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Wisconsin arrives for Orange Bowl,
The University of Wisconsin football team deplaned at Miami International Air
port late Sunday and found palm trees bristling in the 75-degree Christmas Eve heat under fading blue skies, punctuated by feathery pink clouds. It was quite different from the Badgers’ home of Madison, where the forecast for Christmas Eve was 8 degrees with snow.
That was one reason that players smiled and embraced the setting sun as they disembarked their Atlas Air Boeing 747 in gray sweatsuits and walked to their buses carrying complimentary oranges.
“We actually were delayed because we were defrosting the plane,” tight end Troy Fumagalli said. “So it’s nice.”
The other main reason Badger players were happy was obvious. Despite most players having to leave their families and friends behind for the holidays to travel for the Orange Bowl, which pits the No. 6 Badgers (12-1) against the hometown No. 10 Hurricanes (10-2), they want to play in this game.
“It’s great to be here,” coach Paul Chryst said as the team motorcade roared in the background. “We’re excited to be a part of the Orange Bowl.”
This group of Badgers is the first to ever play in the Orange Bowl, and a win would be the program’s second in a row in a New Year’s
Six Bowl after it beat Western Michigan in last season’s Cotton Bowl. Plus, it would mean spoiling a reawakening for the Hurricanes, who are hoping to end the season with a win after losing their two most recent games.
Wisconsin also suffered its only loss of 2017 in its most recent game — the Big Ten championship against Ohio State — which the Badgers lost 27-21 and likely missed out on a spot in the College Football Playoff as a result. Beating Miami would be a way to quell questions about what could have been.
“We didn’t win it,” linebacker T.J. Edwards said of the Big Ten title, “but we have to do what we can to finish the season strong.”
Local connections: Wisconsin features nine players from Florida, including five from Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Among
the most prominent is Lauderdale Lakes-Boyd Anderson alum Derrick Tindal, a cornerback who has two interceptions this year and also returns kicks. Wideout George Rushing (Fort Lauderdale-Cardinal Gibbons), cornerback Faion Hicks (Pembroke Pines-Flanagan) and cornerback Dontye Carriere-Williams (Fort Lauderdale-St.Thomas Aquinas)
form the rest of UW’s South Florida contingent.