"The field goal"

I saved this topic for its own post, because I didn't want this rant to drown out the recap of my Gainesville experiences.

I'm no fan of running up the score. In my younger days, I played on some good basketball teams but also on some abysmally bad ones as well. In those situations, I always hated the embarassment of watching the other team's starters gun for 100 points in the fourth quarter of a blowout.

But I can unequivocally say that Florida kicking a field goal with a 20-point lead and 25 seconds remaining in the game did not qualify as "running up the score" in my opinion.

I never got the impression that the field goal (or the few shots the Gators took at the endzone that came before it) were designed to embarrass Miami or that the actions were carried out with wanton disregard as to their implications. Instead, I saw a Florida team that looked out-of-sync for much of the game on offense trying to get on track in its last live-game action before the conference opener. The need for additional experience was even more relevant on fourth down, as the Florida kicker had yet to attempt a field goal in a collegiate game.

Leaving the first-string offense (especially Tebow) in the game late may have been stupid in the risking-an-injury department, but it wasn't disrespectful -- in design or in practice -- to Miami.

Finally, this has nothing to do with Florida's actions, but we truly are living in the Bizarro Universe when religious conservatives applaud a Vice Presidential candidate's support of an unplanned teen pregnancy and when the head coach of the Miami Hurricanes football team complains about unsportmanlike behavior. Setting aside for a moment all of the ghastly crimes against decency comitted by the Miami program and its representatives in the past, this current itteration of "Da U" had a questionable brush with "running up the score" just this year.

Ahead 45-7 with 4:28 remaining in the fourth quarter against lowly Charleston Southern, Randy Shannon's squad opted to try to convert a fourth-and-3 from their opponent's 42-yard line. The 'Canes succeeded and a three plays later punched in another touchdown to make the final margin 52-7. That is how you run up the score. I think makes Shannon's comments look less like genuine sentiment and more like an admittedly clever recruiting ploy.