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Post by badgerhoya on Jan 9, 2009 13:43:03 GMT -5
I really like Tebow, but the slurping of him is FAR beyond unbiased, responsible broadcasting. Worse than I've ever seen it for Basketball Jesus, and it has to stop. Totally agree on this. I couldn't help but think during the broadcast (which I also had on mute) was the Tebow was Deuce McCalister w/a slightly better arm. I mean, I was thoroughly unimpressed w/him as a quarterback.
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RDF
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Post by RDF on Jan 9, 2009 13:50:27 GMT -5
Can we also just prevent Oklahoma from getting into anymore BCS games? They had the most "dominant" team in history of CFB in '03 and lost 2 games and take a look at the scores they put in BCS Title Games:
Win over FSU--13 to 2 (game Miami should've been in but BCS screwed up by taking FSU over Miami--not OU's fault--for once)
Loss to LSU--21-14 (game #1 in BOTH polls USC should've been in against LSU--BCS screwed up)
Loss to USC--55-19 (game that Auburn should've been instead of OU---BCS Screwed Up)
Loss to UF--24-14 (game that Utah, Texas, USC, or College of Homeless Warriors should've been in--BCS Screwed Up)
Common themes that show up from this:
1. Oklahoma gets every break in computer system 2. They aren't worthy of those breaks 3. If Miami is in place of FSU in 2000 Title game--Stoops has no rings. 4. TIME FOR A FRIGGING PLAYOFF.
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RDF
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Post by RDF on Jan 9, 2009 14:05:25 GMT -5
Tom Brennaman's most disgusting comment last night
"If you spend 5 minutes with Tim Tebow, your life will be changed forever". Are you EXPLETIVE KIDDING ME?
Then the talk of him being among the "Greatest college football players of all time".
Okay, I'm going to put this out there and it's not a slam against Tebow as much as this trend of "greatest of all time" stuff from media about players/teams in this new culture of over dramatizing EVERYTHING.
Tebow has been a starter at Florida for 2 years. He has a National Title as a Starter, and a Heisman Trophy as a Starter. He's also lost 5 games in his 2 years as a Starting QB--which in this decade is 1 more then Matt Leinart and Ken Dorsey COMBINED in their 5 years of starting at USC and Miami. Vince Young was a better college player then Tebow in this decade. Reggie Bush was a better player then Tebow in this decade. Adrian Peterson was a better player, so I think you get the point. On his own team, I think Percy Harvin is a better player and more deserving of the MVP last night then Tebow.
Now I said 4 years ago--Tebow is perfect fit for Meyer's offense which I detest. I hate single wing football and find it boring, but understand why teams use it and college coach's job is to win games in CFB--not prepare people for NFL. I get it. That said--the kid has great leadership ability and is a tough player. Like the effort and think what he does off the field is great. Good ambassador for sport and all but the perspective is way out of hand. If you lose 6 games in your 3 year career--(National Titles-2 and Heisman included) that does NOT make you the best player or one of the best ever. This isn't CBB--it's CFB and if anything--this is reflective of what a mess the system is that a player is singled out when we can't even find a way to judge who the TRUE best teams are--and he's proclaimed one of the best players to EVER play the sport? Ridiculous. He's a fine player--but based on how he's perceived by media-VASTLY OVERRATED.
Thing is--he'll be back next year if you see the "mighty" Gators schedule next year. God almighty--their non conference games are:
Charleston Southern--the same team Hifi went off on Miami for playing this year. Troy-- Florida International or Florida Atlantic--forget which one FSU--only because they have to.
With a schedule like this---and the typically overhyped "toughness" of SEC--which is a good league but acts as if they are 100 levels above everyone else--we can expect Football "Jesus" to be back in Pasadena next year with Heisman in hand and going for right to have Heisman re-named the "Tebow" with a statue of him waving his arms to the crowd after a 8 yard QB draw.
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Post by AustinHoya03 on Jan 9, 2009 14:25:11 GMT -5
Can we also just prevent Oklahoma from getting into anymore BCS games? They had the most "dominant" team in history of CFB in '03 and lost 2 games and take a look at the scores they put in BCS Title Games: Win over FSU--13 to 2 (game Miami should've been in but BCS screwed up by taking FSU over Miami--not OU's fault--for once) Loss to LSU--21-14 (game #1 in BOTH polls USC should've been in against LSU--BCS screwed up) Loss to USC--55-19 (game that Auburn should've been instead of OU---BCS Screwed Up) Loss to UF--24-14 (game that Utah, Texas, USC, or College of Homeless Warriors should've been in--BCS Screwed Up) Common themes that show up from this: 1. Oklahoma gets every break in computer system 2. They aren't worthy of those breaks 3. If Miami is in place of FSU in 2000 Title game--Stoops has no rings. 4. TIME FOR A FRIGGING PLAYOFF. It was pointed out on one of the Texas blogs today that tOSU's big-game reputation was seriously stained by 2 National Championship losses, yet a near-identical and lengthier pattern by OU has miraculously not affected the Sooners' rep similarly. Re: the announcing last night (and the MSM's fawning over Tebow throughout the season), one reason it was disappointing was that (as Buff said) Tebow's actually likeable if you are able to separate his play from all the excessive hype. And if you thought the hype was bad this season, just wait for August '09 to roll around...
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Jan 9, 2009 15:46:48 GMT -5
Since when has tOSU had a big game reputation?
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Post by HeartAttackHoya on Jan 9, 2009 15:47:22 GMT -5
if mccoy, bradford and tebow all come back the amount of slurpage in college football will give the Red light district a run for its money
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Jan 9, 2009 16:21:53 GMT -5
hifi, congratulations on being #2 in the nation.
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FLHoya
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Post by FLHoya on Jan 9, 2009 17:18:40 GMT -5
Since when has tOSU had a big game reputation? The 20 minutes after Terry Porter threw the flag for pass interference. Why can't we just take the extra BCS game created not long ago and use it annually to slot Ohio State and Oklahoma against each other, granting that "well, if we HAVE to take you guys...might as well not let you ruin a perfectly good game". What's that? We do this sort of thing already? It's called the Orange Bowl you say?
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hoyarooter
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Post by hoyarooter on Jan 9, 2009 20:19:01 GMT -5
Since when has tOSU had a big game reputation? The 20 minutes after Terry Porter threw the flag for pass interference. Why can't we just take the extra BCS game created not long ago and use it annually to slot Ohio State and Oklahoma against each other, granting that "well, if we HAVE to take you guys...might as well not let you ruin a perfectly good game". What's that? We do this sort of thing already? It's called the Orange Bowl you say? This is a fantastic idea. Let's introduce a new bowl (no big deal there, since there are already 26,281 bowl games) and call it the Ohio State/Oklahoma Bowl. Every year tOSU will play OU, and those two teams will be disqualified from playing in any other bowl games. Good times!
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hifigator
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Post by hifigator on Jan 10, 2009 14:39:56 GMT -5
Hello all! I had originally planned on being back to work yesterday afternoon, but it just didn't work out. We got a late start to begin with, then some of the group insisted on eating at Cracker Barrel. Upon parking, we realized that we weren't the only people who had that idea. It was a 45 minute wait, but the majority voted to wait it out. Then it took about an hour from when we got seated until we finished eating. Oh well, if you go to the Cracker Barrel that is the first one north of Dolphin Stadium after a National Championship game the night before, you kind of know what you are getting into. It was wall-to-wall National Champions. It was kind of cool to have a good 80% or more of the restaurant filled with obvious gator fans -- not unlike the stadium the night before.
As for the game, I can understand some people thinking it was slow moving, or even boring at times, but I think that is just a factor of the score. Everyone had become so accustomed to Florida and Oklahoma driving up and down the field and scoring, that no one seemed to expect a defensive struggle. But if you appreciate defense and good hard hitting football, then it was at least a good game. It certainly wasn't one of those Texas-USC or Oklahoma-Boise St games that truly were instant classics, but I would think that a casual football fan would have appreciated the competitiveness of the game as well as the continual momentum swings.
Now, in no particular order ...
Nevada wrote:
hifi, congratulations on being #2 in the nation. hifi, congratulations on being #1 in the nation!
There, I fixed it for you. Kidding aside, you know that I am a playoff guy as well, but in all seriousness, do you really think that Utah should have been #1 since they went undefeated? I think they are a quality team, but I just don't think that the overall strength of their conference allows them to be ahead of a one-loss team playing a much tougher schedule. I know they have quality wins over TCU, BYU, Oregon St and Bama. They showed up this year to play while Hawaii didn't last year. Either way, it's a question that can never be answered. Hat's off to the Utes for a great season, but in my very subjective opinion, they would have little to no chance against the Gators for the Championship. For what it is worth, VegasInsider, which is often viewed as the most accurate predictor was listing Florida as a 14 point favorite in a hypothetical matchup against Utah. They also had Florida as a 5 point favorite in a hypothetical matchup with USC.
Attack wrote:
if mccoy, bradford and tebow all come back the amount of slurpage in college football will give the Red light district a run for its money
The soonerfans.com board had a thread on Wednesday that said that good sources said that Bradford was going to declare for the draft, barring injury in the Title game. There were some links to reputable sources which intimated the same thing. As for Tebow, I don't have any inside info, but I would say it's probably something like 75% likely that he returns. Harvin is the one that is most likely to leave. The latest news today is that Brandon Spikes' decision might be very much tied to Tebow. A week ago, I would have thought Spikes was gone for sure, but apparently he is really close to Tebow. He came to Florida after Tebow committed because he wanted to play with him. If we can somehow have Tebow and Spikes back next season, we will certainly be the #1 team in the Nation going in and may very well run the table -- something Florida has never done. But for now, I am going to enjoy this one.
Boz wrote:
Since when has tOSU had a big game reputation?
You're kidding right? They have a huge big game reputation .... for not showing up.
RDF wrote:
With a schedule like this---and the typically overhyped "toughness" of SEC ...
There is no doubt that our schedule is on the easy side next season. To make it even easier, the traditionally tough games of FSU and Tennessee are home games in odd seasons. But not even you can pull that "overhyped" crap about the SEC. Even this year, which was supposed to be a down year, the SEC went 6-2 in Bowls, including very impressive wins by Ole Miss over Texas Tech, Vandy over Boston College and LSU manhandling Georgia Tech. Heck, even the Kentucky win over ECU after losing their starting quarterback is pretty impressive. Georgia won a game they should have against Michigan State and of course Florida won the conference's thrid straight National Title. And for all of your ragging on Oklahoma, I think you have to give the Gators some credit. Oklahoma has playmakers all over the field on offense and yet they were only able to put up 14 points. 60 points 5 games in a row, including games against other "top fifteen" teams, and we held them to 14. No, the SEC has zero to be ashamed about this year. Incidentally, the South Carolina team was totally outmatched against Iowa. USCe was lucky to even be in that good of a bowl. The lack of effort that Bama gave is a different situation, but in a sense it's a lot like the Oklahoma performance against West Va. last year. They wanted something more and when they didn't reach their goals, they went through the motions getting ready for the bowl game. That much was obvious. That's not an excuse, just the truth.
Lastly, as for the lovefest for Tebow, I certainly understand the way you all feel. He's one of those guys that deserves the accolades but regardless, eventually you get tired of hearing them. I understand that. As for Tebow's status as a college player, I think he is in the discussion of being omong the top college players. The intangibles like leadership and drive are immeasurable. I agree that Harvin -- and Spikes for that matter -- will most certainly have more distinguished NFL careers, but if you ask either one of those guys whose the leader of the Gators, they will immediately tell you it's #15. And they aren't just being cordial. The amount of punishment that Tebow takes is astounding as a quarterback. If he comes back next season, then we will likely be among the top couple of teams in the Nation. If he can lead us to another National Championship -- let alone maybe even win another Heisman, then I think he will certainly be deserving of consideration among the top 5 or so College Football players of all time.
Finally, the 2 interceptions that Tebow threw were extremely uncharacteristic. On the first one, I thought for sure he was running a pump and go. When he let that ball go, I knew it was a pick. I was just glad we kept him to a short return. The second one was a little more excusable, but it was still a standard zone blitz and Tebow was seemingly oblivious to the dropping lineman. But Tebow responded very well with his arm and legs. There were several passes that were perfectly thrown -- one in particular on a deep in route to David Nelson that just cleared the dropping linebacker and hit Nelson in stride. The DB had excellent coverage as well. Tebow also looked good on a couple of plays buying time with his legs but then using his arm to get the ball in the hands of the playmakers -- once to Rainey and twice to Hernandez that I remember.
All in all, it was a solid performance but not spectacular. But the more familiar I get with Meyer and his system, the more it makes sense. His reputation is this wide open spread offense, but what he prides most are the other two factors of the game -- defense and special teams. How we can still have Charlie Strong, I have no idea. He is a great defensive coach and I am shocked that no one has made a serious push to hire him away. The rumors were that if George O'Leary was canned at UCF, then they were coming after Strong, but the buy out was too high and O'Leary is still there -- at least for one more season.
Oh well, it's been a great season and of course a great finish. Isn't it somewhat ironic that I started this thread some nearly 5 months ago?
Go Gators!
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DFW HOYA
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Post by DFW HOYA on Jan 10, 2009 16:52:48 GMT -5
I think they [Utah] are a quality team, but I just don't think that the overall strength of their conference allows them to be ahead of a one-loss team playing a much tougher schedule. I know they have quality wins over TCU, BYU, Oregon St and Bama. They showed up this year to play while Hawaii didn't last year. Either way, it's a question that can never be answered. Hat's off to the Utes for a great season, but in my very subjective opinion, they would have little to no chance against the Gators for the Championship. And that's the fallacy of the BCS: unless you're in the SEC, Big 12, Pac 10, or Big 10, there's really no good way to win the title anymore because the schedule argument always tilts it to one of these four conferences. And notice I do not incldue the Big East or ACC in that group either--they've now been marginalized in the process as well. Does anyone think if Cincinnati or BC went 12-0 they would have kicked Florida or OU out of the title game? Maybe Florida beats Utah. But no Alabama fan would have given Utah a prayer, either.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Jan 10, 2009 17:50:16 GMT -5
I want a real national title game: USC versus Utah.
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hifigator
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Post by hifigator on Jan 11, 2009 0:30:20 GMT -5
SF, you sound like a bitter malcontent. I have nothing against USC or Utah, but to suggest that they are the "obvious" choice for the two participants is absurd. But then again, maybe I missed your sarcasm.
The system is flawed. I think we all agree on that. That being said, I am fully confident that the Gators would have beaten any other team Thursday night. I'm not sure I could, or would say that about the '06 team. We certainly "could" have, but I think the matchups of strengths/weaknesses versus the Buckeyes worked in our favor perfectly.
This year ... nope.
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hifigator
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Post by hifigator on Jan 11, 2009 0:34:47 GMT -5
Two quick things I missed: DFW, I think you make a great point. It is very difficult for a team that has a consistently inferior, or even mediocre schedule, to work their way ahead of a team that does. Certainly, conference strength plays into that. But there is certainly a degree cyclicality to that part. Just last year, the Big East was arguably the 2nd and no worse than the 3rd best conference. I don't have a solution, but off the cuff, I would certainly consider adding the Mountain West to the BCS. All hypothetical talk aside, here is a good read: www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/sports/epaper/2009/01/09/a1c_tebow_0110.htmlWarning: there are some good things said about Tebow, but still a good read.
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RDF
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Post by RDF on Jan 11, 2009 0:36:31 GMT -5
SF, you sound like a bitter malcontent. I have nothing against USC or Utah, but to suggest that they are the "obvious" choice for the two participants is absurd. But then again, maybe I missed your sarcasm. The system is flawed. I think we all agree on that. That being said, I am fully confident that the Gators would have beaten any other team Thursday night. I'm not sure I could, or would say that about the '06 team. We certainly "could" have, but I think the matchups of strengths/weaknesses versus the Buckeyes worked in our favor perfectly. This year ... nope. Florida is a good team. If they played the way they did Thursday Night against USC--that is a 2-3 TD defeat.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Jan 11, 2009 1:14:52 GMT -5
SF, you sound like a bitter malcontent. I have nothing against USC or Utah, but to suggest that they are the "obvious" choice for the two participants is absurd. But then again, maybe I missed your sarcasm. The system is flawed. I think we all agree on that. That being said, I am fully confident that the Gators would have beaten any other team Thursday night. I'm not sure I could, or would say that about the '06 team. We certainly "could" have, but I think the matchups of strengths/weaknesses versus the Buckeyes worked in our favor perfectly. This year ... nope. Florida is a good team. If they played the way they did Thursday Night against USC--that is a 2-3 TD defeat. Exactly. No bitter malcontentness here. SC and Utah were by far the most impressive teams during bowl season to me.
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hifigator
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Post by hifigator on Jan 12, 2009 12:14:43 GMT -5
SF and RDF, I will meet you half-way on that one. Offensively, I would certainly liked to have put up more than 24 against the Sooners very suspect defense. But there are two scores that determine an outcome, not just one. Our defense played outstandingly for the most part. Look, like 'em or not -- and I don't -- there's no denying that Oklahoma has an incredibly potent offense, loaded with weapons. They are also very difficult to defend, due to a number of factors, primarily the no-huddle offense and the quick release off of the spread offense. Our offense sputtered for the first time, really all season, in the first half. We turned the ball over twice on very uncharacteristic Tebow passes, and yet our defense stepped up and made plays to hold OU to only 7 points, despite having given them tremendous field position due to the turnovers.
The point is that I don't see how USC would be a 2-3 touchdown victor, when OU only had 14 points and USC's offense certainly isn't any better. I'm not knocking USC. They had one glitch against a quality team on the road, while playing tremendous defense in almost every other game. How does Ole Miss compare to Oregon St.? I don't know. I could see either team winning that matchup for sure. But Oregon St. ran the ball down USC's throat for the entire night. Jacquiz Rogers looked like Barry Sanders out there, but faster. Now I know that he is a good running back, but still, that game was a more "impressive" loss than ours to Ole Miss. We lost by a blocked extra point where the Rebels cheated and should have been flagged for it. Still, we came back and had a shot at a 50 yard field goal to win. Urban decided against it, and went for 4th and three. We didn't make it and they took a knee to run out the clock.
Lastly SF, you say that USC and Utah were "by far the most impressive teams" in bowls. There are multiple problems with such logic. One is that you can't grade and evaluate an entire season on one game. Secondly, off the top of my head, TCU, Oregon and Tulsa could easily be added to that list. I'm not saying that either of those teams deserve the National Championship, but if you are going to grade solely by the Bowl game performance, then those teams would certainly have to get some consideration. Thirdly, and this is probably the most important reason: games will develop their own character, and no one car really "create" that character. They can attempt to dictate style and speed of play, but sometimes the game doesn't unfold in the desired manner. That being said, the Florida game developed as a defensive battle and game of field position. That being said, Meyer elected to revert to his natural instincts. He knew that the defense was in charge and he wasn't going to do anything to risk snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. He got the lead and then didn't take any chances. He simply wasn't going to lose.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Jan 12, 2009 12:45:29 GMT -5
Too long.
Listen, hifi, I understand the defensiveness. I'm not trying to invalidate Florida's play -- just simply that this year there's really no clear cut best team, and the bowl season made that apparent. The SEC and Big XII -- two conferences we were told by the media were the best all year -- relatively flopped.
My point is not that Florida sucks; it's just to further illustrate that in a sport where each team plays maybe 3-4 real games all year, pretending polls and the such can come up with champ is ignorant.
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RDF
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Post by RDF on Jan 12, 2009 13:27:41 GMT -5
Too long. Listen, hifi, I understand the defensiveness. I'm not trying to invalidate Florida's play -- just simply that this year there's really no clear cut best team, and the bowl season made that apparent. The SEC and Big XII -- two conferences we were told by the media were the best all year -- relatively flopped. My point is not that Florida sucks; it's just to further illustrate that in a sport where each team plays maybe 3-4 real games all year, pretending polls and the such can come up with champ is ignorant. Ditto--and it's not to trash Florida--but I will say if you can't run right at USC--you have no chance of winning. Seeing how confused and awful Tebow looked against simple/poorly disguised defense of Brent Venables--he'd have been embarrassed against a USC defense that was by far the best in country. Also was surprised by how bad against the run Florida was. I understand you are a Gator fan--but just telling you an impartial viewpoint. I was also here saying 4 years ago Tebow was going to be a great fit for Gator offense, so I call it like I see it and in this case-the way UF played last week--I'd think they lose against USC for certain--and Utah would've been close. All know my rallying cry though--GET A PLAYOFF!
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hifigator
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Post by hifigator on Jan 12, 2009 14:46:33 GMT -5
SF wrote:
Listen, hifi, I understand the defensiveness. I'm not trying to invalidate Florida's play -- just simply that this year there's really no clear cut best team, and the bowl season made that apparent.
I agree that a good argument could have been made for at least 8 teams going into bowl season -- Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, USC, Penn. St., Alabama, Utah and Boise St. The only reason I put Bama in there is that they played through one of the true power conferences with only the one loss. I know it would be silly to put them in the title game, having just lost to Florida, but if you think about it, isn't that the exact same argument that all the Texas fans were making? If Oklahoma could go over a Texas team that beat them by 10 in a neutral site, then couldn't someone make the same argument for a Bama team that lost by 11 at a neutral site, also to a team with the same overall record? The other teams are fairly obvious. Certainly Utah would have to be in the mix, and if you are going to say that, then Boise St. coule have the same argument, even though their resume' wasn't quite as impressive. Remember, prior to the Sugar Bowl, Utah's big wins were against BYU, Oregon St. and TCU. Sure, Oregon St. beat USC, but they were also pummeled by Penn. St. BYU had a nice record and everything, but they really have little to be too proud of. They did well against the Pac 10, but the bottom half of the Pac 10 primarily -- and needed a very questionable, if not awful, call -- just to hold on to beat winless Washington. As for Penn. St., heading into bowl season, if you were on USC's bandwagon, then you had to credit Penn. St. as well. Once again they manhandled the team that beat USC, while their only loss was on a last second field goal to a quality opponent on the road. In any case, I think you have a very valid point that we didn't have a clear cut 2 best teams to match up this year. But I do think the best team won it, when all was said and done.
The SEC and Big XII -- two conferences we were told by the media were the best all year -- relatively flopped.
Again, I will meet you halfway. The powerful Big 12 certainly left some doubt as to their relative strength. I think they finished 5-3, but with Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Oklahoma St. all losing, and the other top team, Texas, struggling to beat the Buckeyes by 3 on TD with 20 seconds to go, any attempt to claim superiority went out the window. But there's no way you could say the same of the SEC. Granted the record was only a game better at 6-2, but any intelligent college football fan would have to consider the SEC bowl performance to be an overall success. There was really only one disappointment -- Alabama. And I'm not one to make excuses, but it was clear that they weren't ready to play. I think they were dreaming of bigger things and when they lost to Florida, they responded by going through the motions. Granted, that still counts. I was disappointed in the way they embarrassed the conference. Maybe they thought that they would just waltz out there as the SEC's runner up and mop the turf with some undefeated but undersized team from a mid-major conference, just like Georgia had done the year before against Hawaii. Again, that's no excuse, but it was clear that the Alabama team that crushed Clemson and Georgia and gave Florida a tough game was not on the field against the Utes. Give the Utes the credit though. They, unlike Hawaii, came ready to play and were not intimidated in the least. But other than the Bama loss, the Gamecocks were the only SEC team to lose a bowl game, and they were in a pretty serious mismatch. Iowa got healthy later in the year and got better and better as the year went on. South Carolina, on the other hand, was really more deserving of a Music City or Peach Bowl. In the power point bowl contests, I had Iowa among the top 5, along with USF, Florida, Georgia, Texas and (unfortunately) Alabama. In any case, I don't think you can say anything negative about the SEC coming out of bowl season. Other than the obvious marquee win in the Title game, you had LSU just destroying a solid Georgia Tech team that had been on a roll for most of the past month and a half. Vandy beat ACC runner up, Boston College. Kentucky beat a favored ECU team, in spite of losing their starting QB. Georgia expectedly won against Michigan St. And in probably the biggest shocker to some, Ole Miss handles Texas Tech rather easily. The bottom line is that the SEC once again PROVED to be the best conference, top to bottom. Somewhat surprisingly, the Pac Ten easily took the silver medal.
My point is not that Florida sucks; it's just to further illustrate that in a sport where each team plays maybe 3-4 real games all year, pretending polls and the such can come up with champ is ignorant.
Once again, I agree that there were not exactly 2 and only 2 teams deserving of a winner-take-all contest for the Title. But we can only play within the system we have. As for your "3-4" game comment, I think you touch on the very aspect that seems to elude non-SECers. Upon further review, Vandy, Georgia, LSU, Bama, Ole Miss, Kentucky and Florida certainly proved themselves to be worthy opponents on anyone's schedule. Add to those teams, Miami and FSU and you can see what makes the SEC so difficult year in and year out. Heck, USC manages to slip up at least once almost every year, and their conference isn't nearly as difficult in most years.
By the way, the Gators overall schedule was ranked the 2nd most difficult. We played 11, count 'em, ELEVEN bowl teams this season.
RDF: Oklahoma had 3 straight runs for about 50 yards on one drive in the second quarter. They only had 110 for the game. I think calling Florida "bad" against the run is a stretch. Don't you? Oklahoma got on a bit of a roll for 5 or 6 plays. That will happen at some point during the game, at least against good teams. Oregon State did if for 4 quarters against USC.
Lastly, yes Tebow is a great fit for this offense. As for your presumption that USC would beat us, I am still somewhat unsure as to exactly why you hold such a position. The USC offense is certainly not significantly better than Oklahoma's. In fact most people would say that it isn't s good. So if USC were to play the Gators and win, they had better hope that if would be a 14-10 kind of games. That could certainly happen, but it is certainly no slam dunk either way.
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