LSU and Purdue have been playing football for a long time.

The Tigers started playing in 1902, 10 years after the Boilermakers started.

Both programs have played more than 1,200 games.

But they have never played each other before.

That will change on Jan. 2, when the No. 17 Tigers and the Boilermakers meet in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla. Kickoff will be 1 p.m. EST.

The matchup was announced Sunday afternoon. And even though these are 1st-time opponents, the 2022 LSU and Purdue teams do have something in common.

Here are 5 impressions of the Citrus Bowl matchup:

1. Championship game similarities

Both LSU and Purdue enter this game under similar circumstances.

Both will have the same amount of time between their most recent game and the bowl game — 30 days.

On Saturday, LSU lost to No. 1 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. Just a few minutes after that game ended, the Big Ten Championship Game kicked off, and Purdue lost to No. 2 Michigan.

Even though both teams lost by a significant margin — LSU by 20 points and Purdue by 21 — both teams gained more yardage than its opponent, even though both were facing 1 of the best defenses in the country.

The Tigers outgained Georgia 549-529, and Purdue outgained Michigan 456-366.

2. Covering Charlie Jones

LSU is used to facing really good wide receivers over the course of an SEC season.

The same will be true when the Tigers line up against the Boilermakers’ Jones. He set Big Ten Championship Game records with 13 catches and 162 yards against Michigan.

That gave him school single-season records of 1,361 receiving yards and 8 100-yard receiving games.

3. Only the Tigers have a Citrus Bowl history

The Citrus Bowl has been around since 1947, when it was known as the Tangerine Bowl. It has featured teams from the SEC and Big Ten since 1993. And yet the Boilermakers have never played in the bowl before.

LSU has been in it 5 times and has a 2-3 record. It defeated Wake Forest in the Tangerine Bowl after the 1979 season, then lost to Iowa (2004) and Penn State (2010) before beating Louisville (2016).

The Tigers’ most recent appearance came after the 2017 season, when they lost to a Notre Dame team coached by current LSU head coach Brian Kelly.

The 1979 game marked Charles McClendon’s final game as the Tigers’ head coach, and the 2004 game (played on New Year’s Day 2005) marked Nick Saban’s final game as their head coach.

It seems highly unlikely that Kelly will be in a similar position to McClendon and Saban in this one.

4. The kicking games

Let’s start with the positive.

Purdue’s Mitchell Fineran was 5-for-5 on field-goal attempts in the Big Ten title game.

LSU has been at a disadvantage on special teams in nearly every game it has played this season.

The field-goal unit was especially problematic in the SEC Championship Game. Not only was a short field-goal attempt (32 yards) by Damian Ramos blocked, but the entire Tigers unit had a collective brain cramp.

No one seemed to realize the ball was live because no one made an attempt to down it. Georgia’s Christopher Smith took advantage and sped past the flat-footed LSU players on his way to a 96-yard touchdown.

Special teams always are a concern for this Tigers team, and the Citrus Bowl won’t be any different.

5. Boilermakers’ freshman running back

LSU was in position to earn a CFP berth before it lost its last 2 games.

No factor was bigger in those losses than the Tigers’ porous run defense.

Devon Achane rushed for 215 yards and 2 touchdowns to lead Texas A&M to a 38-23 victory 2 weeks ago. The Aggies finished with 274 rushing yards and an average of 5.5 yards per rush.

Then Georgia rushed for 255 yards and averaged 5.8 yards per rush.

The Tigers will have to do a better job of slowing down the Boilermakers’ Devin Mockobee if they are likely to avoid a 3rd straight loss.

Mockobee set a school record for a freshman by rushing for 920 yards this season.