancer, none are more prestigious than the StaffDNA Cure Bowl played at Camping World Stadium in beautiful Orlando, Florida. This year’s game will be played between the Old Dominion Monarchs and the South Florida Bulls as they seek to promote awareness and research for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation while playing football.

The Cure Heard Round the (Camping) World

The Cure Bowl dates all the way back to 2015, and is one of three bowl games played at Camping World Stadium alongside the Citrus Bowl and the Pop-Tarts Bowl. Having formerly been known as both the Tangerine Bowl and the Citrus Bowl (the stadium, not the game), the stadium’s construction began in 1936 as part of Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration projects during the Great Depression. The Cure Bowl has bounced around a few times, having been played at Exploria Stadium and FBC Mortgage Stadium (both also in Orlando), but its true home is at the old Orlando Citrus Bowl (again, the stadium, not the bowl game).

Arguably the most memorable moment in Cure Bowl history came during the lowest attended game in the history of the bowl. On December 26, 2020, Camping World Stadium played host to two ranked teams for the only time in Cure Bowl history: the 9th ranked Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, and the 23rd ranked Liberty Flames. In a season that saw chaos across the college football world due to Covid-19, Coastal Carolina was a team that at one point was in contention for a top four CFP berth. In a joint bid between themselves and BYU, the Chanticleers hosted the Cougars in an unscheduled game that led to Coastal upsetting BYU, going down in college football history. That same Coastal Carolina team later played Malik Willis led Liberty in the Cure Bowl, where they lost in overtime, 37-34.

An Ageless Rivalry

This will be the first ever meeting between the Sun Belt’s Old Dominion and the American’s South Florida. Old Dominion first started playing football back in 1930, but didn’t enter the FBS world until 2014. They have been to three bowl games in that time, including their lone win in the 2016 Bahamas Bowl against Eastern Michigan. USF only started playing football 28 years ago in 1997, but jumped to the FBS level in 2001. The have played in Conference USA, the old Big East and the American since that point, but have never won a conference championship. They have, however, won eight bowl games in twelve tries, their most recent being a 41-39 overtime win over San Jose State in the Hawai’i Bowl.

Meet the Bulls

South Florida is coming off of a notable season, spending five weeks ranked after beating number 25 Boise State in their home opener and number 13 Florida in Gainesville the next week. Despite coming up just short in a bid to play in the American Conference Championship, head coach Alex Golesh’s third year coaching job for the Bulls was impressive enough that he has already been hired by Auburn to be their next head coach. Defensive line coach Kevin Patrick will be serving as interim head coach for the Bulls in the Cure Bowl.

It’s not just the Bulls’ head coach who will be opting out of this game, but Senior quarterback Byrum Brown as well. While Brown put up prolific numbers both in passing and rushing (over 3000 through the air and over 1000 on the ground with 42 total touchdowns), the quarterback in this game will most likely be Tennessee graduate transfer Gaston Moore, who has a total of 64 passing attempts across five seasons of college football. Leading receiver Keshaun Singleton (877 yards, 8 TDs) will hopefully have had some time to gain rapport with his new QB. With Byrum Brown being the team’s leading rusher, sophomore running back Nykahi Davenport should see his workload increase. The strong Bulls defense was led this year by senior Mac Harris, who had an impressive 100 tackles, 6 sacks, 3 forced fumbles and 2 interceptions on the year, one of which he returned for a touchdown.

Meet the Monarchs

The Green and Gold will be challenged by the Old Dominion Blue and Silver led by Ricky Rahne in his sixth season with the program. The team’s 9-3 season resulted in a second place finish in the Sun Belt East, with notable wins over Virginia Tech and Troy, and a ranked loss in the road opener against Indiana in Bloomington. Amid rumors that he would be leaving to either take a power conference coaching job or to join James Franklin’s coaching staff at Virginia Tech, Rahne signed a four-year extension on Saturday, confirming he will be staying with the Monarchs.

Old Dominion will also be without their starting quarterback in this game, as Sophomore passer Colton Joseph has entered the transfer portal. Redshirt freshman Quinn Henicle will get the nod as a relatively untested backup. Joseph spread the ball around to a trio of receivers relatively evenly, with Tre’ Brown III, Ja’Cory Thomas and Nareem Abdul-Rahim Gladding all getting over 35 receptions, 600 yards and 4 touchdowns. Junior running back Trequan Jones will also receive an increased workload, as Colton Joseph also led the team in rushing with over 1000 yards on the ground. The defense this season was led by a duo of impressive safeties in Jerome Carter and Mario Easterly. Both had over 70 tackles, while Carter brought in four interceptions and Easterly had a forced fumble recovery.

Regardless of which team’s backup quarterback you’re rooting for, everyone is on the same team when it comes to loving football and hating cancer, and that is something that you can’t opt-out of or transfer from. Let’s get ready to Cure our lack of bowl games, and Cure cancer while we’re at it!

If you would like to help with the Cure Bowl’s mission to end breast cancer, click this link to go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s website.