| Game Name: | Famous Idaho Potato Bowl |
| Subheader: | 25th Famous Idaho Potato Bowl |
| Date Game Played: | December 21 |
| Year Game Played: | 2021 |
| Football Season: | 2021 |
| Stadium: | Albertsons Stadium |
| City: | Boise, Idaho |
| Visitor School: | Kent State University |
| Visitor Name Short: | Kent State |
| Visitor Nickname: | Golden Flashes |
| Visitor Record: | 7–6 |
| Visitor Conference: | MAC |
| Visitor Coach: | Sean Lewis |
| Visitor 1Q: | 14 |
| Visitor 2Q: | 10 |
| Visitor 3Q: | 0 |
| Visitor 4Q: | 14 |
| Home School: | University of Wyoming |
| Home Name Short: | Wyoming |
| Home Nickname: | Cowboys |
| Home Record: | 6–6 |
| Home Conference: | MWC |
| Home Coach: | Craig Bohl |
| Home 1Q: | 7 |
| Home 2Q: | 14 |
| Home 3Q: | 14 |
| Home 4Q: | 17 |
| Mvp: | Levi Williams (QB, Wyoming)[1] |
| Odds: | Wyoming by 3 |
| Referee: | Rodney Burnette (C-USA) [2] |
| Attendance: | 10,217[3] |
| Us Network: | ESPN ESPN Radio |
| Us Announcers: | ESPN: Bill Roth (play-by-play), Kelly Stouffer (analyst), and Lauren Sisler (sideline) ESPN Radio: Kevin Winter (play-by-play) and Trevor Matich (analyst) |
| Intl Network: | ESPN Brazil |
| Intl Announcers: | Renan do Couto (play-by-play) and Antony Curti (analyst) |
| Different Previous: | 2020 (Dec.) |
The 2021 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 21, 2021, with kickoff at 3:30 p.m. EST (1:30 p.m. local MST) on ESPN.[4] It was the 25th edition of the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, and it featured the Kent State Golden Flashes of Mid-American Conference and the Wyoming Cowboys of the Mountain West Conference. It was one of the 2021–22 bowl games concluding the 2021 FBS football season. The game was sponsored by the Idaho Potato Commission.
Consistent with conference tie-ins, the game will be played between teams from the Mid-American Conference (MAC) and the Mountain West Conference (MWC). Kent State made their first appearance in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl while Wyoming made their second appearance and first since the 2017 edition.[5] This was Kent State's 5th bowl game appearance in program history, following their win in the 2019 Frisco Bowl.[6] This was Wyoming's 17th bowl game appearance in program history, following their win in the 2019 Arizona Bowl.[7]
This was the first time that Kent State and Wyoming have ever played each other.[8]
See main article: 2021 Kent State Golden Flashes football team. Kent State started the season with a blowout loss against Texas A&M 41–10.[9] They would then bounce back against VMI before falling to Iowa.[10] [11] After a 37-16 loss against Maryland, Kent State would win five of their next seven games. A 38-0 victory over Akron would secure their bowl eligibility.[12] In the last game of the regular season the Golden Flashes would face off with the Miami (OH) RedHawks for the MAC East Division. In a thrilling 48-47 overtime victory, Kent State secured a spot in the MAC Championship Game.[13] In a rematch vs Northern Illinois, the Golden Flashes lost 41-23 giving them a 7-6 record coming into the game.[14]
See main article: 2021 Wyoming Cowboys football team. Wyoming started the season hot at 4-0 with wins over Montana State, Northern Illinois, Ball State, and UConn.[15] [16] [17] [18] After that the Cowboys went on a four game skid losing to four conference opponents. They beat a conference team for the first team on the year after beating Colorado State 31-17.[19] The Cowboys then lost to Boise State 23-13 before beating the Mountain West Conference Champion Utah State 44-17 to secure bowl eligibility.[20] [21] In the final game of the regular season, Wyoming lost to Hawaii 38-14.[22] Wyoming entered the contest with a 6-6 overall record, and a 2-6 record in conference.
With the win, Wyoming concluded the season with a record of 7-6.[23] With the loss, Kent State concluded the season with a record of 7-7.[24] Wyoming won their first bowl game since the 2019 Arizona Bowl and improved their bowl record to 9-8.[25] Kent State's overall bowl record dropped to 1-3.[26] This was the first bowl loss for Kent State head coach Sean Lewis. After the game, Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl was dumped with a bucket of french fries to celebrate the victory.[27]
10,217 people attended the game down from the last game that allowed fans from 13,611. Wyoming quarterback Levi Williams was named the games most valuable player.[28] Following the game, days later Williams transferred to conference foe Utah State and Sean Chambers who also started for Wyoming during the season transferred to Montana State.