Robert Griffin III's showing against Oklahoma was one of this year's indelible moments. (US PRESSWIRE)

It is the third full day of the 2011 offseason and the 2012 preseason. It’s really the second for me, having spent most of Tuesday trying with increasing reluctance to get out of New Orleans. By quick shoddy math, I’ve been on the road 27 days out of the last 41. I got to see a host of familiar faces this season and postseason, and meet so many of you for the first time. I get asked a lot: How did you get into this? If you know me from back home, it usually comes out Why did you get into this? I usually want to talk about Larry, but don’t. It explains things, but it takes a while. From now until August, though, we’ve got nothing but time. Time and recruiting and police blotters and calendar-cussing, and precious little else.

I grew up in a football-loving family in a football-loving town. I was pulled out of school on more than one occasion to get a head start down to Tuscaloosa or Birmingham for the Third Saturday in October. The effects of this did not show up right away, because I was a drama geek from a very young age, and to attend football games and smile through black-painted lips was to plumb the depths of human indignity. Then I went and studied performing arts at a big football university, where we didn’t have shows on home game Saturdays because the audience wouldn’t have had a place to park. This insurmountable logistical problem meant departmental drones could have it both ways, six shows a week and belting out our own operatic harmonies to Rocky Top in the student section on what was supposed to be our day of rest. (I still do this. Just not in the press box.)

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Miss out on last night’s mayhem in Miami? Pre- and postgame photo highlights are collected in the gallery above; below, some extra goodies that didn’t make it into gameday coverage:

• Like your touchdowns by the dozen, do you? Peruse Chris Brown’s primer on the Dana Holgorsen Airraid.

• Just a few months into his regime, Holgo’s assistants are already buying into his all-important beverage philosophy.

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Tavon Austin caught 11 passes for 117 yards and four touchdowns in West Virginia's Orange Bowl win. (Getty)

“Yeah, that’s exactly how we draw it up, right?” — Dana Holgorsen, 1/5/2012

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Make no mistake, the No. 23 West Virginia Mountaineers caught some breaks in the 2012 Orange Bowl en route to a record-setting 70-33 demolition upset of No. 14 Clemson [RECAP | BOX]. First there was Andrew Buie, rolling over the top of Clemson’s Rashard Hall, realizing no crucial body parts had hit the ground and popping up to sprint an additional 17 yards to propel WVU’s first score of the night. Then there was Andre Ellington’s fumble on a would-be Clemson touchdown, the ball never hitting the ground amid a squirming swamp of bodies and WVU’s Darwin Cook snatching it for a 99-yard score the other way that left no jaw in Sun Life Stadium undropped. The 14-point swing gave the Mountaineers their first multi-score lead, which Clemson would threaten only once, with a field goal to cut the deficit to eight points, before coming completely unhinged in Miami. (Tomorrow’s chintzy headlines today: “DARWIN COOK SPROUTS LEGS, STAGGERS OUT OF ENDZONE QUAGMIRE.”)

But luck doesn’t come in 70-point batches, and this WVU team would not have needed it if it did. It is impossible to overstate the great bounding strides Dana Holgorsen’s brand of Airraid has made in Morgantown since Week 3, when the Mountaineers hosted eventual SEC champ and undefeated national title contender LSU and were dealt a stinging loss. Against the ACC’s Tigers on Wednesday, the ‘Eers played fast, clean, efficient ball, their only turnover an interception thrown by backup quarterback Paul Millard, who was given a series  under center with just under five minutes remaining in the third quarter with the game already laughably beyond reach for Clemson. West Virginia’s Geno Smith completed 31-of-42 pass attempts and accounted for seven touchdowns, six of them thrown, with just 426 all-purpose yards recorded.

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Coaches Dabo Swinney and Dana Holgorsen appear to be very excited for Wednesday's Orange Bowl. (AP)

The 2012 Orange Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For a slightly more serious and in-depth preview, click here.)

• Where will this game be played? Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens.

• Can you name every previous name this stadium has had in one breath? Absolutely not, but our personal favorite was that one time it was sponsored by Jimmy Buffett’s beer.

• When is it on television? Kickoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, January 4. The game will be televised on ESPN.

• Whom does it feature? The ACC champ plus a BCS at-large selection.

• What about this year? Like pinball? The 10-3 Clemson Tigers and the 9-3 West Virginia Mountaineers are averaging more than 900 yards of combined offense and 69 points per game.

• Who will call the game? Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden, Ron Jaworski and Lisa Salters.

• Shouldn’t Jon Gruden be preparing for what is obviously his next new job as the head coach of Penn State? Don’t be ridiculous. The job is obviously Ron Prince’s. You mean Jim Tressel’s? I do.

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QBs Geno Smith and Tajh Boyd will look to lead WVU and Clemson, respectively, to the Orange Bowl crown. (US PRESSWIRE)

No. 14  Clemson (10-3) vs. No. 23 West Virginia (9-3)
Jan. 4, 8:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)

Clemson and Morgantown are not exactly Arctic wastelands, but you won’t hear the Tigers or Mountaineers complaining about spending a chunk of January in South Florida. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney estimated, “It was like 34 degrees and raining when we left Clemson,” and the estimated high temperature on West Virginia’s campus on game day is a whopping 38. “It will probably be a little easier down here, there’s no doubt about that,” said WVU coach Dana Holgorsen.

The two young coaches are among the main attractions in the only current bowl game named for a piece of fruit. Neither is known for having a particularly reserved demeanor, and if ESPN wants to goose ratings it’ll run a closeup picture-in-picture window of whichever coach’s team has the ball at any given moment.

Holgorsen has taken his version of a laid-back approach to bowl week, explaining, “I’m low key and relaxed when things are going the way we need them to go and if things aren’t going the way we want them to, they know exactly what’s coming.” For his part, Swinney was very recently honored with the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award, but the prestige hasn’t dulled his tweaky sense of decorum. “I’d be surprised if there’s not some points scored in this one,” Swinney said. “I don’t think it’ll be a 6-3 ball game, you know, like maybe some of the other games around. This one should be an exciting game for fans.”

The droll wink is implied.

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