Gators’ Mullen, UVA’s Mendenhall come to South Florida for Orange Bowl party, recruiting
A giant glass bowl atop a majestic base marked by the word “CHAMPION” doubles as the Capital One Orange Bowl trophy. On Wednesday, that trophy was stuffed with plump, fresh oranges at the Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood.
Beneath it: the football helmets of the Virginia Cavaliers and Florida Gators.
Both teams in the 86th Orange Bowl will be vying for that trophy on Dec. 30 at Hard Rock Stadium, and their coaches came to the Hard Rock’s annual kickoff news conference and party to share how enthused they are for the opportunity.
The ninth-ranked Gators (10-2, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) opened as 13 ½-point favorites over the No. 24 Cavaliers (9-4, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) and are now favored by as much as 14 ½.
“Being at the University of Florida, this is our home,’’ Gators coach Dan Mullen said. “It’s not just great for recruiting, [but provides] the opportunity for a lot of our young men to come that we have from the South Florida area.
“...For us, when you look at recruiting and you look at what you’re trying to do in accomplishing building a championship level football program, the fact that you’re playing in a New Year’s Six bowl, that you’re here at the Orange Bowl playing on the biggest stage of college football, I think that’s attractive to young men.”
This is Virginia’s first trip to the Orange Bowl, but Florida has been to the OB game four times, not including 2009, when the Gators won the BCS national title at what is now Hard Rock Stadium.
“The Orange Bowl is a destination for the ACC,’’ Cavaliers coach Bronco Mendenhall said, “and at the University of Virginia, it’s fairly uncommon. We’re a program that is developing, rising, growing, and becoming. That isn’t, ‘become.’ That isn’t, ‘has arrived.’ That is, ‘arriving.’ So this is a giant opportunity for us.
“This game means the world to us in terms of growth and in terms of the next step for our program. And our players, all they’ve been doing is smiling ever since the game was announced.”
The NCAA’s early three-day signing period runs from Dec. 18-20, and both coaches acknowledged they were doing double duty Wednesday.
“I spent the morning recruiting, and I’m sure as Coach Mullen did, right before we came in here and as soon as this is over either [I’ll be] in the car or on the phone or doing it again. And that will happen the whole time we’re here. We have, I believe, 15 players on the roster from the state of Florida. The area has been very strong and good for us.”
Said Mullen of his recruiting duties: “Yup. Last night, this morning, this afternoon and then this evening again I’ll be able to do that. It’s huge. Those guys, with the early signing period coming up, once they sign and their status changes they’re going to be able to come out and watch practice while we’re down here as well.”
Mullen and Mendenhall have played each other twice before, in 2003 and 2004, when Mullen was the quarterbacks coach for Utah and Mendenhall served as the defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at BYU.
Utah won both games.
The Cavaliers will be designated the home team for the game, and Mendenhall was asked how he envisioned the crowd.
“This might be the most disproportionate home team/visiting team,’’ Mendenhall said, knowing full well the Gators will be amply represented.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of orange and blue in that stadium,’’ Mullen said, of the colors shared by each team.
Mendenhall did say he was pleased that his Cavaliers got the opportunity to play at Hard Rock Stadium this season, even if it was a 17-9 loss to Miami in October.
“Anytime you can eliminate an unknown it helps,’’ Mendenhall said. “To have played in the stadium, it matters. It’s just one less thing we have to wonder about.’’
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 6:16 PM.
