You are looking – LIVE!!!!!! – at the balcony of room 1466 here at the Harbor Beach Marriott. I’m out here breathing in the clear blue air, enjoying the small slice of an ocean view that we have from these rooms on the backside of the hotel.

Got here to Fort Lauderdale last night, in time for this morning’s press conferences (Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring and his players, then Cincinnati defensive coordinator Joe Tresey and his players) … which were attended by literally 10 media members.

Maybe it’s just that the finances of most newspapers and local television stations are in the toilet. Or maybe the Powers That Be at those places decided they’d rather not dump their coffers for a game that no one cares about on a national level – or so it seems.

While spending some time watching ESPN’s college football coverage last night, I didn’t hear one mention of the Orange Bowl. It is, after all, the first game in the 56-game history of the Bowl Championship Series or the Bowl Alliance – which preceeded the BCS – that doesn’t include a top-10 team.

Tech is obviously a known team, but besides senior cornerback Victor “Macho” Harris, there aren’t many – or any other – players on this team that the average college football fan in, say, Colorado would recognize.

And what about Cincinnati? Could you name one player on that team before you found out it was playing Tech in the Orange Bowl? If I told you that there is a Bearcats player who has 11 sacks … on a defense that ranks 26th nationally in yards and points allowed per game … on a team that is 11-2 … would you be able to name that player?

Before today, I couldn’t. His name is Connor Barwin, a senior defensive end who moved from tight end after last season. I’ll have a story on him in tomorrow’s birdcage liner.

But this game and its storylines obviously matter to these teams.

The Hokies have been of the nation’s most successful teams recently, at least in terms of final win total, and are trying to get over the hump of a 1-4 record in their past five bowls and the ACC’s 1-9 record in BCS games.

The Bearcats come to South Florida for their first BCS game riding their best season in school history. A win would go a long way in making Cincinnati a household-name team like Tech.

In many ways, this Cincinnati team resembles the 1995 Tech squad that played Texas in the Sugar Bowl – the Hokies’ first “big four” bowl. They beat the Longhorns in a game that still ranks as one of the most significant in forming Tech’s foundation. Like the ’95 Hokies, the Bearcats are in their fifth season in the Big East. Like those Hokies, the Bearcats are in the midst of a program-defining season. And like Tech, Cincinnati is situated in a state rich with high school football talent.

As for the particulars of Thursday’s game, it looks as though Tech will be without two defensive starters, along with senior left guard Nick Marshman, who is academically ineligible. Injuries likely will prevent sophomore defensive end Jason Worilds (shoulder) and senior linebacker Brett Warren (torn ACL) from playing.

Will head to Tech’s practice within the hour to get an update from coach Frank Beamer, but early indications are that the Hokies will have to rely on junior Nekos Brown and redshirt freshman Barquell Rivers – the backups to Worilds and Warren. 

***

Quick postcard item here from Lauderdale …

Like most Florida cities, the beach-side area is populated with all manner of shady-looking characters and half-baked shysters … the pregnant-looking lady who tries to sell you roses while you’re eating dinner; the dude (is there any other way to describe this guy?) who wobbles on his bike up to the sidewalk tables at a bar and asks if he can draw a characacture of you, with a crayon, for a dollar; the overly aggressive rickshaw driver who asks if want a ride, and when you say “maybe later,” responds by grumbling, “How about now?”

Ah, Florida … the place where normalcy goes to die.

Not that a few weirdos and freaks will keep me from taking a nap on the beach once I’m done hammering out some copy for tomorrow. So I’ll go get right to that. Later for now.

***

Oh, and one last thing: If you’re disappointed by the length of stories that appear in our print edition (my Orange Bowl tickets story from last week, for instance), know that these stories sometimes get cut for space reasons and that if you want to read the full versions, this is the best place to find them. I’m not going to short-change you here, gang.

... site of the bowl the nation forgot