The kick heard 'round the world

Posted September 09, 2008

I’m not sure I have ever been so fired up in my life.

I came into work today expecting a very typical day. It began typical enough: waking up before dawn cracked, catching up on my sports news, rushing into work and going through the usual motions of my work day; but then it happened, the mood changed, the typicalness (ok, so that’s not a word exactly but is in fact an “Amberism”) of the day subsided. “Why?,” you ask. I’ll tell you.

Here at Open Sports in the editorial department we all sit within extreme close proximity to one another, a setup that allows for hours of sports-centric debate and banter throughout a work day (yes, working here does totally rock). On this particular day, the now infamous field goal at the end of the Miami-Florida game was mentioned, a field goal I witnessed in person.

We all began debating whether Urban Meyer made a bad move by having his kicker score three points when up twenty points with 29 seconds to play. Many are saying Meyer was covering the spread in order to please the boosters that allegedly bet on this game (are you serious?), while others are saying he was running up the score (oh, how it feels like the 1990's again), and he should have knelt in order to avoid this controversy altogether -- but then how typical this day would be.

Allow me to chime in, get personal, and school you guys for a moment.

Let’s go back to 2002. I was a 19-year-old college sophomore sitting in "The Swamp," row 85. It was hot; roasting north central Florida hot , which for those of you that don’t know, is the hottest place on earth (I’m pretty convinced). These were not good seats; these were cheap student section no-one-sits-for-a second-during-three-hours-of-direct-sunlight seats. And, it was Ron Zook’s first real test as head coach. None of us were excited Steve Spurrier wasn’t there on the sidelines, but Zook had Heisman finalist Rex Grossman at the helm so there was hope -- no comments please.

My Gators jumped out early with an exciting touchdown in the first quarter -- the details are hazy six years later but we went nuts. We thought that maybe, just maybe, we had a shot.

My brother and I did what every Gator fan in that stadium did -- we jumped around, high-fived everyone near us, and danced our early victory dance. We were standing on the bleachers and in the commotion my brother jumped a little too hard, the crowd was a little too rowdy and next thing I knew, my brother’s ankle was a little too…broken.

You would expect this to be the part where I tell you we left the game but not so my friend -- this was the Miami game! So, as his ankle swelled larger by the moment, we stayed in our seats holding out hope into the fourth quarter.

I bet you’d like to know what the outcome of the game was. We got killed -- not just killed, we got manhandled, 41-16. And the Canes fans that showed up in a big way were absolutely ruthless. There was no holding back. The scoring on us seemed to never end and the fans let us have it with every single point.

My brother’s ankle was unrecognizable by the end of the game and with the help of a friend, I carried him down all those rows (trust me, it was a task) to the medical staff with our heads hanging in sorrow, broken hearted and completely defeated.

Do you think for a minute I’ve forgotten that game? Do you think I, and all of Gator Nation, doesn’t remember how brutal the Miami fans were or what a whooping they laid on us as a team? I haven’t forgotten -- not even for a nanosecond.

I’m not suggesting that “The U” was wrong back then for how they acted. This is what college football is about: rivalries, brutality, and fanfare. They weren’t wrong, but man did they have it coming. 2002 was just one year in a list of too many with the same result. Let’s consider the 1980’s for a moment, when Howard Schnellenberger (in his second year) called a time out in order to add a pretty little 25-yard field goal onto a 31-7 UM victory over UF on the game’s final play (<gasp> how dare he!)

This rivalry stems across seven decades, dating back 10 years before the infamous Florida-Florida State rivalry began and, it’s been over 20 years since the Gators beat the Miami Hurricanes. Gator fans hate these guys, and they hate us. You don’t take it easy in rivalry games. You don’t take off the last couple minutes of play for any reason, even if you are up by 20 points. If you don’t understand that, then you don’t understand the essence of college football!

Sure, there are reasonable explanations for the kick as well. This was the kicker’s first career field goal and by golly (oh yes, I’m fired up) kicking a field goal with less than 30 seconds left in a game in front of a record breaking crowd is a priceless experience. The Gators also didn’t look so hot the first three quarters of the game, leading 9-3 most of the way. They didn’t find their footing until the fourth quarter and they needed every second of that quarter to perfect their rhythm. And of course, it absolutely does matter how badly you beat someone, just ask Georgia who lost their No. 1 ranking by beating Georgia Southern by too few, and not covering the spread. This isn’t about betting lines people, this is about projections in regards to the polls -- be realistic.

Above all of the logical explanations though, I provide you with one that is logical beyond all the rest. Why did Urban Meyer kick a field goal? Because there was time left on the clock, because there was still a game left to play and because he could -- enough said.

This is football people, man up, score points when you can and stop crying when they score too many on you (aw, poor babies <sniffle>). Rivalry and scoring points is what college ball is all about.

Salisbury's Take: "I normally am not a conspiracy theory guy, and I give people the benefit of the doubt; the glass is always half-full. While I know it is a business, I love the purity of college football, but when something happens like what happened in the Miami-Florida game last night, I can't help but wonder and so should you. While I’m not saying this was planned by a team or a coach or even remotely thought about, if you don't think that the possibility at least exists when it comes to covering point spreads, you’re out of your damn mind."
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Lexi's Gator propaganda: "I am well aware of the rivalry between the Florida Gators and the Miami Hurricanes. I was at the 2004 Peach Bowl in Atlanta when we got embarrassed by Miami (the final score was 27-10). That was my first hands-on experience with the rivalry. I saw how evil those 'Canes fans were and how they spent the whole night taunting us Gators.
"'Just wait until next time,' was the only thing my friends and I could say in response to the verbal beatings we were receiving." 
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