Miami falls to Washington State 20-14 in snowy Sun Bowl

Dec 26, 2015; El Paso, TX, USA; Fans look on during the second half of the game between the Washington State Cougars and the Miami Hurricanes at Sun Bowl Stadium. “In the locker room we just talked about executing”.

Miami threatened twice inside WSU territory in the final four minutes.

Erik Powell added field goals of 30 and 25 yards to help the Cougars (9-4) win a bowl game for the first time since the 2003 Holiday Bowl. He threw touchdown passes of 31 yards to running back Jamal Morrow and 25 yards to receiver Gabe Marks.

Miami went methodical and balanced on its opening drive, using a mix of run and pass plays to take almost seven minutes off the clock before Coley – who may have played in his final game as a Hurricane – caught a 4-yard pass from Kaaya and got into the end zone to tie the game. “We didn’t win the game, but we still played all the way through”.

“It was both swirly and soaking wet”, Leach said.

The Canes wasted one of the best halves of football their defense played this season. You just have to hang in there. “That’s a play we carried into the game”. Washington State fumbled in the second quarter, but the defense forced a three-and-out. By then, the Cougars defense found itself and gave Miami’s offense and quarterback Brad Kaaya fits from there. Braxton Berrios’ 60-yard end-around run set up Mark Walton’ 5-yard scoring run that cut it to 20-14 with 13:10 left. But Miami couldn’t complete the comeback. The attitude of the team decided that they weren’t going to let the weather or anything like that be a distraction or change our focus or what we came here to do. “They fought to the bitter end…when you fight and you keep calling and believing that things don’t work out, it hurts, but at the same time I told them they had nothing to be ashamed of”. “The challenging part isn’t to make a play here and there, the challenging part is to be consistent…”

Falk, a 6-4 sophomore, emerged to lead the top passing attack in the nation.

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.

“It (the win) was awesome”, Marks said. It has just been a good team effort all season long. “I thought defense at the end played well together and we were a tough group of guys”. The Cougars won 20-14.

The loss caps another up-and-down season for the Hurricanes (8-5), who saw coach Al Golden dismissed in October after a humiliating 56-0 loss to Clemson. Wazzu hadn’t won a bowl game since 2003.

Story of the game: The weather was the story of the Sun Bowl, as a snowstorm raged for the majority of the contest.

NOTES: Miami interim coach Larry Scott coached the Hurricanes, but his future with the program is uncertain.

After the game, Scott said he has no idea whether or not he would be retained by Richt and his new coaching staff. The Hurricanes took over at the Washington State 28 after a punt. Sun Bowl attendance was 41,180. WSU QB Luke Falk’s 38 touchdown passes are a school record….