Inside The Huskies

Huskies arrive in New Orleans for CFP — Gator Anyone?

The UW has five days in Louisiana to prepare for its game against Texas.

Dan Raley

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Traveling aboard a chartered Alaska Airlines jet, the University of Washington football team arrived in New Orleans late Tuesday night for the College Football Playoff semifinals.

The Huskies were greeted by a Sugar Bowl welcoming committee and boarded a team bus all outfitted in school and game decals.

UW coach Kalen DeBoer and a few selected players stopped to answer questions before retiring to their team hotel downtown.

DeBoer, of course, was asked about keeping his players focused on winning a football game against Texas on Jan. 1 with all of the distractions a CFP game in Louisiana might provide.

"I don't think I had to say too much about it," DeBoer said. "That's really kind of the balance that I think our team has. We have this mature group of guys that has these lofty goals that weren't just set here this last couple weeks but all season long. And we have been able to balance having fun, enjoying being around each other all season long, and just with the work that it takes to prepare to be great on Saturdays, game day. 

"I'm really proud of our guys for that, because they know that, hey, this is the time to work and this is the time to have fun. And so I'd expect that business trip, that workmanlike mentality, to continue here on this trip here down in New Orleans."

The UW will be the first, and maybe the last, Pac-12 team to play in the Sugar Bowl.

The Huskies will appear in their first game in the Superdome and in New Orleans and  just their fourth game overall in the state of Louisiana. They defeated Tulane in Shreveport’s 1987 Independence Bowl and lost a pair of games to LSU in Baton Rouge (1983, 2012).

Most of these current Huskies will get a look at a city and a region they've never encountered before. They practiced in the morning in Seattle before boarding their near four-hour flight and landing in a whole new world.

Sixth-year tight end Devin Culp from Spokane, Washington, is one of those a bit wide-eyed as he goes from Montlake to the Bayou.

"I’m a real adventurous eater, so I’m excited to try some new meals — specifically, some gator," Culp said. "I’ve never tried gator before, gator bites, gator tacos, something like that."

Even with an NFL dad in Mark Bruener, former tight end and now scout, Husky linebacker Carson Bruener likewise is in a town he's never seen before.

"Just [want to] walk around and see," Bruener said.." It’s a new place and I haven’t been here so I want to go explore. But coach did tell us to be careful, this is a business trip and the goal is to move on and not have our season cut short."

Texas arrives in New Orleans on Wednesday.

 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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