The Tribune

BOWL week has officially kicked off in the Bahamas.

Both participating teams in the 2018 Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl - the FIU Panthers and the Toledo Rockets - arrived in New Providence today to begin a busy week of activities leading up to Friday’s matchup on the field.

Teams will have their first media availability and networking opportunity at tonight’s welcome reception, hosted at the Atlantis resort. Tomorrow, the players will be hosted to a “Beach Bash and Dinner” at the Atlantis’ Lagoon and West Beach.

Wednesday will feature a pair of community outreach initiatives with a visit to the Ranfurly Homes for Children, followed by a Youth Football Clinic at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium rugby fields.

Sponsored by KFC, the clinic is slated for 3:30 to 5pm and is free and open to boys and girls ages 7-13.

It is held in cooperation between the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl and USA Football.

A USA Football coach along with student-athletes and staff from the FIU and Toledo football teams, along with representatives of the Commonwealth American Football League (CAFL), will run the clinic, teaching football fundamentals and safety techniques.

Thursday morning will be the final press conferences featuring coaches and players from both teams alongside bowl game stakeholders.

The Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl will be played Friday at 12:30pm and the contest will be televised on ESPN and broadcast on the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl Radio Network.

FIU (8-4 overall, 6-2 in Conference USA play) will be led to its fourth all-time bowl appearance by Davis who is in his second season (16-9 record) at FIU and his 12th season as a college head coach (95-52 overall record at FIU, North Carolina and Miami).

The 2018 Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl will be the second consecutive bowl game for the Panthers as FIU played in the 2017 Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl under Davis’ direction.

Toledo (7-5, 5-3 in Mid-American Conference play) will be led to its 18th all-time bowl appearance by head coach Jason Candle, who is in his third full season (28-12) as a college head coach (all at Toledo).

It will be the fifth-straight bowl game for the Rockets, and the eighth in the last nine seasons.

This will be the fourth bowl game for the Rockets under Candle’s direction, as he was named head coach prior to the 2015 Boca Raton Bowl, and in all three full seasons as Toledo’s head coach. Tickets to the bowl can be purchased at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium Box Office, online at NSA-Bahamas.com and by phone at 325-0376.

The 15 combined victories (eight for FIU and seven for Toledo) between this year’s teams is one shy of tying the most in Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl history (2016, 2017).

This will be the fourth all-time meeting between FIU and Toledo, and the first between the schools since the 2010 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in Detroit, where FIU won 34-32.

FIU leads the series over Toledo, 2-1. The Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl series between Conference USA and the MAC is tied, 2-2.