The Valero Alamo Bowl has featured some of the country’s best teams over the years. Since 2014, the Bowl has showcased a ranked matchup in every game, including four top-15 matchups. While this year’s game doesn’t quite feature two Top-15 teams, it does feature another unique stat.
The Valero Alamo Bowl is the only bowl in the country to have two Conference Coaches of the Year on both sidelines.
This season, Washington State Head Coach, Mike Leach, was honored with the Pac-12 Conference Coach of the Year award for the second time in his career. Leach led his Cougars through adversity to a 10-2 record, and a win in the Valero Alamo Bowl would give Washington State its 11th win of the season – something the school has never done before.
Leach’s 48 wins rank third in school history and he is the only coach to take the Cougars to four straight bowl games and is now tied with Mike Price for most bowl game appearances (5) in Washington State history.
On the Big 12 sideline is Iowa State Head Coach Matt Campbell. Campbell was named Big 12 Conference Co-Coach of the year after coaching the Cyclones to wins in seven of their final eight games. Campbell also won the Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year award last year. If the Cyclones win the Valero Alamo Bowl it will give them their ninth win of the season, which would tie a program high.
Campbell took over the Iowa State program three years ago, and over the past two seasons the Cyclones rank in the top-10 nationally for the most wins over AP Top-25 teams, knocking off five ranked teams since the start of last season. Campbell’s got the Cyclones bowling in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2011 and 2012.
The Valero Alamo Bowl is proud to welcome both of these fantastic coaches and their staff to the Alamo City. We can’t wait for them to showcase their teams in front of the packed Alamodome crowd!
