SU was at last night’s Orange Bowl with long-time subscribers L. Levine, B. Levine and S. Levine, and one of our newest subscribers, J. Silver. Bowl games are always a crapshoot. The long layoff between the last regular season game and the bowl date can be as long as 5 – 6 weeks. College football teams are used to playing every week and not all teams handle the long layoff well. Michigan looked like it was moving in slow-motion against a faster, more athletic Florida State team. But SU gives them a lot of credit: despite being unable to generate anything offensively for much of the game, they hung in and made plays in a wild 4th quarter to even take the lead with under 2 minutes left. They almost had no business even being in the game having given up so many long plays.
SU’s key insights from the evening:
- Bowl games are unique where you have large numbers of fans from both teams intermingled in the stands. Sure, you have sections allocated to each team but there are many places where opposing fans are crammed in side by side. No regular season game has that dynamic. It makes for a special atmosphere (as long as no one is killing each other).
- There is a “fun factor” at the college level. Sure, fans will tail gate and come into the stadium feeling toasty but the meanness that exists at the NFL level is generally taken down several notches at college games. SU uses the men’s room test to validate. When you are on line in the men’s room at a college game, it’s generally a polite gathering where people will chit-chat about the game and no-one is screaming and cursing. At an NFL game? Drunken men bellowing and just acting inappropriately making things uncomfortable. Same thing in the stands. SU says get a grip: it’s sports and just because you paid a lot for your ticket does not give you the right to act like an a-hole. Do you agree?
- There has been much written of late about top football prospects taking a pass on playing in the bowl games as they want to be healthy for the draft. It’s an interesting dilemma. The school gave you the free ride scholarship and the game is on the schedule. But SU also gets it from the prospect’s perspective where an injury in what is mostly a meaningless, exhibition type game can cost you millions of dollars. Last night, Jabrill Peppers of Michigan who will likely declare for the draft as a junior sat out with a strained hamstring. He was clearly upset after the game and desperately wanted to play. SU hopes he will return for one more year but given the violence of football and the likelihood of injury, you could blame him for opting out. Michigan All-American tight end Jake Butt played his final game and suffered an MCL or ACL injury that will likely cost him come draft time. Just a tough call for these guys. SU can’t say there is a right or wrong answer on this one. Thoughts?
- Michigan lost 3 games this year by a total of 5 points. Jim Harbaugh is a great coach but you can make the case that he is not money in the close games. While much of the focus is on what happens down the stretch of games, SU maintains that games are won and lost much earlier – on drives in the 1st half that go 3 and out and put more strain on the defense to keep the game in order. When games come down to one play or a referee’s late call, it’s aggravating but you need to look at the game in total. SU is very mature (clearly).
- Finally, SU’s career record in Michigan bowl games drops to 2-2. The list includes Michigan’s OT Sugar Bowl win with Denard Robinson leading the way and the best live sporting event I have ever witnessed which was the 35-31 Capital One Bowl win over Florida with Tim Tebow at QB and Urban Meyer coaching in Lloyd Carr’s final game at Michigan. What a game.
A happy and healthy new year to the thousands of members of the SU intergalactic subscriber base. Be safe!