5 Thoughts ...
2009 BCS Championship
Florida 24 ... Oklahoma 14
GAME RECAP:
Florida wins its 2nd title in three years
BCS Championship Game Notes
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- Pregame and 1st
Quarter |
2nd Quarter |
3rd Quarter |
4th Quarter
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Position-by-Position Breakdown
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2009 CFN BCS Championship
Preview
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2009 BCS Championship
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1. Don’t fall for the trap that
Florida’s 24-14 win over
Oklahoma was “ugly”, thus
opening the door for Utah, USC,
or Texas to earn a split
national championship. Now, I’d
love nothing more than a chaotic
situation that adds another
stain to the BCS, and those
schools have valid beefs, but
the Gator victory was a lot more
impressive than most will
assume. You see, you can earn
style points without scoring a
lot of offensive points. The
Florida D did exactly that with
one of the great efforts of the
entire season. Before whacking
this game with the ugly stick,
watch the game again with all of
Oklahoma’s regular season
numbers spread out nearby. The
Sooner team that was held to
just 14 points hadn’t been kept
under 58 since the middle of
October and was the prolific
offense in NCAA history. The
Gators made two huge goal line
stands just before half. They
got a tremendous game from the
secondary and were well-prepared
by coordinator Charlie Strong.
They stopped Oklahoma, which
most thought was impossible.
Just because there weren’t as
many fireworks as everyone
expected does not mean that this
Florida victory wasn’t a
beautiful work of art. Or any
less worthy of a national
championship. -
Richard Cirminiello
2. What did we learn? 1) When
the talent level and athleticism
are relatively even, in the
national title, the team with
the better defense beats the
team with the high-octane
offense. 2) The high-octane
offenses, especially from the
Big 12 this year, sputter out of
the gate when they have a month
off to cool off. But everyone
knew that going in … why didn’t
the Oklahoma coaching staff?
The one area OU had a huge
advantage, relative to all the
even units between the two
teams, was the big, NFL-caliber
offensive line against a
talented, but young, Florida
defensive line. Did the OU
coaches take advantage? Nope.
When the running game was
ripping up the Gator defense on
a breathtaking drive in the
first half (that ended up
getting stopped on the goal
line), did OU stick with it?
Nope. Are 107 rushing yards
excusable? Nope.
Learn from this you teams with
big-time offenses that’ll end up
playing in big bowl games in the
future. With several weeks off,
and with several weeks for the
other team’s defense to prepare,
the top offenses are going to
have problems, more often than
not, early on. So if you have a
great offensive line that can
calm things down and provide
steady production to rely on
until the passing game gets its
feet wet, then you use it. Also,
teams with top offense have to
realize that they can’t rely on
the attack in a big bowl game.
Coaches, learn from history or
be doomed to repeat it. -
Pete
Fiutak
3. Tim Tebow is not a great
quarterback by NFL standards. He
is, however, a great football
player by so many different
measures. Tebow showed again why
he’s the nation’s MVP,
essentially willing Florida to
another national championship on
a night when he and his team
didn’t look so title-worthy for
almost three quarters. His
spirals weren’t always tight.
His throwing motion is almost
difficult to watch. He threw two
awful interceptions early on.
Yet, there he was in the final
20 minutes, barreling through
the first line of the Oklahoma
defense, getting the crowd fired
up, and engineering three
critical scoring drives. With a
ton of help from Percy Harvin
and the Gator D, Tebow would not
be denied another ring, so he
carried his team across the
finish line. At the next level,
whenever that might be, I just
don’t see Tebow making it as a
quarterback. At this level, few
are better than No. 15 for
reasons that’ll never show up in
combine drills or an individual
workout. -
Richard Cirminiello
4. Watch how quickly the media
turns on Oklahoma, just like it
turned on Ohio State ... and
unfairly so. The same argument
why Ohio State didn't deserve to
be destroyed by the college
football world after each of the
last two years can be used now
... Oklahoma lost a national
championship. That's all. Don't
let the pot stirrers fool you;
Florida would beat USC. It would
beat Utah, Texas, UL Monroe, and
anyone else you want to throw
out there. This was the best
team in college football, and
there's no shame for Oklahoma to
lose this game. The Sooners
showed up, got the offense
moving (far better than it's
being given credit for by the
post-game talking heads), and
that's it. 117 other teams
would've lost, too, and maybe
two or three, if everything
broke right, would've been where
the Sooners were in the fourth
quarter. Oklahoma is now 2-5 in
the BCS under Bob Stoops, and
while you can dog his team of a
few years ago for quitting in
the national title game loss to
USC, and you can blame the team
for not taking Boise State or
West Virginia seriously enough,
to be the star of the Big 12
year after year after year is
impressive no matter what
happens in the bowl games.
Overall, this is one of the
three best programs in America
(Florida and USC being the other
two), it'll be in the hunt for
the national title next year,
and the year after that, and the
year after that. Not everyone
can win the national title every
year, but only a few can be in
the picture for a decade. So
Oklahoma isn't the best team in
the country. It still might be
No. 2.
-
Pete
Fiutak
5.
Now that Tim Tebow has been
anointed to sainthood, let's
make one thing very, very clear;
Florida doesn't win the national
title without Percy Harvin.
Tebow is supposedly this
inspirational leader who wills
his team to wins, but Harvin
showed greater heart, more
toughness, and was just as
inspirational in the win over
the Sooners. I know from first
hand accounts that Harvin wasn't
90% like he claimed to be. He
wasn't even close. He played on
pain killers and pure heart as
he was not only the most
explosive playmaker on the
field, but he fought through his
bad ankle as the game went on.
Nine carries, 122 yards and a
touchdown, and five catches for
49 yards, to go along with all
the attention he attracted to
allow Tebow more room to move
and more one-on-one coverage for
the other receivers. Over the
next several days, Tebow will be
going to another level of
college football superstardom,
and rightly so considering his
fourth quarter, but save a
little of the love for No. 1. -
Pete
Fiutak