The Washington State Cougars held on in a snowy El Paso to defeat the University of Miami Hurricanes 20-14 to win the 2015 Hyundai Sun Bowl, it was the Cougars first win bowl win since 2003.
The Cougars had its Air Raid offense back as sophomore quarterback Luke Falk made the start after missing the teams last game against the Washington Huskies when he was held out with concussion like symptoms. He started the game strong but struggled once the snow picked up in the second half going 29 of 53 for 295 yards and two touchdowns. He would go on to be voted the MVP for the Sun Bowl.
For the Hurricanes, Brad Kaaya was 17 of 31 for 219 yards with one touchdown and interception on the afternoon.
Washington State started the game with the ball and took just six plays to open the scoring in the 82nd edition of the Sun Bowl moving the ball 75 yards, before finishing the drive off with 31-yard pass to Jamal Morrow.
The University of Miami responded on its next drive moving the ball 69 yards on 15 plays converting two critical fourth down plays to keep the drive alive. Kaaya found Stacy Coley on a 4-yard pass on fourth and goal to put the touchdown on the board and knot it up at 7-7.
Overall though the first half belonged to Washington State as the Cougars would pick up a 30-yard field goal, followed by a 25-yard touchdown pass to Gabe Marks then a 25-yard field goal as time expired.
Late in the first half, Rayshawn Jenkins was ejected for the rest of the game following a targeting penalty after he took out Gabe Marks who was ruled a defenseless player on the play. The penalty helped set up the Washington State field goal to end the half 20-7.
In the second half, it was a show of defenses as the snow began coming down in buckets and both sides struggled to find momentum. Miami would make it interesting as the made it 20-14 on a 5-yard run by Mark Walton early in the fourth quarter.
Just two drives later, it looked as though the Cougars had set themselves up to infamously “Coug it” as they had in past recent bowl games as Miami looked to have taken the lead on a 5-yard run. But the storm dissipated faster then the Couging it as Herb Waters got nailed with an illegal block in the back on the touchdown run nullifying the gain in what was a completely unnecessary block costing the Hurricanes dearly. Two plays later, Walton would fumble the ball on the Washington State 4-yard line giving the ball back to the Cougars.
Washington State would punt on its next drive to give Miami one last chance at stealing the game as the snow began to lighten up somewhat. But on the first play, the Hurricanes tried a trick play, and it backfired as Joseph Yearby threw up a terrible pass that went end over end and into the hands of Shalom Luani who locked the game up for Washington State with the interception, his second game winning interception on the season after clinching the win in Oregon earlier this season. The team also donned it’s all red uniform combo in that game as well.
The Cougars would run out the clock to clinch the Sun Bowl victory finishing the season 9-4, the squads first winning season since 2003. This was the second time that Washington State has played in the Sun Bowl boasting its record to 2-0 all time now in this bowl game.
The loss leaves the Hurricanes continuing to look for its first bowl win since 2006, a streak of six consecutive bowl losses. This was the second time that Miami has played in the Sun Bowl, last time in 2010 in a game that also featured snow where they would also go on to lose and now sit 0-2 all time in the Sun Bowl.