It’s Christmas in New York for the Miami Hurricanes, who face Rutgers in Pinstripe Bowl
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas for the Miami Hurricanes, who arrived in New York City on Saturday evening to prepare for the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl.
By the time they wake up Monday, it will be Christmas, and the Canes, besides practicing, will head to Radio City Music Hall to watch the legendary Rockettes.
At 2:15 p.m. Thursday, the Hurricanes (7-5) will face the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (6-6) at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, a venue that shouts New York. UM, designated the home team, will wear its traditional orange and white uniforms.
The Scarlet Knights are from New Brunswick, New Jersey, so the trip might be a bit more ho-hum for them.
“For our players it’s such a different and new experience,’’ UM coach Mario Cristobal said recently during a Pinstripe Bowl Zoom session. “They obviously know the legendary status of where we’ll be playing at and the caliber of the great opponent we have in Rutgers.
“We have a couple players from the Northeast as well. All in all, when it was announced, the excitement was awesome in our place. For them, a great experience, another opportunity to play game number 13.’’
Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, who is friends with Cristobal and served as the UM defensive coordinator in 1999 and 2000 under former Canes coach Butch Davis, indicated his team is also pumped for bowl week.
“There’s no place like New York around the Christmas holiday,’’ Schiano said. “Then, throw in the great part of playing in such a great bowl game. It doesn’t get a lot better than that.’’
Home team
The Canes practiced Sunday at Columbia University’s usual practice facility: Baker Athletics Complex, a 21-acre complex at the northernmost tip of Manhattan.
The very good news for the Hurricanes, at least as of Sunday afternoon, is that unseasonably warm weather is forecast for game day — though there might be rain. Temperatures call for 54 degrees at kickoff and still in the low 50s by game’s end. Plenty of rain is forecast for Wednesday, with about a 20-percent chance for Thursday’s kickoff.
In 2018, Miami’s only other time at the Pinstripe, temperatures dipped into the 30s at night. The Canes already prepared themselves for what could have been very cold weather when they played at Boston College in the final regular-season game on Nov. 24. But it turned out to be a sunny, beautiful day, with temperatures in the mid-to-upper 40s. UM won 45-20.
Christmas week schedule
The Pinstripe Bowl has plenty of intriguing and fun events planned for Miami this week. On Saturday, after UM arrived, some players watched the New York Rangers beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 in overtime at Madison Square Garden. Many went to see the giant Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. The Canes had time to explore New York City on their own, so most at some point ended up at Times Square.
On Tuesday, the Hurricanes will visit One World Observatory and the National Sept. 11 Memorial Museum.
“The opportunity for our kids to down [there],’’ Cristobal said. “I spent a week there with my family this past summer, took my kids [ages] 12 and 13 down there. It hit them. I never saw my kids react to anything as what they did when we saw the Memorial, watched the videos, walked through the museum.
“It’s so important for our players to understand the more recent events in our history, to understand what really goes on outside of our football bubble...’’
On Wednesday, both coaches, their athletic directors and team captains will head to Wall Street to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Players on Wednesday will also visit pediatrics patients at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Other events are planned as well, according to bowl organizers.
“We’re going to do all the fun stuff and charity stuff,’’ said Yankees vice president of non-baseball sports events Mark Holtzman. “We make it special.’’
