Cougars have several advantages over Miami in Sun Bowl

Mike Leach will match wits with Miami's interim coach, Larry Scott, in Saturday's Sun Bowl. (AP)

In a game featuring two 8-4 teams, Washington State faces Miami in the Sun Bowl on Saturday, and 710 ESPN Seattle’s coverage starts at 9 a.m. on with kickoff at 11.

When filling out my college bowl pool predictions every year, I try to go with teams that are thrilled to be there as opposed to teams that would prefer to be somewhere else.

I’m guessing the Cougs are happier to be in El Paso, Texas than the Hurricanes, whose program has experienced bigger bowls on a more consistent basis. Washington State is playing in its second bowl game in 12 years, so I’m thinking we’re still at the point of being excited to play a bonus game in December no matter where it is.

I also like to think we have an edge in the coaching department. Mike Leach has turned the program around while Miami fired Al Golden during the season and will have an interim coach, Larry Scott, on the sideline Saturday. Mark Richt will take over next year. I’ll take coaching stability over coaching upheaval every day of the week.

Here’s another factor that favor the Cougs. Completely unsolicited, Brock Huard — who knows a little something about college football because he’s an ESPN analyst — said he thinks Washington State will beat the Hurricanes. He saw five Miami games last year, and he’s seen Washington State a bunch this year.

Huard thinks the Cougars will be Sun Bowl champions for whatever that’s worth, and I think it’s worth a lot. He’s got more credibility than I have at least, particularly when it comes to Washington State when I occasionally let my subjectivity get in the way of clear thinking. As in, how in the world could I have thought the Cougs were going to beat the Huskies in the Apple Cup with a backup quarterback going against that Washington defense in a road game? Dumb, I say, stupid, I say, crazy to think we were going to win that game as the Huskies proved, winning 45-10. Oh well, Go Cougs.

Luke Falk will play in this game, and that figures to be the difference. Falk averages 388 passing yards a game. Gabe Marks, who suffered a leg injury in the fourth quarter of the Apple Cup, is practicing again and appears good to go. He led Cougar receivers with 99 catches for 1,125 yards and 14 touchdowns.

I read something about Miami and its sorry run defense, which allows 210 rushing yards a game, 13th in the ACC. Hopefully the Cougs can take advantage of that too with Gerard Wicks, Jamal Morrow and Keith Harrington finding room to run to complement the Air Raid offense.

On the other side of the ball, the Cougars ranked 93rd nationally, but I was still mostly encouraged by the defense’s play this year. It will have to contend with Brad Kaaya, who averaged an ACC-leading 274.5 passing yards a game. Joseph Yearby is the guy to stop on the ground. He rushed for 939 yards and six touchdowns.

Miami should be 7-5 instead of 8-4 after beating Duke 30-27 on Halloween, returning a kickoff for a touchdown with no time remaining and doing it like Cal did against Stanford years ago. The only thing missing from this lateral-fest was a marching band on the field. That started a run of four wins in the last five games for Miami.

Even if I were writing this from a Hurricanes point of view, I’d have to think Washington State has the advantage, however slight, in this game. Las Vegas favors us by 2.5 to 3 points, and if those sharpies on the Strip are right, I hope Erik Powell kicks the game-winner in the final minute.

Besides, we owe them one for taking Dennis Erickson away in 1988 after we beat Houston in the Aloha Bowl. I’ll never forget that game, Tuineau Alipate saving our bacon by knocking the ball away from a Houston receiver and Artie Holmes recovering it to preserve a 24-22 victory.

I also remember seeing Erickson having cocktails on Waikiki Beach that night, and the next time I saw him, it was on TV in a news conference announcing that he was leaving to become the Hurricanes’ head coach.

Twenty-seven years later, we’ll even the score.

Line: Cougs by 2.5
Prediction: Washington State 41, Miami 38