I agree with this article and it was as Bill says the only positive for us Gator fans coming out of the game....Gator fans as sports fans in general and for me as a Michigan resident who has been in AA and knows the Michigan program pretty well: Carr's Great Ride By Matthew Zemek 3. The end of Michigan's win over Florida is as good as sports gets. Lloyd Carr's victory ride into the coaching sunset should tell you all you need to know about the meaning and value of sports in our lives. Yeah, in a certain sense, sports are just games. But when you look at the emotions, words, gestures and sentiments that flowed from Lloyd Carr, his brother coaches, and his Wolverine players after the victory over Florida, it quickly becomes apparent that these "kids games"--for all the wretched (financial, social, physical, corporate) excesses they have indeed unleashed on American society--are nevertheless arenas in which lessons and meanings can be conveyed. The Michigan men, young and old, who were part of the Lloyd Carr victory lap are men who have been nourished and edified in ways words will never adequately express. Collegiate athletics have certainly enabled the members of the Michigan football program to become better human beings, and for the past 27 years--13 of them as a head coach--Lloyd Carr was a core part of that process of men-molding in Ann Arbor. Seeing Carr's poignantly glorious exit from the college football stage is a moment and memory that ought to remain with every sports fan for a long, long time to come. The level of intensity showed by his team against the Gators proved how much a large family cared about Carr himself. The whole game, but especially its emotional end, told a story not of one bowl battle, but of the deep bond between a group of several dozen young people and a coach who profoundly affected each other over the past few years. The proof of the power of Lloyd Carr's life lies in this statement: Ordinary men don't get large numbers of young people to pull together the way the Wolverines did against Florida. There must be something special about a guy who could inspire such excellence from a team that was so fully written off against a high-caliber opponent. Yes, it wasn't a BCS bowl, and it didn't have the theatrics of Boise State's Fiesta Bowl win a year ago, but if you really care about sports with a deep and abiding passion, you'd know that the very purpose of athletics found its soul once again in the 2008 Capital One Bowl, when Lloyd Carr and Michigan became victors one more time. It doesn't happen routinely in this industry, but when it does, it's breathtaking: Yes, Lloyd Carr's swan song gave college football a genuinely spiritual moment of astonishing beauty and truth. You don't have to be a Michigan man or a Michigan fan to realize as much.
What hooey....that game didn't say anything about Lloyd Carr other than he won the game. Did Bear Bryant win his final game? Did Darrell Royal win his final game? Did Bo win his final game? If those guys didn't win their final game does that mean their teams didn't love them???
I disagree, Terry. I actually agree with the writer's version. In the end, I see Carr as a guy with class who deserved what his team gave him yesterday, which allowed him to go out a winner and say all the right things in the postgame press conference. (P.S. Just because I agree with MCG and disagree with you, don't think that I've gone over to the dark side. :wink: :lol: )
Well if you agree with that, then what does it say when a "legendary" coach goes out with a loss in his final game? It's great to go out with a win, wheter you are a coach finishing up a great career or a player finishing up a great career....it's a feel good moment. But that's about all it is IMHO. Lou Holtz's last game as a ND Coach was a bowl game loss, last game as the So.Car coach was an embarassing loss to Clemson where his team and Clemson got into a big Brouha after the game and the cops had to be called. I'm sure Lou would have rather gone out with a win, but either way he had a great career and was loved by his players (as you well know) and the fans.
Whoa there, Terry! I didn't say that if Michigan had lost it would have diminished his legacy. I just said that it was nice the way it happened. Your reaction to the article was "What hooey..." I basically said I didn't think it was hooey. That's all. Yes, it was a feel good situation. That's what the writer is saying. What's wrong with that?
Terry, one big difference I see between Holtz's last game and Carr's last game is that going into that game Holtz did not know it was going to be his last game, he expected to go to a bowl game as I recall. Then with the fight the team was not allowed to go to a bowl game. I also have to agree with the article, and I don't think it means that every coach that goes out has to have happen what happened with Michigan. There were a lot of circumstances this year with Michigan from their first game loss to Appy State to losing to Ohio State and with a lot of injuries in between. Carr took a lot of heat and I do think his players rose to the occasion for him and the fact it was his last game and what they thought of him had them at an emotional peak. Just my humble opinion.
The Detroit Free Press has played this angle today too of course....making us Gator fans feel almost ( but not quite ) proud that Michigan holds us in such high esteem as to think beating us is one their best wins in the Carr era....which has been suggested. It is a great way for Carr to go out so if we have to lose at least somebody thinks it was noteworthy.
It was a big win for UM...I too felt good for Carr and for the seniors who were 0-3 in bowls and 0-4 against OSU. But the hyperbole in that article was a bit much.
Florida's program has risen to the level where beating Florida is something to be proud of, which is a significant factor in this "feel good" story.
I believe that this was the only bowl game coached by a"caretaker" staff where the outgoing coach's team won. Of course, Carr was retiring, not taking off for another job and most importantly, part of his last deal with Michigan was that all of his coaches are under contract for another year. Unlike other places where the assistants were looking for a new position during the bowl prep time, the M coaches spent all there time getting ready for the game.
I guess my dislike for Carr is showing. I mainly remember some of the classless things he's said and done with regard to the ND/UM series. I remember him pissing and moaning about ND breaking some unwritten rule about UM being their first game, the year we played Kansas the week before the UM game, and some other things.
Geez, Terry, lighten up a little... Somebody's been feeding the moderator's cranky pills this week. :lol: