Mountaineers Arrive
MIAMI – The West Virginia University football team made an Orange Carpet arrival in Miami on Thursday afternoon. The Mountaineers will face Clemson in the 2012 Discover Orange Bowl to be played at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. West Virginia players and coaches are anxious to get to work. “It’s exciting to be here,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “Obviously, the team has had a couple of days off. We got a lot of work done in Morgantown and then we gave them a few days off for Christmas and showed up today. It’s pretty festive, it’s pretty exciting, and we look forward to going to the Fontainebleau to get settled in and enjoy a week’s worth of festivities, but also understand that we are down here to win a football game.” Senior linebacker Najee Goode concurred. “I’m thanking God for the opportunity to play in a game like this,” he said. “We get to have a little fun while we are down here but we’ve got to stay on the task at hand and stay focus.” Added left tackle Don Barclay, ““Everyone’s excited. Everyone was looking out the window (of the plane) seeing all of the oranges and everything. This is a great atmosphere, the weather is nice and everyone’s pumped to get this game on.” Holgorsen said the team will spend the remainder of Thursday getting familiarized with the hotel and the schedule for the upcoming week in Florida. “We have to go get settled at the hotel and give them their itineraries and make sure they understand that they need to be where they are supposed to be when we tell them to be there,” he said. So far, Holgorsen says he has been impressed with everything the Orange Bowl has to offer. “Well, I’ve been fortunate to go to, I think it’s either my 12th or 13th in a row – I lose track of it, but I’ve been to some pretty good ones and everybody that I’ve talked to across the country – whether they have been in this game or not – says this is one of the most anticipated games in all of the bowl season,” he said. “And that is due to the fact that they’ve been playing games here since 1935, having national championships and games that I grew up watching. It’s going to be a pretty good experience. You can tell from the festive environment right now that all of these guys in orange coats take this pretty seriously. They want everybody to have a good time.” The players, coaches and staff members took a moment to admire the large West Virginia billboard adorned with Mountaineer players on the two team busses the squad will use this week. Driving those around South Florida will certainly be beneficial to West Virginia because the Miami area has historically been an important recruiting territory for the Mountaineers. “The exposure in South Florida is big,” said Holgorsen. “Obviously this is a big recruiting base for us and we have at least a dozen kids from this area the way it is … but, just the overall aspect of a BCS game, the Orange Bowl – dating back to 1935 – and having a tremendous amount of exposure on national TV and historically just having as many good games as they’ve had over the course of the last 80 years is something we understand and respect. “The whole overall exposure from a national standpoint is every bit as important as it is from a local standpoint.” West Virginia will begin workouts at Barry University on Friday afternoon. Be sure to check out camera phone arrival pictures on Mountaineer football's official Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/WVUFootball. While you are there, make sure to check the "Like" button to have Mountaineer football news delivered right to your Facebook page. Tags 2012 Discover Orange Bowl, West Virginia Mountaineers, Clemson Tigers |
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