CSU Rams headed to Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl

The Rams’ next episode? They’re rolling to Tucson, baby, snapping a seven-year bowl drought with a berth in the 2024 Arizona Bowl.

Check that — it’s the 2024 Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl. Actually, it’s the 2024 Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl Presented by Gin & Juice By Dre and Snoop.

Whatever you want to call it, Norvell and the 8-4 Rams are happy for one more chance to drop it while it’s hot.

“I’m so excited to be heading back to the Arizona Bowl,” Norvell said in a statement released by the university on Sunday. “It’s a great venue and fantastic hospitality. It will be a lot of fun for our fans and our team. It’s a great reward for seniors, and we’re excited to finish our season with a bowl win and gain great momentum going into 2025. It’s been our goal from the start to be a bowl team, year in and year out, and this is a great springboard for our program for the future.”

The Arizona Bowl will kick off at Arizona Stadium in Tucson, Ariz., on Saturday, Dec. 28, at 2:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast nationally on The CW.

CSU will take on Miami of Ohio (8-5) from the Mid-American Conference. The RedHawks, out of Oxford, Ohio, lost the league title game to rival Ohio, 38-3. They feature the MAC’s No. 3 rushing defense (137 yards allowed per game) and a passing attack led by quarterback Brett Gabbert, younger brother of Blaine Gabbert, that accounted for 23 scores through the air, third-most by a MAC school this fall.

The Rams are headed to their second Arizona Bowl, having lost to a pre-Norvell Nevada team in the 2015 installment, 28-23. CSU is 0-2 all-time against the RedHawks, but this is the first time the two schools have met at a neutral site.

“We’ve got some veteran kids who haven’t played (in) bowl games,” Norvell said last week, “and we’re excited about that.”

CSU’s third-year boss, however, has been to several — 16 as a college player, assistant coach or head coach.

At Nevada, his Wolf Pack teams were invited to four bowls over five seasons in Reno. Norvell sports a 2-1 career record as a head coach in the postseason.

Nevada won the 2018 Arizona Bowl and the 2020 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl while losing the 2019 Potato Bowl. Norvell’s Wolf Pack also played in the 2021 Quick Lane Bowl, but he didn’t coach in that game, having already accepted the CSU job.

The Arizona Bowl was rebranded in May as the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl Presented by Gin & Juice By Dre and Snoop, as part of a multiyear sponsorship with Gin & Juice By Dre and Snoop, the premium spirits company run by the two iconic rappers.