Coley Harvey | Orlando Sentinel 2:39 p.m. EST, December 31, 2012Tuesday's Orange Bowl will be special for Florida State long-snapper Dax Dellenbach, who will be playing at Sun Life Stadium for the final time in his career. As a kid, he grew up running around the stadium and got to know it well.FORT LAUDERDALE -- Growing up around professional football teams, NFL stadiums were young Dax Dellenbach's playground.Routinely, he and his friends found themselves running through tunnels obscure to the television-viewing and ticket-purchasing public like it was normal. Often they would find their way into luxury boxes, curious what they might find there.Specifically, Joe/Pro Player/Dolphin/Dolphins/LandShark/Sun Life Stadium was the venue he would regularly explore. The son of former Miami Dolphins center Jeff Dellenbach, Dax practically lived in the building. Since opening in 1987, the Dolphins have played in the stadium. The Florida Marlins and Miami Hurricanes have shared it at points since, too."Put it this way," Dax Dellenbach said, "I know everything there is to know about that stadium."Fittingly, that stadium whose every nook and cranny, crease and crevice the current Florida State long-snapper knows well, will be the place that closes out his collegiate career.With his eye soon glancing toward a hopeful NFL future of his own, Dax Dellenbach will play his final game in a Seminoles uniform Tuesday night when 12th-ranked FSU takes on Northern Illinois in the Orange Bowl. It will be the only Orange Bowl Dellenbach would have been part of as a player."It's a huge deal getting to play there because I grew up watching my dad play there, and my dad coached there," Dax Dellenbach said.When the season started, long before FSU went on the 11-2 run that allowed it to plow through the ACC championship game and toward its ninth Orange Bowl appearance, Dax Dellenbach had a sneaking premonition."This is like my prediction from the beginning of the year that I would be thrilled to death if I made it to the Orange Bowl because that means my last college game ever is in my home stadium in front of my family," Dax Dellenbach said.Following Tuesday's game, the senior will relocate from Tallahassee to his native South Florida, where he will rest before beginning training for the NFL selection process. Long-snappers don't often get drafted, but good ones in both the NFL and college ranks are hard to come by. Since playing at FSU, Dellenbach has snapped for All-America punter Shawn Powell and All-ACC kicker Dustin Hopkins.
Dax was his great white buffalo
Why do you keep whispering that?
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