Just for the simple fact they beat down the Gators. The game was nowhere near as close as the final score showed. Kinda hard to say the Cards didn't belong when they crushed the #3 team in the land. I'd say Florida probably didn't belong in the Sugar Bowl. And that's not coming from me. It's been said on ESPN several times.
It has been a lovely bowl season. I love it when the experts are wrong, the TV junkies are wrong and someone like Louisville just beats the crap out of a sure thing. Life is good. Go South Carolina etc etc etc. Tis the season to be jolly .... tra la la la la... la la la la
Nearly all of the bowls which anyone cares about have been won by the teams which were supposed to win them
Stand by what you have to say. If you're going to make a statement and, when questioned, immediately reference where the idea actually came from then you should credit the idea's original originator in the first place. That being said -- Florida's record against the BCS top 10 was incomparable in the regular season. It'd be easy to pull the, "Louisville played the game of their lives and Florida came out looking to be as motivated as you would expect them to be against a team that lost to UConn and was dominated by 5-5 Syracuse" line but that'd unfair to L'ville's performance -- Very similar to the ridiculousness of questioning whether Florida should have been there in the first place. Florida played their way in, L'ville "placed" their way in.
Or... you could say that L'ville played the worst games of the year against Syracuse and UConn and SU and UConn played above themselves. I had seen L'ville play 3 times this year. I told my son before the game that L'ville will win... and they did in stellar fashion. Face it, Florida over rated.... L'ville underrated. And I have no ties or loyalties to L'ville except I once got a ticket there for public intoxication. LOL I had to "DONATE" $300 to some policemans fund to make it all go away. LOL
Ah, ESPN. The gospel. I stand by what I said. You guys have the attention span of teenage girls. Louisville outplayed UF. Badly. Florida's defense, best in the nation all year, checked out after the FSU game apparently and already had their heads in the NFL. Look at the big picture, gents. Florida played the toughest schedule in the country this year, and finished the regular season 11-1. Yet, I should retract my statement about it being ridiculous that their reward for that season should be playing a team from the Big East? Like I said, I would rather UF had played Clemson in the CFA, Michigan in the Cap One, or OU in the Cotton Bowl, than play UL in a lose-lose in the Sugar Bowl.
Explain to me how OU the biggest chokes in the history of big games (I do respect the program but their bowl results the past 15 years are terrible) or Michigan who did not have a very good season would have been a better "reward" for your season? Seems you were rewarded with a worthy opponent. Something that drives me crazy is excuses like the players heads were in the NFL, didn't want to be there etc etc... They lost because they were out played and out coached nothing more nothing less. I am not just saying this toward you, I see it all the time and think it's weak.
Fans would have actually bought tickets, players would have been more excited for the game, fans would have cared more about the game. It's like I said, it was a lose-lose for UF. They win, well they beat Louisville. Who cares? They lose, and we're where we're at right now. Me defending the Gators. Gator haters loving every minute of it. Florida fans wanting Muschamp fired after an 11-2 season. Every Florida fan or every board I visit wanted a UF to play OU as a rematch from the '09 title game. Like you said, UF fan also wanted to play OU because they probably would have won because OU sucks. Florida and Clemson are so close geographically and battle every year for top recruits. Florida Michigan would have been a cool game because Michigan's owned UF in their last two match ups. If tOSU were bowl eligible would you want them to play Stanford in a non-BCS bowl, or Northern Illinois in the Rose? And I agree about the lame excuse, but you can't tell me it's not the truth in some cases. These are 18-22 year old kids we're talking about. If you're a draft eligible underclassmen, you've already got your paper work back from the NFL by the time you play the bowl game. You look at a kid like Sharif Floyd, who's probably never had more than $500 to his name in his entire life and wore the same clothes to school in high school for a week straight, it's understandable if he had his focus elsewhere. It's just football, after all. I'll be the first to say UF got outplayed, and badly out coached. Muschamp panicked when they got down early and abandoned the run game, plain and simple. But UF's defense was tops in the country all year long because of their cohesiveness and chemistry. Against Louisville they were out of position the whole game, pointing fingers, going for big hit instead of making the right play, and just looked lost. But again, that's coaching.
Although I was not talented enough to play ball on the collegiate level, I played football and track in Middle and High School. These days I compete with whitetail. I always give 100%, no matter the opponent. Nothing more, nothing less.
I would have liked to see UF play Clemson pre bowl season... Boyd is a baller. But I am glad the way it worked out because the UF, ville game was fun to watch. I kept expecting UF to overwhelm ville with their what I preconceived superior talent. It just didn't happen. Bridgewater balled out. It was fun to watch.
Teddy Bridgewater has the best name is all of college football. I like to watch him play too. He wanted to go to UF when Urbs was there, but as a receiver. UF got the 2 top ranked QBs in the state, and arguably the country out of that years class (Driskel and Brissett). I think Teddy was the 9th rated QB maybe? Turns out Driskel should have stuck with baseball, Brissett announced today he's transferring (Louisville is one of his choices), and Teddy will be a pre-season Heisman candidate. It's what makes college football so much fun.
How much longer before Charlie Strong is the next big name coach? He is well on his way. Nothing short of amazing what he has done there.
Pretty sure he's climbing that ladder rather quickly. I was a huge fan of his chemistry with the players.
