| Game Name: | Las Vegas Bowl |
| Subheader: | 25th Las Vegas Bowl |
| Title Sponsor Suffix: | presented by GEICO |
| Date Game Played: | December 17 |
| Year Game Played: | 2016 |
| Football Season: | 2016 |
| Stadium: | Sam Boyd Stadium |
| City: | Whitney, Nevada |
| Visitor Name Short: | Houston |
| Visitor Nickname: | Cougars |
| Visitor Record: | 9–3 |
| Visitor Coach: | Major Applewhite (interim) |
| Visitor 1Q: | 10 |
| Visitor 2Q: | 0 |
| Visitor 3Q: | 0 |
| Visitor 4Q: | 0 |
| Home Name Short: | San Diego State |
| Home Nickname: | Aztecs |
| Home Record: | 10–3 |
| Home Conference: | Mountain West |
| Home Coach: | Rocky Long |
| Home 1Q: | 0 |
| Home 2Q: | 6 |
| Home 3Q: | 14 |
| Home 4Q: | 14 |
| Odds: | Houston by 3.5[1] |
| Mvp: | San Diego State RB Donnel Pumphrey[2] |
| Referee: | Daniel Gautreaux (C-USA) |
| Attendance: | 29,286 |
| Payout: | 1,350,000[3] |
| Us Network: | ABC Sports USA |
| Us Announcers: | Brent Musburger, Jesse Palmer, Kaylee Hartung (ABC) Eli Gold, Gary Barnett (Sports USA) |
The 2016 Las Vegas Bowl was a college football bowl game that was played on December 17, 2016, at Sam Boyd Stadium in Whitney, Nevada. The 25th annual Las Vegas Bowl was one of the 2016–17 bowl games concluding the 2016 FBS football season. The game aired on ABC. Through sponsorship from GEICO, the game was officially known as the Las Vegas Bowl presented by GEICO.[4]
The game would have featured teams from the Mountain West Conference and Pac-12 Conference. However, since the Pac-12 had only six bowl-eligible teams, and two of them qualified for New Years Six bowls, the sixth-place Pac-12 team was unavailable. Instead, the bowl elected to invite the Houston Cougars of the American Athletic Conference. This was the first time an AAC team played in the Las Vegas Bowl. The representative from the Mountain West was San Diego State, which qualified for the bowl by winning the 2016 Mountain West Conference Football Championship Game. Houston played in its first-ever Las Vegas Bowl, while San Diego State appeared for a second time, the first being a 1998 loss to North Carolina.
This was the third meeting between the schools, with Houston having won both previous ones. The most recent prior meeting was on October 6, 1973, when the Cougars defeated the Aztecs by a score of 14–9.[5]
See also: 2016 Houston Cougars football team and 2016 American Athletic Conference football season.
See also: 2016 San Diego State Aztecs football team and 2016 Mountain West Conference football season.
On the fourth drive of the game, Houston capped a 10-play, 24-yard drive with a 31-yard field goal by Ty Cummings. After a three-and-out by San Diego State, Houston went on a 10-play, 74-yard touchdown drive. Greg Ward, Jr.'s 2-yard run put the Cougars up 10–0 to finish the 1st quarter. San Diego State responded with 34 unanswered points, leading to a 34–10 win by the Aztecs.
On the first play of the Aztecs' first drive in the 4th quarter, Donnel Pumphrey broke the all-time FBS career record for rushing yardage.
Source: [6]
| Statistics | HOU | SDSU |
|---|---|---|
| First downs | 16 | 13 |
| Plays–yards | 75–254 | 51–255 |
| Rushes–yards | 41–25 (0.6) | 37–127 (3.4) |
| Passing yards | 229 | 128 |
| Passing: Comp–Att–Int | 25–34–4 | 10–14–0 |
| Time of possession | 32:12 | 27:48 |
| Category | Team | Player | Statistics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passing | HOU | 25/34, 229 yds, 4 INT | |
| SDSU | Christian Chapman | 10/14, 128 yds, 1 TD | |
| Rushing | HOU | Duke Catalon | 14 car, 18 yds |
| SDSU | 19 car, 115 yds, 1 TD | ||
| Receiving | HOU | 5 rec, 52 yds | |
| SDSU | 4 rec, 33 yds |