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| What the Bowl Season is All About...
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From the first two days of bowling in the New Year, two games stood out to me. The first, was Michigan and Florida’s game in which Lloyd Carr led his team to victory for the last time, and the second was the West Virginia vs. Oklahoma game that just ended, which may have been the most inspirational.
On September 1st, Michigan was upset by Appalachian State; on September 8th they were dismantled by Oregon. That four game losing streak (they lost their last two games the year before) had people all over calling for Lloyd Carr’s head. They said he had lost his touch; that he didn’t have it anymore. He rallied the troops and led them to the Capitol One Bowl against a strong Florida team. They traded blows for three and a half quarters, but something changed in the fourth. The Michigan sideline decided that they would not lose that game; they had too much respect and admiration for the man leading them. They simply could not lose the final game that Lloyd Carr was coaching. An ESPN poll of the nation had 91% confidence in Florida winning and they completely underestimated the heart of that team. The seniors had not won a bowl game, they had not beat Ohio State, but they went out and proved that they and their coach had something left in the tank. When the game was no longer in doubt every player congratulated their coach, they were so excited to win that game for him. They swarmed him, hugged him, gave him a Gatorade bath, and then carried him onto the field. He left the field as graciously as he entered it, deflecting all of the credit to his players and staff; he left a winner.
On December 1st, West Virginia stumbled against Pittsburgh and their national title hopes were dashed. Three weeks later, their coach bolted to fill Lloyd Carr’s shoes at Michigan and they were left for dead. ESPN’s SportsNation poll had every state in the US except West Virginia on Oklahoma’s bandwagon, but the Mountaineers would have none of that. Bill Stewart was put in as the interim coach and he proved that he should have that interim tag taken off. They played inspired, energetic, in-your-face football and shocked Oklahoma and the football world by dismantling the Sooners. Every player on that team played their hearts out for Stewart and he was obviously the best coach on the field that night. When Noel Divine scored his back breaking late third quarter touchdown, Stewart was fighting back tears. He was so proud of his team and his players that he was losing control of his emotions. Those players played off of that emotion and embarrassed Oklahoma and its coaches (you could smell the desperation when they tried that onside kick). They played for their team, their school and their coach and it was amazing. After the game, FB Owen Schmitt held back tears when he talked about the pride he had in playing for his school and his state. The most amazing part of the game was during the trophy presentation when Bill Stewart looked like a 5 year old on Christmas morning when he got to hold the trophy over his head, and Pat White finished it off when he took his time for his thank you speech to plea for Coach Stewart to remain in Morgantown. There is only one thing that West Virginia can do now and that is give Stewart the job, they said that they wanted to make a big splash but there is only one person who deserves this job, and he just won them the Fiesta Bowl.
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Posted by jasonfromslc on 2008-01-03 00:54:42 | Rating: | Views: 38
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