ORLANDO, Fla. -- Although many Badgers fans have grown used to their team playing in a bowl game, the University of Wisconsin-Madison marching band is as energized as ever as they prepare in the Orlando heat to perform at the Capital One Bowl.

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If anyone has a right to feel blasé about New Year's bowl games, it's longtime UW marching band leader Mike Leckrone. For the band and its leader, it might seem like preparing for the umpteenth bowl would get old by now.

"It hasn't yet," Leckrone said.

But despite some much-publicized trouble with the band this season, Leckrone and the band said they are as excited as ever for the Badgers' bowl game on Jan 1.

"We really feel that bands were created first, and as an afterthought God created sports," said Steve Loomis, a supporter of the UW band from Sacramento, Calif.

For more than 10 years, Loomis said he has attended every practice of the band.

"This band is right there with the team. It's fantastic. I think they're worth two touchdowns a game," Loomis said.

This year, Leckrone is pushing the band even harder after a controversy over band hazing.

"The kids have really taken the responsibility really seriously, and they understand that there was some publicity that didn't do us any good, but they also understand that's really not us," Leckrone said.

On Friday, the band prepared in the Orlando heat for its five-minute half-time performance at the game.

"For us to have this at the end of the year, to sort of cap our whole season, it's very special," Leckrone said.

The UW marching band will be featured in the Orlando Citrus Bowl Saturday morning.

Leckrone said the band lives for game day and the half-time performance. This year, he said it will be a salute to rock 'n' roll performers who have died.