The University of South Florida football team won’t have to travel far for its bowl game.
The school announced Friday the Bulls will play Old Dominion in the Cure Bowl in Orlando on Dec. 17.
Kickoff at Camping World Stadium is at 5 p.m., and ESPN will televise the game.
Defensive line coach Kevin Patrick will serve as interim head coach for USF, after Alex Golesh moved on to Auburn on Sunday.
"We are excited to go and finish this season strong against a very good Old Dominion team in the Cure Bowl," Patrick said in a statement. "Our guys are preparing for the opportunity to post a third straight bowl win and to compete for a 10th win on the year, something that has only been accomplished here two other times."
The Bulls finished the regular season at 9-3. They went 10-2 in 2017 and 11-2 in 2016.
The Bulls hired Ohio State assistant Brian Hartline as head coach on Wednesday. He will be introduced at a news conference at 11 a.m. Monday in Tampa but will remain with the top-ranked Buckeyes throughout the postseason.
Quarterback Byrum Brown, a graduate senior (redshirt), is expected to play. He said, "We have one more game" after Saturday’s 52-3 win over Rice to close the regular season.
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During the game, Brown became only the 12th player in Football Bowl Subdivision to pass for 3,000 yards and run for 1,000 in a season.
If Brown plays. he’ll be matched up against Old Dominion quarterback Colton Joseph, the Sun Belt Conference player of the year. The Monarchs finished 9-3 in Ricky Rahne’s sixth season as head coach.
It will be the first meeting between USF and ODU, both from Group of 6 conferences.
For USF, the trip up Interstate 4 is a little shorter than last season’s bowl, when the Bulls traveled to Honolulu and defeated San Jose State 41-39 in five overtimes in the Hawaii Bowl.
