Report - Purdue to play Tennessee in Music City Bowl

Today is the day that bowl announcements get made. Sadly, the CFP committee once again decided to omit Purdue from their rankings and so Purdue has to wait around to see where in the pecking order they get chosen. Well, wait no more because according to both Jerry Palm and Brett McMurphy the destination is set.

You may recall the Music City Bowl as the location of the last Purdue bowl game. It’s unfortunate that Purdue decided to forfeit that game as it was not prestigious enough and we will never know what would have happened against Auburn.

This works out great for Tennessee and their fans as they are not only the official Home team they are playing in their home state. Not the same city of course but much closer than you assume you’re going to be when you head to a bowl game.

For those curious the game is set for December 30th at 3:00 PM. Yes, that is a Thursday, and no you likely don’t get that day off. I would have preferred a bowl game that gave me an evening slot or else one that occurred when I was on vacation but yet here we are.

A bit about Tennessee (much more to come on this site in the weeks to come), they finished the season 7-5 and finished third in the SEC East. They went 1-4 against ranked teams (beating Kentucky) but losing to Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, and Florida. Hendon Hooker is their QB and he’s had a very good year. He sits at just under 70% completion percentage with 26 touchdowns and only 3 interceptions. This isn’t the luck that Purdue has had all year facing subpar QBs. This will truly test the Boilermaker secondary. Hooker is also their second leading rusher with 561 yards on the season. He will be a huge challenge for Purdue.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned to H&R for much more on this game and Tennessee in general. Casey and I will be discussing this destination tonight on the podcast. Check out the latest episode tomorrow in your favorite podcast app.