Heritage Bowl

BETHUNE-COOKMAN (8-2) vs. SOUTHERN (8-3)

at Atlanta

9:30 a.m., Channel 4

* AT A GLANCE: Bethune-Cookman finished at the bottom of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference last year, and was picked to stay right there again this season. But the Wildcats turned it around, including a record eight-overtime victory against Virginia State, and gained their first Heritage Bowl bid and first postseason appearance in 21 years. “We have been in the dungeon for a long, long time,” Bethune Coach Alvin Wyatt said. “We have finally gotten out of the hole.” Bethune runs an option-format offense the coach calls the “Wyatt-Bone” and it is directed by quarterback Pa’tell Troutman, who ran for 1,054 yards and 15 touchdowns. Southern is a Heritage Bowl fixture. The Jaguars are playing in their fourth consecutive Heritage Bowl and fifth overall. The have a 3-1 record in the game between historically black colleges. Running back Steve Wofford rushed for 1,100 yards for Southern.

Insight.com Bowl

WEST VIRGINIA (8-3) vs. MISSOURI (7-4)

at Tucson

5 p.m., ESPN

* AT A GLANCE: If you like teams that can run the ball, this is the game for you. Missouri’s Devin West and West Virginia’s Amos Zereoue finished fifth and sixth in the nation in rushing. West gained 1,578 yards, or 143.5 a game. Zereoue, the Big East Conference’s all-time rushing leader, gained 1,430, or 143 a game. Each averaged 5.6 yards a carry. The Mountaineers are more balanced at quarterback, where Marc Bulger is the school’s all-time leading passer with 5,995 yards. This year, the junior passed for 3,178 yards and a school-record 27 touchdowns with only nine interceptions. Missouri’s Corby Jones rushed for 2,533 yards in four seasons and accounted for 64 touchdowns--38 rushing and 26 passing. The Tigers lost to four teams currently ranked among the top 14--Ohio State (35-14), Nebraska (20-13), Texas A&M; (17-14) and Kansas State (31-25). West Virginia tumbled out of the national rankings after consecutive midseason losses to Miami and Virginia Tech, then regrouped and won its last four, including a 35-28 victory over eventual Big East champion Syracuse. The game will be played in Arizona Stadium, where Missouri Coach Larry Smith has experienced just about every emotion a college coach can have. Smith, who has a home in Tucson and plans to retire there, coached at Arizona for seven seasons, culminating with trips to the Sun and Aloha bowls in 1985 and ’86. But he left for USC, angering Wildcat fans, then further upset them when he made an obscene gesture to the crowd when the Trojans were beaten in Tucson a few years later. Don Nehlen, his counterpart, is fourth on the all-time victory list among active Division I coaches. His Mountaineers have lost their last seven bowl games.