Carolina Selected to Play Temple in the Military Bowl

CHAPEL HILL – The Carolina football program has been selected to play in the Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman against Temple, the game's selection committee announced on Sunday. This will be the 34th bowl game in Carolina football's history and its first since 2016. The Military Bowl is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 27 with kickoff scheduled for noon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md. The game will air on ESPN. This will be Carolina football's first trip to the Military Bowl and its first game against Temple.

Donors, season ticket holders and those who have placed a deposit for 2020 season tickets will receive an email later today with the opportunity to request tickets. If you'd like to make a deposit for 2020 Carolina Football season tickets, you can do so by clicking HERE. Any tickets for the general public, if there are any, will go on sale by Friday.

Carolina finished the regular season 6-6 and 4-4 (T-3rd) in the ACC Coastal in head coach Mack Brown's return to Chapel Hill. The squad placed 11 student-athletes on All-ACC teams including first-team linebacker Chazz Surratt and the league's Rookie and Offensive Rookie of the Year Sam Howell. Under the guidance of offensive coordinator Phil Longo, the offense posted 469 yards per game, which ranked 14th nationally, while scoring 31.3 points per game. The defense, under co-coordinators Jay Bateman and Tommy Thigpen, was one of the nation's most improved this season. The unit improved by 56 spots (9.9 points) in scoring defense, 54 spots (66 yards) in total defense, and 53 spots (69 yards) in rushing defense.

Temple, representing the American Athletic Conference, currently stands at 8-4 and finished 5-3, which was good for third in the AAC East. The Owls placed seven players on the All-AAC teams including defensive end Quincy Roche, who was named the league's Defensive Player of the Year. Coached by Rod Carey, Temple ranked third in the AAC in total defense, allowing 364.8 yards per game, while posting 3.25 sacks per game and 7.8 TFL. The Owls' offense ranked eighth in the conference, tallying 402 yards per game.

The Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman will be played for the 12th time this December. Organized by the Military Bowl Foundation, the Military Bowl serves as a premier regional event benefiting the USO and other organizations supporting members of the Armed Forces and their families. Since its inception in 2008, the Bowl has donated more than $900,000 to the USO and provided more than 25,000 complimentary tickets for troops and their families.

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For the latest updates please visit militarybowl.org, follow on Twitter and Instagram @MilitaryBowl, like the Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman on Facebook or download the Military Bowl app. Fans also are encouraged to sign up to receive important text messages from the Military Bowl and City of Annapolis by texting Join Bowl to 91972.

Statement from Carolina Head Coach Mack Brown

"On behalf of the Carolina football program and the UNC Athletics Department, I want to thank the Military Bowl and their selection committee for inviting us to their game. We can't wait to get to the Washington, D.C. area and take part in what I'm sure will be a wonderful week and a great experience for our team and staff.

Our number one goal when we returned last year was to send the seniors out the right way. Everything we did, from spring practice to summer workouts to fall camp, was with an eye on winning enough games to get these seniors to a bowl game. Now, when this group looks back on their careers, they'll be able to say they helped get the program on the right track and finished with a bowl game. I'm just so happy for everyone involved in our program, but especially, that group of young men.

Now, we need to get our schedules together and figure out how we'll approach the next few weeks. We'll let the guys focus on their academics as they move through finals and then we'll get some good work in with the extra practices. We'll work the young guys really hard and treat this as an extra spring practice, while making sure we get the team ready to take on a tough Temple team. I know the guys want to finish this season off with a victory, so I'm expecting everyone to be really focused for the next few weeks so we can be ready to play on Dec. 27."

Statement from Carolina OT Charlie Heck

I'm excited to be going to the Military Bowl and I'm really happy that our team gets to be together for a few more weeks. This is a great group of guys and we've worked hard all year to get to this point. Now, we want to take advantage of it and try and get our seventh win. Temple is a good opponent so it won't be easy. We'll have to get focused and have a good few weeks of practice in order to finish this thing off the right way. Obviously, the last couple of seasons didn't go the way we wanted them to, but we were determined to get this program turned around. Coach Brown and the new staff told us they wanted us to win right away, that it wasn't about rebuilding, and the older guys really appreciated that. Fortunately, we were able to finish the season off strong, get to six wins, and get a chance to experience the Military Bowl.

Statement from Carolina S Myles Dorn

Getting to a bowl game is a big deal for this program and I'm looking forward to playing in the Military Bowl. The last few seasons have been tough, but we believed we were a better team than we showed. All through the offseason, we were confident we would win enough games to make it to the postseason. We definitely made it harder on ourselves than I thought we would, but we continued to battle each week and I am really happy for everyone that we'll get to go through this experience together. We wanted to set a standard as a senior class, and we think playing in a bowl is something this program will do year in and year out. Now, the younger guys will get a chance to experience what a bowl game feels like and I'm sure they'll be hungry to continue to build on what we've accomplished this season.

Players Mentioned

Myles Dorn

Charlie Heck

Sam Howell

Chazz Surratt

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