Miami Releases Awesome Hype Video For Sun Bowl Against Washington State

With the exception of two drives to start the first and fourth quarters, the Washington State defense was practically flawless throughout the 20-14 Sun Bowl win over Miami.

Miami (8-4), despite its storied history, hasn’t won a bowl game since 2006, going 0-5 since then.

As the snow began to stick to his players’ shoes, WSU coach Mike Leach was moved to lament that the Cougars only had “one or two of those foot-scraper things and you needed 11”.

Miami entered the fourth quarter trailing 20-7, which was the same as the halftime score.

But UM tried a halfback pass with running back Joe Yearby, and the wounded duck he tossed up flittered into the hands of Cougars safety Shalom Luani. Instead of tying the game and having an extra point for the lead, Walton fumbled inside the five and Washington State recovered. He threw touchdown passes of 31 yards to running back Jamal Morrow and 25 yards to receiver Gabe Marks.

Falk who missed the team’s last game of the regular season and had not played in over a month, would be named Player of the Game after completing 29 of 53 passes for 295 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

The Miami Hurricanes don’t have numbers that jump off the page with middle of the row numbers on both sides of the ball but game through enough to win eight games. Also, the Hurricanes are among the worst teams in the nation on third down (opponents are converting at a 39.3 percent rate) and in the red zone (giving up scores 89.6 percent of the time).

“Plays were there to be made”, Kaaya said.

The same mistakes that plagued Miami all season came back to hurt the Canes when they got the ball back. Hes as talented as anybody in our conference.”The Sun Bowl has been played in a snowstorm a few times through its long history. Yearby lined up in the wildcat formation and handed the ball off to wide receiver Braxton Berrios (on an end-around) who took it to the house for a 60-yard touchdown, giving the ‘Canes life. Washington State head coach Mike Leach, lower left, looks on.

This was an unusual season for Miami, highlighted by the program’s 58-0 cratering against Clemson on October 24 that led to the firing of Al Golden. Falk completed over 70% of his passes, throwing for 4,266 yards and 36 touchdowns.

Oakes tied the game at 17-17 with a 45-yard field goal with just three seconds left in the first half.

The Hurricanes finished their season 8-5 and have now lost six consecutive bowl games – the Sun on Saturday, the Independence Bowl past year, the Russell Athletic in 2013, the Sun in 2010, the Champs Sports in 2009 and the Emerald in 2008. Not to mention, Luke Falk is the best player on the field. “We’re playing in a situation where we need all of our defensive backs, and we’re down a DB so everyone is going to have to step their games up again”.

After giving up 138 offensive yards in the opening quarter, the Cougars defense held Miami to 21 offensive yards in the second quarter, got a turnover, forced a turnover on downs and sacked Kaaya twice. The Hurricanes have hired former Georgia coach Mark Richt as head coach for next season. Rashawn Scott had a good performance for the Hurricanes, pulling in seven receptions for 74 yards and one TD.