As I drove on Sunday afternoon, I heard a Milwaukee radio personality dejected about Wisconsin playing in the Orange Bowl. He called it the ‘NIT’ and said ‘I won’t watch the game.’ I found this a little silly. Sure, it’s not the College Football Playoff, but it’s still a premier bowl game. Wisconsin is in an elite category of teams being part of the group that returns for a second consecutive year. They’re a young team, and there are reasons to actually be fired up for this game versus Miami at the end of this month.

1. Alex Hornibrook versus turnover-happy Miami – We’ll obviously do a preview when the time comes, but best believe, we will talk a ton about Hornibrook having to face a Miami defense that loves to turn the ball over. He threw interceptions in nearly every Big Ten game this season, and that might not bode well versus the Hurricanes.

2. Wisconsin’s defense redemption – If you give this Wisconsin defense three weeks to prepare, it might be ugly. With the Hurricanes struggling to put up points due to injuries, it could be another long day for them. Malik Rozier has some J.T. Barrett to his game, so, it might make things a little easier to prepare since it will be a similar game plan to what Wisconsin worked with against Ohio State.

3. What young player will leave the season on a positive note & the final defensive hurrah – One thing about bowl games that never gets thought about is the young talent that ends up coming through in the final game of the year. That can be the launching point of next year’s season. Wisconsin’s future is very bright especially on offense. They lose a total of two starters on that side of the ball. For the defense, it could be a swan song for the six seniors with juniors T.J. Edwards, D’Cota Dixon and Nick Nelson all probably having big decisions to make after the game.

4. Tweeting at Dannyboy Cane – If for some reason, you don’t know Dannyboy Cane, you’re missing out. He’s maybe the best college football fan in the history of the Internet. The man is a diehard Miami football fan and getting to troll him for three hours will be a joy. If you do end up going this route, please ask about the bear attack. IT’S GARBAGE, RUBBISH AND NOT TRUE.

5. Crusty old man tweets about the turnover chain – I cannot wait to see which white old guy will make an off-handed borderline racist comment about the turnover chain. If you don’t think I’m going to spend time looking for people’s dumb tweets in mentions of reporters, you don’t know my enjoyment of this type of shit. You know people are going write about ‘Staying Classy’ and ‘Wisconsin never having a turnover chain’. It’s going to be enjoyable.

See the Orange Bowl can be fun.

Charlie.