Orange Bowl Preview

— -- Where: Miami

When: Wed., Jan. 3, 8 p.m. ET (ABC)

Payout: $11 million-$13 million

Teams’ Bowl Performances Last Year:

Oklahoma lost to Mississippi 27-25 in the Independence Bowl Florida State beat Virginia Tech 46-29 in the Sugar Bowl

What to Watch For

The Orange Bowl features two quarterbacks that finished 76 votes apart for the Heisman Trophy in one of the closest votes in history. The winner, Florida State’s Chris Weinke, is the main reason why the talented, third-ranked Seminoles are appearing in their third straight national championship and are favored to win this year against unbeaten No. 1 Oklahoma.

Weinke led the nation with a school-record 4,167 yards passing and finished second behind Boise State’s Bart Hendricks for the most touchdowns with 33 despite having sprained his foot midway through the season.

Heisman Trophy runner-up Josh Heupel of Oklahoma certainly knows how to engineer big wins against highly ranked and regarded teams, however. The Sooners strung together a series of games in October that stunned their opponents and at last got people talking about Oklahoma’s first chance at a national championship in 13 years. After routing then-No. 11 Texas 63-14, Oklahoma handed then-No. 3 Kansas State its first loss with a 41-31 road win. For an encore, the Sooners knocked off then-No. 1 Nebraska the next week in one of the most watched games of the season and soon found themselves ranked No. 1.

Behind a strong offensive line that allowed just 17 sacks all season, Heupel threw for 3,392 yards and 20 touchdowns while rushing for seven scores. Seven Sooners finished the regular season with at least 20 receptions, proving Heupel has ample outlets to move the spread offense. A tender elbow in the last four games of the season prevented Heupel from significantly padding his stats other than interceptions — he finished the season with 14. The injury is not expected to give him trouble in the Orange Bowl.