1) It is SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28. In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Year-end poll: Biggest national sports story of 2013, Dolphins?NFL Week 17 picks, LeBron sucks at golf & more. 2) Follow us on Twitter (gregcote), Instagram (Upsetbird), Vine (Greg Cote) and Facebook (Greg Cote).
Vote: What was biggest national sports story of 2013?: Poll still open. Navigate to the blog post directly below this new one and have your say. Ten choices. You can vote for three.
Click on Drama Not Done for my column from Orlando off Saturday's Canes-Louisville game. And find in-game commentary directly below the poll.
CANESFAN SATISFACTION METER: BOWL/FINAL: Results are in on the latest and 2013 final Canesfan Satisfaction Meter postgame poll, and they show 16.1 percent overall satisfaction in the wake of Saturday's 36-9 loss to Louisville in the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando, putting Mami's final season record at 9-4. This was the fifth year for these polls in our blog, and thanks to the thousands of fans who participated. These polls are your invitation after every Hurricanes game to vote on your overall satisfaction with the team and season in a continuing weekly gauge of how UM football fans are feeling. Criteria for voting is your own, but I suggest you consider the most recent game's performance and caliber of opponent, season as a whole, program's direction, and your overall degree of optimism -- all in the context of reasonable expectations. Because this was the final poll, I asked that you please give added weight to the season as a whole. (Not quite sure you did, honestly. I know it's tough to not give disproportionate weight to what just happened). Results are certified official the morning after one full day of voting. In this case that was around 9:15 a.m. today/Monday.
2013 Canesfan Satisfaction Meter
G1: 82.9% (19.9-very, 63.0-somewhat) following 34-6 victory vs. FAU.
G2: 96.7% (71.2-v, 25.5-s) following 21-16 victory vs. Florida.
G3: 95.7% (77.2-v, 18.5-s) following 77-7 victory vs. Savannah State.
G4: 97.6% (67.9-v, 29.7-s) following 49-21 victory at South Florida.
G5: 95.8% (60.4-v, 35.4-s) following 45-30 victory vs. Georgia Tech.
G6: 82.3% (41.8-v, 40.5-s) following 27-23 victory at North Carolina.
G7: 68.4% (31.2-v, 37.2-s) following 24-21 victory vs. Wake Forest.
G8: 65.7% (28.5-v, 37.2-s) following 41-14 loss at Florida State.
G9: 15.1% (4.7-v, 10.4-s) following 42-24 loss vs. Virginia Tech.
G10: 5.7% (2.5-v, 3.2-s) following 48-30 loss at Duke.
G11: 51.1% (6.2-v, 44.9-s) following 45-26 victory vs. Virginia.
G12: 78.0% (21.9-v, 56.1-s) following 41-31 victory at Pitt.
G13: 16.1% (2.7-v, 13.4-s) following 36-9 loss vs. Louisville.
Final season results:
2013: 16.1% overall satisfaction (following 9-4 season)
2012: 80.9% overall satisfaction (following 7-5 season)
2011: 22.1% overall satisfaction (following 6-6 season)
2010: 4.2% overall satisfaction (following 7-6 season)
2009: 41.7% overall satisfaction (following 9-4 season)
BOWL: HURRICANES VS. LOUISVILLE IN ORLANDO: LET ME COUNT THE SUBPLOTS: Final: What can you say? Teddy Bridgewater passed for 447 yards and three TDs, ran for another, and left Miami helpless all night. Now UM fans must decide if they saw an overall positive season this year, or if all theyh can see is the way it ended. My column from Orlando is now online (link above). ..... 4Q: Louisville misses late FG try. Miami still in it! (Sorry). ... Score now 36-9 after Gus Edwards' 2-yard TD run. ... Teddy's 1-yard scoring run on 4th down makes score 36-2. Felt like running up the score. Teddy leaves field mocking UM by making "The U" gesture with his hands, and turning that into a slit-throat gesture. Sad. ..... 3Q: It's now a 29-2 rout on Teddy's 3rd TD throw, this one 24 yards to Senorise Perry, abetted by abysmal non-tackling by UM. ..... Half: Distilling the why on a 22-2 Canes hole at halftime, I would mostly say this: Teddy is 19-for-26 for 231 yards and two TDs for Louisville, and Morris is 6-for-14 for 71 yards and a lost fumble for The U. Teddy is being Teddy, and the Canes offense is being awful. ..... 2Q: Teddy to Michaelee Harris for 13-yard scoring play and 22-2 Louisville lead (the kick was missed) 30 seconds before halftime. ... Canes finally show a spark with Clive Walford's 28-yard catch for a first and goal, but Morris loses fumble when hit in pocket. Awful turnover, terribly timed. ... Miami now 0-for-6 on 3rd downs. Offense sucks at this point. ... L-Ville up 16-2 after Teddy's 26-yard TD pass to DeVante Parker in end zone. He's like Pele' now. No surname needed. Just "Teddy." ... Miami now 0-for-5 on 3rd downs and O-line getting dominated. This will turn lopsided fast if UM offense doesn't find a way. ... Cards add a 42-yard FG for 9-2 lead. Canes defense hanging on, but offense must do something now. Feels like a game that could get out of hand unless Stephen Morris & Company make a stand, pronto. ..... 1Q: Miami defense holding its own vs. Bridgewater in first Q but offense has only 30 net yards on 15 plays. ... Cards add three-run homer I mean 43-yard FG for a 6-3 lead late in quarter. ... Canes didn't make it, but like the go-for-it- call on 4th-and-1 from own 45, even though it set LV up for that FG drive. ... Louisville up by the baseball score of 3-2 with a 36-yard FG. I'd have an "action in both bullpens" line here if it were later in the game. ... Canes 2-0 on safety when Deon Bush sacks Bridgewater in the e-zone. ... "Teddy" chants for Bridgewater. Still think more UM fans here, but Louisville fans seem louder. ..... Pregame post: Visual guesstimate based on orange vs. red in the stands is that UM fans will be in the majority. ... Miami in white uniforms tonight, Louisville in its blood-red duds. ... I'd forgotten what a dump the Florida Citrus Bowl is. The Orange Bowl in its last days was the Taj Mahal compared to this place. ..... Original post: I won't lie and say that being up in Mousetown to columnize off tonight's Russell Athletic Bowl ranks among career highlights, but it's a bowl game that means something to the Miami Hurricanes, and so I'm on the trip and happy to be. Louisville (18th-ranked, 11-1) is a 3.5-point favorite over UM (9-3), and with reason. I give the Canes a big upset shot but love the matchup for the subplots. If you don't think this game is huge for Miami, let's count those subplots: UM is in its first bowl since 2010, after the scourge of an NCAA probe and two years of self-imposed bans. Miami last won a bowl game in 2006. A win gives UM its first double-digit-win season, a benchmark, since 2003. The opposing QB, Teddy Bridgewater, is a Miami kid who committed to the Canes but changed his mind when Randy Shannon was fired -- essentially turning his back on Al Golden and the restart. (Bridgewater and UM counterpart Stephen Morris are pictured). A win makes Miami ranked in the final post-bowl polls. Louisville is switching to the ACC so this is the first shot in a budding conference rivalry. And Louisville recruits South Florida heavily so this result carries weight there, too. That enough to chew on? It should be. I see an upset -- if UM can get pressure on Bridgewater, a large if. This bowl game is a letdown for Louisville, which dearly wanted the BCS bid that went to Central Florida. For Miami it's bigger, a deserved reward after all the program has been through. I think the Canes will want this more, and I think that matters in bowls without otherwise obvious stakes. My pick: Upset! Hurricanes, 31-27.
Comments