Relive Onward State’s Trip To Miami
This is the end of the road (trips), folks.
Last week, the crew here at Onward State traveled down to South Florida to cover the 2025 Orange Bowl, which also served as a semifinal game for the College Football Playoff. Penn State’s heartbreaking loss to Notre Dame makes this road trip the last one for this era of the Onward State football beat.
If this was truly the end, it’s a good thing we made the most out of our time in the Miami area. Let’s take a look back at our trip to Florida.
Tuesday
Due to the quick turnaround time after the Fiesta Bowl, bowl festivities were shorter than usual for the Orange Bowl. Because of this, we all flew to Florida two days before the game. We had a full crew of six blog members headed down to work: two photographers and four writers.
I flew alone from Newark International Airport to Four Lauderdale International Airport. Despite the Orange Bowl being advertised as in “Miami,” that wasn’t really the case. The game itself was in Miami Gardens, the media hotel was in Daina Beach (right next to Fort Lauderdale Airport), and other media festivities were in Fort Lauderdale. In fact, I don’t think I ever stepped foot in Miami during this entire trip.
Before my flight, I grabbed an acai bowl from Playa Bowls in the beautiful, new Terminal A at Newark International. Around noon I boarded my flight and was on my way.
My flight was smooth. The skies were clear, which was particularly neat flying over New Jersey, still close enough to the ground to identify various shore points. I landed in Fort Lauderdale around 3:15 p.m., heading to the media hotel, which was only a few minutes from the airport.
The first media event of the week was the arrival press conferences, which happened right after the teams arrived in Florida. Players and coordinators from both teams were made available to the media for questions. Notre Dame was up first, then Penn State.
After the press conferences, I went back up to the room to edit some photos and review the sound. I hung out for a little bit and then grabbed dinner, which the Orange Bowl graciously provided to the media. This was also right around when Nolan arrived, the first of the writers to do so.
While we waited for the other writers to arrive, Nolan and I checked out the media lounge. This place was absolutely awesome. We felt like royalty. It had cornhole, billiards, air hockey, retro arcade games, massage chairs, a putting green, a giant television, and an open bar. If that doesn’t sound awesome to you, I don’t know what does.
The other writers arrived around 8:30 p.m. We hung out for a while playing pool and watching some college basketball before heading upstairs to do some work and get to bed.
Wednesday
Gameday Eve started off with a joint press conference between James Franklin and Marcus Freeman, the head coach of Notre Dame. I took photos while the writers gathered sound and brainstormed ideas for articles to write.
After getting our work done for the day, we headed back to the media lounge to play some more pool. This would be a common theme for this trip. After kicking it in the lounge for a bit, we got our things together and hopped in an Uber to Hollywood Beach.
Just south of Fort Lauderdale and Daina Beach, Hollywood, Florida, is a pretty cool shore town. We spent some time walking down the white sandy beaches and even took a dip in the warm ocean water. The water was just as blue as you’d see in some Caribbean islands.
After enjoying some time swimming, we grabbed a pint at Landshark Bar & Grill, one of the beach-front restaurants at the Margaritaville Beach Resort. We did a little bit of souvenir shopping and walked along the promenade before heading back to the hotel.
We finished our Wednesday with the Orange Bowl media party, hosted by Jona, a Mexican restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. The spread of food they had for us was so delicious. I think CJ and I both had about seven plates each — even more if you include the churro rounds.
After enjoying the food and some margaritas, we headed back to the media hotel for…you guessed it…some more pool.
Thursday
Gameday started off similarly to how the previous day had ended…with pool. This time, I doubled up in my “pool” indulgence, spending some time swimming in the actual pool before playing the billiards kind of pool. The game wasn’t until 7:30 p.m., and the first media shuttle didn’t leave until 3 p.m., so we had some time to kill in the morning.
At 3 p.m. we hopped on the first shuttle from the hotel to the stadium. The shuttle was police escorted, which was a surreal and crazy experience. I don’t really know if humble little student media members like us deserved to have highways shut down, but alas.
We arrived at the stadium and checked out the outdoor fan fest and upper bowl views before the teams arrived and the real work began.
A game was played, and I don’t wanna talk about it. Moving on.
Editor’s Note: I also don’t want to talk about it.
Friday
Friday morning, all of the writers got up and flew home very early. It was so early, in fact, that I don’t think a few of them ever even went to bed. My flight, however, wasn’t until almost 7 p.m., giving me some time to kill.
Now that Penn State had lost, there was no avoiding the fact that this was my last-ever Onward State football road trip. These trips have given me incredible opportunities to see the country, and at every spot we’d visit, I’d plan “fun stops” to make the trips interesting, earning me the title of CFO (Chief Fun Officer).
As the CFO of these trips for the last two or three seasons, it was my duty to end my tenure with a bang. I got up at the crack of dawn and headed to the airport, where I rented a car and began to drive south.
On my very first road trip for Onward State in 2022, we made an impromptu stop at New River Gorge National Park on the way home from Auburn. This would be the beginning of my journey to become the Chief Fun Officer. I figured, what better way to end my tenure than by visiting another national park?
I spent a few hours exploring Everglades National Park. I started by hiking the short Anhinga Trail, a path pretty close to the park entrance where I saw a ton of alligators, cranes, and other interesting birds.
I continued my drive south until I reached Flamingo. Yes, that’s really the name of the town. Yes, all the buildings are pink. As you can see in the map below, this is the southernmost point in mainland Florida. I saw some crocodiles and manatees before making my way back north.
When I said I was going out with a bang, I meant it. I decided to visit not one but two national parks that day, and next up was Biscayne National Park in Homestead, Florida.
This park was cool, but the main appeal is access to the keys and to water activities like snorkeling and fishing. With limited time, I couldn’t do these things but enjoyed my walk along the coast, seeing more manatees and some lizards. Before long it was time to head to the airport.
I grabbed dinner at Fort Lauderdale’s Air Margaritaville before catching my 7 p.m. flight back to Newark. After getting stuck on the runway in Newark for over an hour, I got back to my car and made it home by around 12:30 a.m.
That’s all from me, folks. I’m very excited for my last semester as one of Onward State’s visual editors, but I’d be lying if I wasn’t sad that the “football” part of my college career has come to a close. These road trips have been some of my fondest memories of the last three seasons, literally taking me from coast to coast and every midwestern town in between.
It’s been the best times of my life, and I’m eternally grateful to Onward State for giving me these opportunities. However, as with anything, it eventually comes to an end. I’ll be sappy more when my senior column comes out in May.
Chief Fun Officer, over and out.
