Citrus Bowl notebook: Taylor reaches goal

His 2-yard underhanded touchdown pass to Treon Harris in the first quarter, a rare successful trick play for the Gators’ offense, provided Florida with its lone points of the game. It will make Michigan’s offense look sluggish and hung over on New Year’s Day.

The Gators then caved in completely after the Wolverines drove 69 yards for a touchdown on their first possession of the second half.

Ruddock has a very talented group of wide receivers at his disposal.

2016 started well for Harris; he was 7-for-15, with 120 yards passing and even had a receiving touchdown.

The Michigan Wolverines (9-3) have played the best of football yet they couldn’t topple the best teams in Big Ten.

Michigan Wolverines running back Drake Johnson (20) celebrates after scoring a touchdown during the fourth quarter against the Florida Gators in the 2016 Citrus Bowl at Orlando Citrus Bowl Stadium. Both players are redshirt seniors, so their college careers are over Halter, a graduate transfer from Fordham, started each of Florida’s 13 games this season.

Michigan’s defense looked like the 1985 Chicago Bears during the beginning of the season.

Michigan’s defense played without safety Jabrill Peppers, who sat out with an undisclosed injury. Neil MacInnes, a pre-dental student who got the kicking job via an open tryout in the middle of the season, was forced into duties because Austin Hardin and Jorge Powell were injured for the bowl game.

Harbaugh is set to lead No. 17 MI into a Citrus Bowl matchup against McElwain and 19th-ranked Florida.

The Florida Gator offense has, to put it nicely, struggled this season. If you tell Gators’ fans back in August that they’d win 10 games and play in the SEC title game, they’d have taken it. Still, the off season enters with that one big question, though few others. Florida OC Doug Nussmeier was Michigan’s offensive coordinator last season….

MI physically pounded Florida at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and appeared to effectively break the Gators’ back after opening the second half with a 12-play, 69-yard march that chewed up more than six minutes off the clock.

It probably doesn’t help that starting right tackle Mason Halter is ineligible and the Gators will be starting three true freshmen on the offensive line – center Tyler Jordan and tackles Martez Ivey and Fred Johnson.

The Wolverines rushing attack also had one of it’s biggest days of the season, finishing the game with 225 yards.

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) – Ezekiel Elliott ran for 149 yards and matched a Fiesta Bowl record with four touchdowns, sparking Ohio State’s prolific offense against Notre Dame.

Capitalize on turnovers: Florida led the SEC with a plus-10, not so much because it was sterling protecting the ball (though not bad), but because its aggressive “D” came up with 25 takeaways. Excluding that run, his longest of the day, Taylor averaged just 2.5 yards per carry in the first half. It took him eight carries to get there, and Taylor finished the game with just 53 yards. “I’m just so proud of how they committed themselves”.

“Jake Rudock [was] getting hit and making passes against corners that were going to be playing in the National Football League, he’s going to be drafted”, Harbaugh said. All-American cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III apparently did not heed the warning.

Hargreaves was replaced in the lineup by sophomore Quincy Wilson for the last UM series in the first half and half of the Wolverines’ first series of the second half.