DALLAS (FWAA) — Houston’s Kurt Hester is this week’s nominee for the 2025 Capital One Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award. Hester, the Cougars’ director of strength and performance, has been battling cancer this season. “Everybody’s on a time limit,” Hester told the Houston Chronicle this summer. “Death is undefeated. But the way I look at...
DALLAS (FWAA) — Auburn’s Alex McPherson is this week’s nominee for the 2025 Capital One Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award. McPherson, a fourth-year junior, overcame Crohn’s disease to return to kicking for the Tigers this season. “It’s hard to describe,” McPherson, speaking on an SEC Network feature in September, said of his return. “It’s just...
Lee Corso, Jimbo Fisher, Carson Palmer and Alfred Williams inducted into Orange Bowl Hall of Fame presented by AutoNation MIAMI LAKES, Fla. (October 15, 2025) – Legendary college football figure Lee Corso, former Florida State and Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher, past USC quarterback Carson Palmer, and former University of...
DALLAS (FWAA) — Missouri State’s Connor Lair is this week’s nominee for the 2025 Capital One Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award. Lair, a redshirt junior fullback, beat stage four Hodgkin’s lymphoma to return to the field for the Bears. Lair was diagnosed in September of 2023 and missed all but the first two games of...
College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl is Key Driver of Local Impact Miami Lakes, Fla. (www.orangebowl.org) – The 2024-25 Orange Bowl Festival, including the 2025 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital Orange Bowl, generated a total of $286.3 million in new economic impact and media exposure...
DALLAS (FWAA) — North Carolina’s Max Johnson is this week’s nominee for the 2025 Capital One Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award. Johnson, a sixth-year senior quarterback, overcame a potentially debilitating knee injury to return to the field for the Tar Heels this season. "I want to play football," Johnson told ESPN.com of why he put...
DALLAS (FWAA) — Michigan’s Ernest Hausmann is this week’s nominee for the 2025 Capital One Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award. Hausmann, a senior linebacker, has overcome numerous childhood hardships to develop into a captain for the Wolverines who has started his own charity and poured his heart into numerous causes for...
DALLAS (FWAA) — Army’s Larry Pickett Jr. is the first weekly nomination for the 2025 Capital One Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award. Pickett, a sophomore safety, rescued a man from a burning car earlier this season. “I’m just taking this for what it is,” Pickett told The Athletic. “People around me are...
MIAMI LAKES, Florida (orangebowl.org) – 16 September 2025 – The Orange Bowl Committee commemorated the College Football Playoff (CFP) Foundation’s “Extra Yard for Teachers Week” by surprising Coach Todd Fitz-Gerald, head baseball coach and teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, with a $1,000 DonorsChoose gift card, which can be...
