Pierre Ducharme / Reuters

Retiring head coach Lloyd Carr is carried off the field by his players after the Michigan Wolverines defeated the Florida Gators 41-35 in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day.

Michigan started to pull away in the third. The Wolverines recovered the kickoff — a pooch kick the Gators couldn’t field — and promptly marched to the 1. Hart’s second rushing touchdown made it 28-14.

Tebow got Florida right back in it, though, driving the Gators 56 yards and capping it with a 1-yard scoring run.

Florida’s defense continued to struggle, allowing Henne to move the Wolverines with ease. But Hart’s second fumble — this one at the goal line — gave the ball back to Florida.

The Gators looked like they would stall, but coach Urban Meyer called for a fake punt on fourth-and-7 at the 23. Florida scored a few plays later to tie it up.

Florida capitalized on Henne’s second interception and led 35-31 with 5:49 to play. But the lead was short-lived.

Henne put Michigan ahead for good with his 18-yard strike to Arrington with 4:12 remaining. He was 3-for-3 passing for 61 yards on the four-play drive that included Arrington’s juggling, one-handed catch along the sideline.

“I don’t think we coached very well in certain areas,” said Meyer, who lost for the first time in his last five bowl games.

Meyer sized up the loss this way: Florida didn’t give Tebow much time to throw, couldn’t get pressure on Henne and failed to cover Michigan’s receivers.

“The deflater is when you go ahead and score on the fake punt and that (touchdown) drive and then boom, boom, boom, right down the field and they score,” Meyer said. “You have to answer score for score. I really thought we’d have a chance to come back and win that thing, but we didn’t get it going.”

Michigan did — and it sent Carr out a winner.

“What they did in this game and this environment, well, I love them to death,” Carr said.

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