College Football | Cal gets its look at Miami mystique in Emerald Bowl

SAN FRANCISCO — When Worrell Williams was a standout high-school linebacker in Sacramento, Calif., his college choice came down to nearby California or exotic Miami, where his older brother was a star.

Although he decided to stay close to home, Williams knows more than most of his fellow Golden Bears about the Miami mystique they will face in tonight's Emerald Bowl.

"That's an amazing program," Williams said. "With the history they have there, and just the whole atmosphere around the University of Miami, it's an honor to be on the same field with them. But still, we also think we can beat them. We're going in expecting to win."

A baseball stadium packed with perhaps shivering Cal fans will have much the same thoughts when the Golden Bears (8-4) essentially host Miami (7-5) in the seventh edition of the bowl game, but the first featuring one of the Bay Area's two Pac-10 schools.

The Bears traversed the Bay Bridge repeatedly this week, going from a hotel in the city to their regular practice fields in Berkeley to prepare for their sixth consecutive bowl appearance under coach Jeff Tedford. Yet Tedford doesn't see a huge advantage in being home, aside from a free trip to Alcatraz and the support of Cal's fans, who snapped up every available ticket — including roughly half of Miami's allotment.

"These are two very evenly matched teams, actually," said Tedford, who is 4-1 in bowl games. "Both of them have a lot of speed. All the speed that's on the field is going to be very exciting for our fans."

After missing the postseason in 2007 in coach Randy Shannon's debut year, Miami was eager to get back into bowl action, even if it meant traveling across the country for the holidays and practicing at City College of San Francisco in the bone-chilling rainy weather for which the city is known.

The Hurricanes lost their last two games and missed the chance to play for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship, but Cal's mix of speed and experience — along with its 3-4 defense — provides plenty of challenges to a program hoping to take its biggest step forward in Shannon's rebuilding project.

"I watch football late at night, and I see a lot of Pac-10 games," Shannon said. "We know about Cal. They're a very run-oriented team, but they can take shots downfield as well. There's going to be a lot of speed on both sides, but you'll also see two tough teams. I know it's going to be a great TV game, that's for sure."

Miami hasn't played in California since the 2002 Rose Bowl victory in Pasadena that completed its national-championship run for the 2001 season.

Notes

• Army filled its coaching vacancy by heeding a West Point value: History matters.

Rich Ellerson grew up around Black Knights football and is leaving his coaching job at Cal Poly to come to a place he knows well. His father and two brothers graduated from the U.S. Military Academy, where brother John helped the 1962 team finish with a 6-4 record. And he has worked before with former Army coaches Jim Young and Bob Sutton.

Ellerson, 54, replaces Stan Brock, who was fired Dec. 12 after consecutive 3-9 seasons. This season ended with a 34-0 loss to Navy.

• Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio has agreed to a revised contract that will raise his annual compensation from $1.13 million to $1.8 million.

Dantonio, Spartans athletic director Mark Hollis and school president Lou Anna K. Simon reached the agreement Friday. The initial term of the contract, a five-year rolling deal with a base salary of $618,000, remains the same, but the revisions include an increase in supplemental income from $500,000 to $869,000 annually and a $200,000 contingent yearly bonus if he remains Michigan State's coach through June 30 every year.