Running it up… a Cane’s take

I swear to God, I was done with this topic. The game was 72 hours ago. The matter at hand was discussed, both sides spoke their mind and it seemed like a done deal.

‘Til Tuesday when Pat Dooley and Israel Gutierrez decided to chime in on a subject discussed ad nauseam on Sunday and Monday.

Dooley’s article, “UM’s Shannon should watch game tape” and Gutierrez’s piece, “Shannon’s rant unnecessary” both ran this morning and had Gators abroad forwarding both articles as if they were gospel.

For those who missed it, the No. 5 Florida Gators beat the Miami Hurricanes, 26-3 on Saturday night. UM hung tough, fell late and UF pulled away after a few questionable calls went their way.

The point of contention; a late field goal by Florida with :25 left on the clock, a half-hearted handshake from Randy Shannon when he met Urban Meyer midfield and Shannon’s anti-Gator rant Sunday morning when the dust had settled.

Dooley and Gutierrez put together different, yet similar anti-Shannon/pro-Meyer articles, which caused dissent among Canes enthusiasts and unity amongst Gators.

“You see, even these writers are calling Shannon a whiner. Florida was in the right!”

If the two were unbiased parties, I’d have let it slide. Such isn’t the case. Dooley is a long-time beat writer for the Gainesville Sun, while Gutierrez writes for the Miami Herald, yet sports a journalism degree from the University of Florida. Gator fans nationwide have been forwarding these articles around as their form of “proof” that Meyer did the right thing.

There might’ve been some valid points in all their drivel, but both media men left out key details and missed Shannon’s point, prompting this Cane’s rebuttal.

Dooley wants Shannon to ‘get a grip’ and encouraged readers to fire a block of cheese to the Miami skipper, so he’d have something to go with his “whine”.

Shannon is taking grief for a post game presser where he made the statement, “Sometimes when you do things and people see what kind of person you really are, you turn a lot of people off. Take from that what you want. (The field goal) helped us more than you will ever know.”

Meyer explains his final shot at three, stating that he wanted his young kicker to get game experience before Florida headed to Knoxville after this week’s bye.

Ahh, yes. Nothing like a meaningless kick up 20, in front of your home crowd with :25 on the game clock to get your guy ready for a meaningful kick in front of over 100K at Neyland.

For the record, I don’t have an issue with tacking on three extra points if you think it’ll help you in the polls. Welcome to big time college football and top five rankings. Bring it on.

My problem lies in keeping your Heisman winning quarterback, Heisman candidate receiver and entire first string offense in the game after getting the ball back with 1:56 remaining and trying to fire one in the end zone on 2nd and 1, trying to make it 30-3.

Try that stunt against an SEC foe or a coach with less class and Florida will watch Mr. Heisman leave the game on a stretcher. Some coaches are classless enough to consider it ‘open season’ for their defense, regarding a starting quarterback left in the game with under 120 seconds and hucking it towards the end zone while sitting on an almost-three touchdown lead.

What’s more important, keeping Tebow healthy or trying to dupe voters into thinking 23-3 was really 26-3 or 30-3? It’s all moot if your star player gets hurt.

Florida took over possession from the Miami 16-yard line with 1:56 remaining and attempted two passes before a 3rd and 1 run went for a four-yard loss. If it was all about the field goal, run three times and kick on 4th down.

A week ago, Miami is up 45-3 with 6:25 remaining, a third-string quarterback and fourth-string running back are in the game and the Canes are pounding the rock. Five of the six plays were on the ground and the other, a two-yard pass. One rush went for 31 yards and from the one-yard line with 2:33 remaining, Miami punched it in with it’s fifth rush of the drive.

Pull the first string when you have a big lead and let your second string try to run your first team offense. Put your Heisman trophy winner back in the box and play with another toy.

The win was in the bag. Insert the second string team, rest your star players and run your second and third teamers, with the intent of scoring.

It’s called Sportsmanship:101, though neither orange or blue writer sold it that way, going as far to say Shannon ran up the score in week one.

Dooley twisted those facts and some others, using them to fit his Gator agenda; most notably playing the ‘age’ card. All the talk was about Miami’s youth, but this Gainesville Sun reporter used his crack skills (i.e. – opened a media guide) and pointed out that the Canes were actually the younger team.

True, Miami started 13 seniors and juniors to Florida’s 12 sophomore starters. The Canes had four seniors on defense and eight total senior starters, while the Gators sport no defensive starters.

The U was younger, on paper, but green where it mattered most – at quarterback and wideout.

Tim Tebow is year three into Meyer’s offense and working on timing with wideouts. Three years ago, Robert Marve is in 11th grade, balling at Plant high. This year’s freshman receivers were playing 10th grade ball when Percy Harvin stepped on campus as a freshman and started to dazzle.

While both defenses came to play, you can’t trivialize the impact Heisman-winning upperclassmen will have on an offense, compared to a r-freshman taking his first ever snaps behind center.

No comparison, Pat.

Another Dooley cheap shot came when he boasted that Shannon should “know the rules” before he complained about Carl Moore’s overturned catch.

Shannon argued that if you’re body is out of bounds, you’re out of bounds. He also mentioned getting both feet inbounds, which is incorrect in the college game (only one foot is necessary.)

As for knowing the rules, Dooley might want to do a little homework of his own.

According to the NCAA rules on “Catch, Interception, Recovery”, Article 7 – section 2 states, “Loss of ball simultaneous to returning to the ground is not a catch, interception or recovery.”

Moore left the ground for a the ball and while his elbow might or might not have landed in bounds, he obviously lost the ball ‘simultaneous to returning to the ground.’ It was a no-catch and the call on the field stands if anyone other than SEC officials are working that game.

Both Dooley and Gutierrez chastised Shannon for his Sunday morning rant, after sleeping on it and still feeling the same way – yet both writers did the exact same, penning their pieces for Tuesday’s edition and continuing to beat a dead horse. Oh, the hypocrisy.

Miami and Florida will continue to see this situation with their own brand of tunnel-vision. There is no gray area when you’re on the winning side versus the losing one. We can agree on that much.

But it seems Gator faithful – and their sportswriters – are missing the key component. The three points aren’t the point of contention. It was the ‘pour it on’ mentality with a Heisman-winning quarterback going for six and throwing twice on that final drive, instead of inserting that second-string, attempting to run the ball and settling for three.

Meyer can rant and rave all day about helping his kicker, but running the ball late might’ve been a more prudent choice being that UF’s three tailbacks rushed nine times for a total of seven yards. The running game needed more of a tune up than a kicker who already drilled three extra points on the night.

Curious to see how the football gods let this one play out. Oh the irony if Florida misses an important kick at Tennessee next week, or somewhere down the road this season.

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