RENO, Nev. — They might have preferred to play before family and friends at the Las Vegas Bowl.

But after the school's 9-year bowl drought, Nevada players are excited to be heading to the Hawai'i Bowl on Christmas Eve against Central Florida.

"It would have been nice to be in Las Vegas and have our fans there," said senior B.J. Mitchell, the Western Athletic Conference's leading rusher.

"But it's my first time in a bowl game so it (Hawai'i Bowl) is special. To come from where we did, it's plenty good enough," he added.

Nevada (8-3) formally accepted a bid yesterday to play Central Florida of Conference USA at Aloha Stadium.

It will be Nevada's first bowl appearance since the 1996 Las Vegas Bowl and sixth bowl game overall. The Wolf Pack is 2-3 in bowl games.

Central Florida earned the school's first bowl appearance after going from 0-11 to 8-4 in just one season.

Under Chris Ault, Nevada posted its first winning season since 1998. Ault, the winningest coach in school history, left his job as athletic director to return to the sideline two seasons ago.

Ault's co-defensive coordinator, Tim DeRuyter, compared Central Florida with Fresno State, saying both can run the ball and throw it deep.

He praised Central Florida coach George O'Leary. In his second season, O'Leary's team snapped what was the nation's longest Division I-A losing streak at 17 games. The Golden Knights lost the conference title game to Tulsa, 44-27, on Saturday.

"He's a very good coach," DeRuyter said. "Like coach Ault, he's a disciplinarian. It'll be a challenge for us. Hopefully, we'll put on a good game."

The schools had no common opponents this season.