Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Hurricanes head to Russell Athletic Bowl
After a pair of chilly outof-state bowl trips, the Miami Hurricanes will end this year relatively close to home.
Miami’s four-game win streak to end the season helped the Hurricanes secure a spot in one of the ACC’s premier bowl games and Sunday, Miami accepted a bid to play in the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando.
In the Dec. 28th game, set for a 5:30 p.m. kickoff on ESPN, the Hurricanes will face an old foe – former Big East rival West Virginia.
“I’m very excited about this opportunity to play in Orlando, to play in the Russell Athletic Bowl. I’ve not talked to any of the players, but I’ve talked to a couple coaches, and I know everybody is really loving this opportunity,” Hurricanes coach Mark Richt said Sunday.
“We’re going to play a great team in West Virginia, just got 10 victories this season and coach [Dana Holgorsen] has done a great job there. We know Orlando itself is a great town and a great place to have a bowl. … It’ll be a great challenge and a lot of fun for us.”
It’s the second time in four years the Hurricanes will play in the game set to take place at the recently renovated and re-named Camping World Stadium. In 2013, after Miami’s twoyear self imposed bowl ban in the wake of the NCAA’s protracted investigation into the program’s dealings with a former booster, the Hurricanes made the trip north to face Louisville in the Russell Athletic Bowl.
That night, the Cardinals — led by current Vikings quarterback and former Miami commit Teddy Bridgewater — dominated in a 36-9 win, spoiling the Hurricanes’ postseason return.
This time, the Hurricanes (8-4, 5-3) will look for a different outcome and their first bowl win since 2006.
Before the regular season, several Miami players noted they were motivated to end the Hurricanes’ sixgame bowl losing streak while closing the season — Richt’s first at Miami – with a fifth consecutive win.
“To play ourselves into a fairly good bowl game and finish the season with a five-game win streak, I don’t think that’s happened here in a while,” Miami quarterback Brad Kaaya said after the Hurricanes’ 40-21 win over Duke to close the regular season. “I don’t think we’ve won a bowl game in who knows how long, so just to finish on that high note, it’d be huge. It would set the platform for next year.”
Doing that against their former Big East rival won’t be easy, though.
The 16th-ranked Mountaineers (10-2, 7-2 Big 12) are enjoying their first 10-win season since 2011. They have one of the nation’s more potent offenses, averaging 506.9 yards per game. They’ll test a much-improved Miami defense, which has improved under coordinator Manny Diaz and now is among national leaders in tackles for loss (8.25 per game) and scoring defense (18.9 points per game).
The two programs have met 19 times, with most of the matchups coming while the two shared a conference. The Hurricanes own a 16-3 record in the all-time series, with Miami, then ranked No. 2 in the nation, winning the most recent matchup 22-20 in 2003.
Now the Hurricanes will look to add to that record, while ending a decade’s worth of bowl frustrations.
“I think it’s very important. I think our guys know that,” Richt said about the possibility of snapping the bowl losing streak. “Obviously every guy that’s in the room, whether they’ve been there one year or three or four years, they haven’t had a victory at the end of the year. And I know they’re hungry for it. I know I am too. … I’m not going to make that the only focus … It’s going to be more about doing all the things you need to do to win a football game, not just necessarily this bowl game.”