What's Going To Happen In The
2008 BCS Championship?
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2008 CFN BCS Championship Preview
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2008 CFN BCS Championship
Unit Breakdowns & Analysis
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2008 BCS Championship History, Each Team's Best Bowl Moments, & More
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2007
BCS Championship "And the winner will be" ... Ohio State vs.
Florida
And the winner will be ...
By
Pete
Fiutak
1.
Usually,
something kicks in a few days before a huge game like this and I'll get
a good handle on what's about to happen. Maybe it comes from the
respective moods of the team, a sliver of analysis previously gone
unnoticed, or some sort of gut feeling.
Sometimes that feeling comes from a bad taco, like when I thought
Oklahoma was going to beat USC in the 2004 Orange Bowl. Sometimes I'm
locked in, and get a vibe from how a team has been practicing and how
focused it appears to be, like when I was 99.9% certain Texas was going
to beat USC in the 2005 Rose Bowl and 61% sure of my Ohio State pick
over Miami in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. Sometimes I'm just plain lazy in the
process, like when I thought Florida State would just show up and beat
Oklahoma in the 2001 Orange Bowl And then there was last year,
when I thought Florida would shut down the Ohio State offense, but I
still picked the Buckeyes.
I've wavered over the last few weeks on this one.
Ohio State comes in with the "nobody believes in us" attitude, but that
only seems to work for No. 2 ranked teams. Everyone does respect the
Buckeyes, to a point, and no one seems to be picking LSU in a rout, so
in the absence of any nebulous feeling for the game, I'm going with the
straight football analysis.
Ohio State is good, but it hasn't beaten anyone really, really good.
Wisconsin was battered and bruised, but it took the Buckeyes into the
fourth quarter in Columbus. Michigan wasn't Michigan with Chad Henne and
Mike Hart half of what they were against Florida in the Capital One
Bowl. The Penn State win was nice, but whatever. There wasn't that
Texas-like non-conference win like 2006.
LSU was one of the most injured teams in America over the second half of
the season. Several players gutted it out, but they weren't nearly the
same as they were at the beginning of the year when LSU looked like an
unstoppable machine on both sides of the ball. With Glenn Dorsey's knee
as good as it's been since early October, QB Matt Flynn's shoulder
completely healed, and others, like LB Darry Beckwith, back to normal,
I'm expecting the Tigers to be (cue Dennis Green) who we thought they
were.
The Buckeyes are every bit as athletic as LSU, every bit as fast, and
has enough talent on both sides of the ball to win this game. The only
scenario that would shock me is an Ohio State blowout, but if by late
Tuesday night the final score reads Ohio State 24, LSU 20, I won't bat
an eye. Even so, I'm going chalk and taking LSU to pull away late. When
100%, LSU is the best team in America. LSU is close to 100%.
LSU 31 ... Ohio State 20
And the winner will be ...
By
Richard Cirminiello
2.
Fret
not, college fans. This year’s national championship game won’t look
anything like last January’s one-sided affair between Florida and Ohio
State.
The Buckeyes will be within striking distance for the long haul, largely
because Les Miles isn’t Urban Meyer, and LSU doesn’t have the defensive
ends to dominate the Ohio State tackles the way Derrick Harvey and
Jarvis Moss did in Glendale. That said, the Tigers will delight the
partisan crowd in New Orleans with their second national championship in
the last five years.
Man-for-man, LSU has more talent than any program in the country,
something it’ll prove Monday night. Yeah, those two three-overtime
losses during the season exposed a few weaknesses, but that was when the
program was physically out of gas, having navigated the heart of a very
tough schedule. Well-rested and at full strength, LSU will perform more
like the team that ambushed Virginia Tech in September than the one that
lost to Arkansas in November. A healthy Glenn Dorsey in the middle of
the Tiger line will help keep Chris Wells from running wild, while the
athleticism of backup QB Ryan Perrilloux will be tapped to confuse an
outstanding Buckeye defense that struggled with Illinois’ Juice Williams
late in the season. In a close game dominated by the defenses, RB Jacob
Hester will factor prominently in the outcome as LSU pulls away for the
win, adding to Ohio State’s misery against SEC programs.
LSU 28 Ohio State 20
And the winner will be ...
By
Matthew
Zemek
3. Ohio State will come out inspired, for all the obvious reasons.
LSU will find it hard to land a major blow early, but because of the
Superdome crowd, the Buckeyes--motivated though they may be--won't
be able to establish a significant lead (10 points or more). Ohio
State will be up 13-10 at halftime, and while most experts would
certainly view that as a plus for Jim Tressel, the view here is that
it would be glorious news for Les Miles. Ohio State needs to gain a
14-point chokehold early, and create a sense of panic that just
might emerge on the LSU sideline in such a scenario.
The Tigers will be rusty, but relaxed. Playing this game in New
Orleans will save their bacon; in Miami, Pasadena or Glendale,
they'd be in big trouble.
After a sluggish first first half, LSU--facing that small halftime
deficit--will shake off the rust and, with renewed health, find its
finishing kick and display the full measure of its considerable
talent. The Tigers will take a 24-16 lead into the fourth quarter
and then knock the Bucks out of the big dome with a 34-23 victory.
OSU will trail by 18 before tacking on a late cosmetic score. Miles
will thank his lucky stars that he didn't have to face Tressel as
Michigan's head coach... or as LSU's head coach in a state other
than Louisiana.
This game will be decided by three things: location, location,
location.
And the winner will be ...
By
John
Harris
4. I thought in some sense the first 31 bowls would tell me a
little more about the LSU-Ohio State matchup, but really, for every up
there’s been a down and for every right, there’s been a left. Follow?
Good.
Essentially, nothing
has really changed from my original thought and that is LSU is better,
if and only if the Tigers ‘spread’ the Buckeyes horizontally, by
formation, and vertically, by play call. Ohio State has proven for the
past two years that it can stop the I formation, power and zone games.
No problem, but what it has trouble with is matching up with a quick
bunch of receivers and running backs spread all over the field. Now,
it’s not really too shocking, many teams have struggled with the spread,
but it’s been evident in the games that OSU has lost over the past two
years – Florida last year and Illinois this year – the common thread is
the ability of those teams to use the spread against them. Well, that
and the Ron Zook connection, but that’s for another day and time.
I’ve thought all along
that LSU is seven to ten points better when fully healthy and that’s
what I’m sticking with in this game. LSU 27-17.
