Washington is much better than its record. Can the Huskies make a bowl statement?

Bowls with regional ties are good for attendance and interest. But sometimes it’s fun to see two teams with no ties whatsoever. It probably went without saying that Washington and Southern Miss have never played each other. Hell, this might be these schools’ first meeting in any sport. But both are capping unique, interesting seasons in a famous locale.

Dec. 26, 2:20 ET, ESPN.

In 2014, Chris Petersen’s first year, Washington went a misleading 8-6. The Huskies were 8-1 against teams that ranked worse than 70th in the F/+ rankings and 0-5 against teams that ranked better. They kept a five-year bowl streak alive -- and after their seven-year bowlless streak from 2003-09, that’s no small feat -- but considering they had three All-Americans on defense and didn’t beat anybody with a pulse, the season wasn’t impressive.

This year, it’s a different story. Despite a painfully young offense, the Huskies improved from 58th in F/+ to 22nd. They won at USC and crushed three other Pac-12 foes (Arizona, Oregon State, and Washington State, two of which finished better than .500) by an average of 49-7. Despite youth -- freshman quarterback, freshman running back, five sophomores among nine leading tacklers -- they demonstrated an upside that didn’t exist in Petersen’s first season.

They also went 6-6. At best, they will finish a half-game behind their 2014 record. They went 1-5 in games decided by 11 or fewer points. They still did fine against bad teams (3-0 against teams ranked worse than 70th) but played fewer of them. The improvement was clear, both in upside (the blowout wins) and record against teams with a pulse (3-6 > 0-5), but the overall record regressed.

Losses aside, this team passed quite a few tests. When you hand your offense to freshmen, you’re hoping to see in-season improvement, and UW demonstrated that. After generating a 129.3 passer rating through six games (which isn’t terrible for a freshman), quarterback Jake Browning produced a 151.3 in his final five games. He stepped into a pothole against Arizona State (three interceptions) but looked magnificent in the Arizona and Oregon State wins (combined: 34-for-44, 474 yards, eight TDs, no INTs). Myles Gaskin wasn’t incredible down the stretch, but he was steady, logging at least 18 carries in seven of the last eight games.

Stumbles against decent-not-great teams and an inability to close out close games was a reminder that Washington is not yet to its intended destination. But the blowout wins were a reminder of where the Huskies could be headed.

Southern Miss might have the most unique recent history in college football. Overnight, the Golden Eagles went from steady to destitute.

For a couple of decades, they were most known for their consistent success: from 1994-2011, they finished with a winning record every year. They won fewer than seven games just three times, but for the first 17 years of his 18-year streak, they also never finished with more than nine. They were always good, never great. In 2011, they broke through with a 12-2 campaign and Conference USA title ... and then won four games over the next three seasons.

Head coach Larry Fedora left following the wonderful 2011, and suddenly Southern Miss had nothing to offer. Ellis Johnson went 0-12 in 2012, quickly giving way to Todd Monken, who went 4-20 in his first two years. A 3-3 start in 2015 featured a tight loss to Nebraska, but there was minimal reason to think drastic success was on the horizon.

But against a series of dreadful Conference USA opponents -- between October 17 and November 21, the Golden Eagles played five consecutive teams ranked worse than 110th in S&P+ -- the team found its footing. USM made bad opponents look awful, ripping off five consecutive wins by an average of 46-15. And with newfound confidence in tow, they traveled to Louisiana Tech on November 28 and stole the C-USA West crown (from a decidedly decent team, mind you) with a decisive 58-24 win.

USM ran out of steam in the second half of the conference title game against WKU, but the Golden Eagles finished the regular season 9-4, more than doubling the number of wins they had managed since Fedora left.

Monken’s offense is all sorts of aggressive. Southern Miss has 102 gains of 20-plus yards, 12 more than anybody else in the country. Washington’s defense is sound enough to create plenty of issues for the Golden Eagles, and the Southern Miss defense had the tendency of giving up a few too many big plays. But with a lit fuse for an offense, Southern Miss could give the Huskies a scare.

Check out the monstrous stat preview here.

Leverage rate is your ratio of standard downs to passing downs. It is a quick way to figure out how well you’re staying on schedule.

On standard downs, the best unit on the field is, by far, Washington’s defense. The worst is Washington’s offense. And while Southern Miss probably won’t find an incredible number of opportunities to exploit the Huskies’ defense, if they can force a young QB into passing downs, they’ll have a chance to pull an upset.

In Washington’s six wins, the Huskies have managed a standard downs success rate of 55.6 percent. In their six losses, it’s 36.9 percent. Southern Miss has a pretty good pass rush in obvious passing situations, and you can get to Browning: Washington’s allowing a 10.7 percent sack rate on passing downs, 113th in the country. Get stops on first down, and Southern Miss can stay in the game for 60 minutes. But if the young Husky offense is remaining in comfortable downs and distances, this could turn into the kind of blowout Washington wins tend to become.