Who the heck is the MU you keep prattling on about? I thought Missouri played in the Big 12.
Michigan scores 25 points in the second half, and you don’t think the game was close???
The thing that screwed Michigan was that dumb, dumb penalty. I thought Michigan was going to take control and win that game. After OSU scored on that drive, you’re right, it wasn’t really close. But up until that point, UM was knocking on OSU’s door.
I’m not a fan of either team, just a general Big Ten supporter, but I felt that game was close coming into the 4th quarter.
I have yet to be convinced that the voters would not have moved Florida ahead of Michigan even if USC had won. Why are folks assuming this would not have happened?
cause it wouldn’t have mattered. USC would have played Ohio State, as USC had already leapfrogged Michigan. The unexpected USC loss forced the question no one expected or wanted to answer. What do you do with this UM/UF problem. UF has the better resume (beat more teams to finish in the top 25, beat more bowl eligible teams, beaten teams had a better combined record) whereas UM had going for it the fact that it had been nos 2 and 3 for the past two weeks without playing a down and without having won a game in a month. UF comes off of a win against Arkansas and a conference championship, having beaten good LSU and Tennesee teams, having beaten a Georgia team that definitely turned itself around, having survived the guantlet of playing LSU, Auburn and UGA back to back to back and suffering only one loss. What do you do? Reward a team that scrambled to beat Ball State? Every voter flashed back to Aubunr’s snubbing and Oklahoma’s trouncing by USC and thought, eh, we know who wins UM/OSU, give UF a shot. Now UF has the unenviable position of carrying the SEC’s reputation into a game against a team that, at it’s best, beats any other college football team in the country in a walk.
“My guys were disappointed at first, but they eventually understood,” said Michigan coach Lloyd Carr. “We had our chance against Ohio State and we blew it, and I guess a rematch would be boring. But can you blame us for thinking we had a chance? Sure, Troy Smith is easily the best player ever, and that defense, well, quite frankly, I’d be afraid for our guys’ safety if we had to go up against that defense again, but our fans are rabidly single-minded and a lot of them have poll votes.”
Actually, I think what screwed Michigan was the 42 points, 300 yards passing, four sacks, and two 50+ yard touchdown runs Ohio State had. Take away those things, and yeah, it was pretty close.
The polls have *always * been about determining who’s best. Only recently has the connection been made direct, but that hardly means there’s been some integrity lost.
The voters weren’t, ISTM, going by what game they’d rather see, but by which 2 teams were most deserving of playing for the title. The majority vote was that Florida deserved a first chance more than Michigan deserved a second one. How is that wrong?
You don’t have to get my point if you don’t feel like it. But watching the game in the 4th quarter, I couldn’t tell you who was going to win the game if I were a betting man, because Michigan seemed to have the momentum. I call that a close game. If you don’t, fine. Remember, I don’t have a horse in this race–I’m just telling you how I felt during the game, and it would satisfy my definition of close.
Read what I posted earlier. Michigan had to mount such a comeback because they had been so thoroughly outplayed in the first half by Ohio State. Do you think if it were Michigan leading by two touchdowns they would’ve been playing that hard still, or any harder than OSU was? Would any team?
I don’t want to carry on about this too much, because I really think game-planning and play-calling played a bigger role in that game than they normally do at the college level. And those are not things the players on the field have any control over. If it was just a mano a mano comparison, I would have to say that, yes, Michigan was at least even with Ohio State. But those other factors still affect the outcome, and determine what makes a team better.
Would this be the picture you’re referring to? Sure looks like a pass to this Gator fan. Certainly not “belt-high” as you stated. The nose of the ball is pointed down, but I think that’s because the Auburn player just hit it. Not that it matters after we won the SEC and made it to the national title game, but still, it would have been nice to see the correct call in that situation.
No, the picture in the Tribune was snapped a couple of nano-seconds later, when both Leak’s arm and the Auburn player’s arm were down about belt high. It was also from a very slightly different angle. I’d try to call it up and provide a link, but I’m sittin’ here on a 24 kbs dial-up modem. Estimated time to search old newspaper files, maybe an hour.
Anyway, the next play would have been a field-goal attempt by Florida. Reach your own conclusion about how THAT would have turned out. 
Then there would be the problem of keeping Auburn out of their own kicker’s range. That would be John Vaughn, Groza award finalist and SEC special teams Player of the Year. (19/23 on field goals, 2-2 outside 50 yards.)
All of which is to say that one play, which most people think was called correctly anyway, did not determine the outcome of that game.
Hey, we’ve made nearly 25% of our FG attempts this year!
No, I don’t think any call in that game determined the outcome. I’ve seen two Gator losses directly attributable to bad call(s), and the Auburn game wasn’t anywhere near either of those. You guys beat us. I just don’t think that call was as cut-and-dried as you made it seemed. Leak’s arm is not “belt-high” and the ball would have been going in the general direction of Tate Casey had it not been hit by the Auburn player. Good luck in your bowl game, I hope you guys destroy Nebraska.
Fair enough, Howie.
It was seeing several statements like this one from post #185 above, in several different places, that finally set my rockets off. “Florida was one bad ref call from being undefeated this year”.
Good luck out in the desert.
WTF is the Capital One Bowl?
Friggin’ Arkansas…the one season I pay attention.
Knew that one would get you. 
Peace, Bro.
Now, about that coaching job… :o
D & R
I hear the Auburn AD took a plane to Tuscaloosa…
Y’all gonna hire Jay Jacobs to be your next coach? Well, he did play for Pat Dye so I guess you could do worse.
Just want to chime in on how nice it is in this thread now that it’s become about the SEC and we don’t have those peskies Big Eleven folks posting in here anymore.
Don’t you know about the ignore list? I know we’re not supposed to talk about it, but anytime somebody posts from the Big 11, they should instantly go on your ignore list. Same goes for the PACmen.
Using my simple method, the entire thread has been enjoyable!
