BEfR: Wolvr n C ak AlPeA2 Even before Rodriguez, Wolverines open playbook. Could that mean a quick transition for Blue? Page 2C The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com ( January 3, 2008 UP11 FTI NG EXIT PHOTOS BY RODRIGO GAYA/Daily (ABOVE) Michigan coach Lloyd Carr ended his coaching career with a win in Tuesday's Capital One Bowl. (BELOW LEFT) Wide receiver Adrian Arrington scored two touchdowns in the Wolverines' victory. Spo tligtfinds Carr in final victory ORLANDO, Fla. - He fought hard against the individual attention lead- ing up to his final game, but in the end, Michigan coach Lloyd Carr lost that battle.' And in doing so, he passed his so- called impass- able final S test: ending SCOTT his coaching BELL career on top, - - both literally Too and figura- Soon? tively. Carr left Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium on the shoulders of his players, the ones he repeatedly told not to play this game just for him. It didn't work for Bo Schembechler 18 years earlier, so it wouldn't work for Carr, either, right? Not quite. Carr's team would have none of that talk. No. 9 Florida may have been the heavy favorite on paper - the home-state, defending National Champion from the supposedly superior Southeastern Confer- ence was playing an unranked Michigan squad, after all - but it 'didn't translate on the field. Trail- ing early, the speedy Gators and their Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback did everything they could to regain the momentum. INSIDE SPORTSTHURSDAY With draft roming, WRsshine See page 2C w What's nextfor assistant coaches? See page 3C " The game in photos See page 4C But fake punts and misdirec- tion can only get you so far when you're battling a team hellbent on sending its beloved coach out in style. THE PERFECT STAGE Though Carr's intentions to retire didn't become official until after the Ohio State game, most people within the program figured 2007 would be his last go-around as Michigan's sideline general. The 62-year-old coach's team had a chance to send him out on top, but by mid-September, a National Championship was already out of the picture. Once Michigan bookended its regular season with back-to-back losses, a positive ending for the Lloyd Carr retirement tour looked like a near-impossible fate. A team with top-notch talent and an excess of leadership suffered top-notch disappointment and an excess of injuries. Time and time again, it became obvious that good things don't always happen to good people. Storybook endings may make people smile walking out of movie theaters, but they're a rare fate in real life. But on New Year's Day, with millions watching on a national stage, real life made an exception for Lloyd Carr.' CARR'S NOT ALONE The game had all the ingredi- ents of being yet another disap- pointment for a team too familiar with the feeling. Mike Hart fumbled twice in the retd zone. Chad Henne tossed a pair of costly interceptions. Michigan's defense got tricked by misdirection in crucial situations. Mistakes like that are supposed to be deadly, especially against a defending National Champion in a hostile environment. But this time around the Wol- verine miscues were just a side- note - not a cause of misery. Hart's two touchdowns made ' the fumbles stingless. Henne threw for a career-best 373 yards and tossed more touchdowns (three) than interceptions. And the Wolverine 'D' yielded just four total yards during Florida's two final offensive possessions. Yes, after a season full of almosts and what-ifs, the Michi- gan football team finally closed with an exclamation point instead of a question mark. Defensive coordinator Ron English, who, like most of his fellow assistants, was having an involuntary swan song, designed a gameplan that attacked Florida repeatedly. Pressure, the word the highly scrutinized coaches leaving this program know all-too-well, ended up being the defense's greatest asset. Offensive coordinator Mike DeBord, who, like secondary coach Vance Bedford, is saying goodbye to Michigan for a sec- See CARR, Page 3C Florida trash talk breaks through to inspire Blue By KEVIN WRIGHT Daily Sports Editor ORLANDO, Fla. - Asingle wall separated the Michigan and Flori- da locker rooms in the Florida Cit- rus Bowl Stadium. That wasn't enough of a barrier to keep the Gator trash talk from seeping through the barrier into the Wolverine lair, and the Michi- gan players took notice - espe- cially when the Florida swagger carried onto the field during pre- game warmups. "Before the game, the wide receivers were coming over and talking trash," senior safety Jamar Adams said. "Their team was coming over and talking trash. We could hear them talking through the walls." Since the Capital One Bowl matchup. was decided on Dec. 2 pitting the defending Nation- al Champion Gators against unranked Michigan, the Wolver- ines heard everything the expert analysts had to say. None of the predictions gave unranked Michigan any chance to compete, let alone win. The Florida offense, boasting that heralded Southeastern Con- ference speed and a Heisman- Trophy winning quarterback, was supposed to have a field day with a Wolverine defense that helped launch Oregon quarterback Den- nis Dixon's Heisman campaign. "You hear all throughout the weeks that it's not even going to be close," wide receiver Adrian Arrington said. "It's going to be a rout. They're going to beat us by 5. Even their players were say- ing that. We had a big chip on our shoulder, and we came out here and played." With all the odds stacked against them (Las Vegas had the Wolverines as a double-digit underdog), Arrington and the rest of his teammates came out with jawing rarely seen from the Mich- igan sideline. Most fans expected to see the gator-chomp motion throughout the game, but from those in the orange and blue uniforms, not the maize and blue. After just about every positive See MOTIVATION, Page 3C 4