Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Rematch set: Hurricanes to face Wisconsin
Last year’s bowl foes to meet again, at Yankee Stadium
CORAL GABLES — It may not have been the matchup they expected or that many college football experts projected, but the Miami Hurricanes will take it.
Miami on Sunday accepted a bid to play in the Pinstripe Bowl in New York’s Yankee Stadium on Dec. 27 (5:15 p.m.; ESPN) and there, the Hurricanes will face a team that’s become somewhat of a familiar postseason foe — Wisconsin.
Last December, the Badgers handed the Hurricanes a season-ending 34-24 loss in the Orange Bowl on Miami’s home field at Hard Rock Stadium.
Now, the Hurricanes will have the chance to avenge that loss and end what has been a somewhat tumultuous season on a positive note.
“The bowls are interesting in that it’s the finish of
this year and it’s kind of the beginning of next year,” Hurricanes coach Mark Richt said. “So, it’s very meaningful to our seniors. Obviously, it’ll be the last game that they’ll wear that uniform and wear the ‘U’ on their helmet. But it’s also important for our young guys, too, to have a great performance working ourselves into the offseason and into next year. It’s big for a lot of reasons.
“We know Wisconsin is a very good team, played them last year, obviously and didn’t get it done. We know they’re an outstanding team and we believe we are too, so, I think it’ll be a great matchup.”
For the better part of the two weeks after Miami closed the regular season out with a 24-3 victory over ACC Coastal Division champion Pittsburgh, most bowl projections had the Hurricanes staying in-state, closing their season in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville on New Year’s Eve.
Even as early as Sunday morning, that seemed to be the thought, but last-minute shuffling in the ACC meant North Carolina State wound up in the Gator Bowl and that sent Miami to the Pinstripe, another one of the conference’s Tier 1 bowl games.
It also created the somewhat unorthodox rematch against Wisconsin, whom Miami faced not only last year, but in 2009 at the Champs Sports Bowl, too.
Most bowl games and conferences usually try to avoid those kinds of scenarios, but the matchup between the Hurricanes and Badgers, officials decided, was compelling enough to have the teams meet again.
And for Miami, which has a large alumni base in the Northeast, the game seemed a natural fit, athletic director Blake James said.
“That northeast corridor, I think we’ll have a lot of people that will be excited to have us up there and they’ll come out,” James said. “It’s a situation where since we left being in a conference with Rutgers, we’re not in that market on a regular basis. …
“Even [Boston College], we’re there once every 12 years. Ironically, we were there this year, but we’re not really in that New York metropolitan area, and I think our alumni and fan base really will be excited to be there and what’s not to be excited about? It’ll be a great game against a great institution and football program and one hosted by a world-class organization.”
Entering their Pinstripe Bowl matchup, Miami and Wisconsin find themselves in somewhat similar situations with matching 7-5 records.
Both started the year with championship aspirations and preseason top-10 rankings, but both have disappointingly struggled.
The Badgers, who were ranked No. 4 in the preseason AP Top 25 and were considered a potential College Football Playoff team, closed the regular season with a 37-15 loss to a six-win Minnesota team that, until this year, hadn’t beaten Wisconsin since 2003.
The Hurricanes, meanwhile, started the season ranked No. 8 and were widely expected to repeat as the ACC’s Coastal Division champions.
Instead, Miami opened the year with a loss to LSU and then endured a fourgame losing streak that knocked the Hurricanes out of the top 25 rankings and cost them the opportunity to play for the conference championship.
The bowl berth marks Miami’s sixth in a row and its third straight under Richt, though this will be the first time in the coach’s time at his alma mater that the Hurricanes will leave their home state to play their bowl game.
Miami is 1-1 in bowl games under Richt and 1-7 in its last eight bowl games overall.
The Hurricanes’ 31-14 win over West Virginia in the 2016 Russell Athletic Bowl marked their last postseason win — and their first bowl victory in a decade.
The Hurricanes finished the regular season with all four of their scholarship tight ends nursing various injuries.
While veterans Michael Irvin II and Brian Polendey had been out for weeks with season-ending injuries, both Brevin Jordan and Will Mallory were hurt in Miami’s win over Virginia Tech on Nov. 17 and missed the regular-season finale against Pittsburgh.
On Sunday, Richt said he remains hopeful the two freshmen will be available against Wisconsin.