Hurricanes to play Oklahoma State in Cheez-It Bowl
Coach Manny Diaz ‘suspects’ senior quarterback De’Eriq King will play in the bowl game. But starting defensive end Quincy Roche has opted out.
This long college football season filled with joy, pain and plenty of uncertainty, will end Dec. 29 for the Miami Hurricanes as they go for their third bowl win since 2006.
The University of Miami learned Sunday it will face the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Cheez-It Bowl at 5:30 p.m. a week from Tuesday at Camping
World Stadium in Orlando.
It is only the second time that the Hurricanes (8-2, 7-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) will meet the Cowboys (7-3, 6-3 Big 12). The other time was Oct. 5,
1991, when the Canes cruised to a 40-3 win in the Orange Bowl en route to their fourth national title.
Canes coach Manny Diaz said he “suspects” that fifth-year senior quarterback “De’Eriq [King] will be playing in this game,’’ which is welcomed news at a time that many college players, including UM starting defensive end Jaelan Phillips, are opting out of bowl games to prepare for the NFL Draft.
“It’s 2020, right?’’ Diaz said, when asked if others are opting out. “There’s always a potential now that we know the destination. It sounds like a lot of them do want to play in it. We’ll all find out together here I suspect in the next 24 hours. Hopefully we’ll know exactly who all is in.”
About two hours later, UM’s other starting defensive end, fifth-year senior Quincy Roche, announced he was opting out as well.
Diaz said he plans for his team to arrive in Orlando next Sunday.
COWBOYS 3RD IN BIG 12
Oklahoma State, unranked in the AP Top 25 Poll and No. 21 in the Amway Coaches Poll, finished third in the Big 12 behind Iowa State and Oklahoma. The Cowboys ended the regular season No. 21 in the College Football Playoff rankings.
“We’re delighted to have the invite and going back to Orlando,’’ Diaz said. “Everyone knows it has been a challenging season in college football, but to
get our guys the reward of, in our mind, going to one of the best bowl destinations in the country and to be in a great matchup against a team like Oklahoma State... Mike Gundy has built a terrific program.”
The Cowboys defeated Tulsa (6-1), West Virginia (5-4), Kansas (0-9), Iowa State (8-3), Kansas State (4-6), Texas Tech (4-6) and Baylor (2-7) this season. They lost to Texas (6-3) on Oct. 31, at Oklahoma (8-2) on Nov. 21 and at TCU
(6-4) on Dec. 5.
“We’ll get three or four practices in before we go to the bowl game,’’ said Cowboys coach Gundy, who is allowing his players to go home for three nights to celebrate Christmas with their families. “I can’t imagine they won’t be excited about getting some quality practice in, especially when they know we’re playing a team as good as Miami.’’
The Hurricanes, who finished third in the ACC behind College Football
Playoff No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 2 Clemson, defeated Alabama-Birmingham (6-3), Louisville (4-7), Florida State (3-6), Pittsburgh (6-5), Virginia (5-5), North Carolina State (8-3), Virginia Tech (5-6) and Duke (2-9). They lost at Clemson (10-1) on Oct. 10 and in the regular-season finale to North Carolina (8-3) on Dec. 12.
The Canes finished at No. 18 in the final College Football Playoff rankings and moved up one spot on
Sunday to No. 18 in both the AP and Coaches polls.
EASING THE ANGST
A UMbowl victory would go a long way in easing the angst from its horrendous 62-26 loss to North Carolina, which will end up at the Canes’ home field at Hard Rock Stadium in the Capital One Orange Bowl, where the Canes would have gone had they beaten the Tar Heels.
“I think our guys are upset,’’ Diaz said. “I think we have a team that has a bad taste in their mouths from the way we finished and they do not think that’s representative of who they were the rest of the year.
“We did try to mentally reboot the system. But we’ve got to get back to work. We need a great week of practice to prepare to win this football game because it is not going to be easy.”
The Cheez-It Bowl was formerly known as the Camping World Bowl and before that the Russell Athletic Bowl, in which the Canes beat West Virginia in 2016 but lost to Louisville in 2013. Before UM’s 2016 win, its previous bowl victory came in 2006 against Nevada in the MPC Computers Bowl.
Last season, Miami lost 14-0 to Louisiana Tech in the Independence Bowl and finished 6-7.
The Canes are 20-23 in bowls since their first, a win against Manhattan, at the Palm Festival in 1933.
Roche, who transferred from Temple, had a strong year for the Hurricanes and was projected on Thursday by ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. to be the sixth “outside linebacker” taken in the draft.
Roche finished 2020 with 45 tackles, 141⁄ tackles for
2
loss and 4 1⁄ sacks, 5 QB
2
hurries, 3 fumble recoveries and 2 forced fumbles.
Phillips is projected by Kiper to be the 12th overall player and first defensive end drafted.