Capital One Bowl, Michigan vs Florida
Tebow looks for another dominating performance.
Michigan Wolverines 8-4 (6-2), 2nd Big Ten
VS
Florida Gators 9-3 (5-3), 3rd Southeastern - East
Heading into the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, Florida on New Years Day, the Florida Gators appear to have the upper hand all the way. First off is the coaching situation at Michigan, Lloyd Carr will coach his last game for Michigan at the Capital One Bowl after announcing his resignation earlier. Incoming coach Rich Rodriguez will be watching from perhaps a box seat in the stands. Then you have the Heisman winner Tim Tebow leading the Gators against the Michigan team that has had problems with the spread all year. Finally, with the Capital One Bowl being playing in Orlando and just a stones throw away from Gainesville, home of the Gators, you can easily see why the Gators are a 10.5 point favorite over the Wolverines.
So much was expected of Michigan to begin the year. Almost all the pundits had them in a BCS game. All of that changed Sat. Sep 1, the first game of the year when Div 1AA Appalachian State shocked the Wolverines in the Big House no less. The Wolverines struggled against the spread offense and would continue to struggle against Oregon’s spread the next week. Credit to the Wolverines though, they battled through and rattled off 8 straight wins, but perhaps the distractions of the coaching situation got the best of them in the final 2 weeks of conference play losing to Wisconsin then Ohio State. The Wolverines still possess one of the nation’s better offenses in Seniors Chad Henne and Mike Hart.
The Gators were all about outstanding sophomore Tim Tebow this season. The Heisman winner was simply electrifying setting all kinds of SEC records for rushing touchdowns and passing touchdowns. The Gators would be playing in a BCS, perhaps even defending their National Championship if it weren’t for a bad stretch of 1-3. Though all three of those losses were against the SEC’s best in LSU, Georgia and Auburn. The Gators prolific offense under Tebow was a constant threat to score from the first whistle racking up 66 total touchdowns.
Florida’s spread offense will cause all kinds of problems for Michigan. Though Lloyd Carr has had a bunch of time to prepare, he simply doesn’t have the athletes on defense to matchup. This game should be over by half, I’m predicting a 44-21 win for the Gators.
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