I thought I would start this topic for discussion. After today I may or may not be able to post much until Sat night. We are going to Atlanta tomorrow morning to visit my sister-in-law. We will only be there overnight and back Sat evening. As a bit of history this is the house we were at when Prodigy breathed their last breaths, so to speak, and I contacted Ray to see if he could reactivate Skybox. He did, I contacted people who I already knew their emails, and used JO'Co's mailing list to contact a bunch of others. That and word of mouth by people who were contacted and Skybox was up an running immediately. I contacted Tom and Terry to be co moderators and we were off and running. Things are different today as some folks just didn't like the format of many fans of different teams and the need to treat them as fans of your own team. At least that's my thoughts. Anyway this topic is for Oklahoma and Florida. Seeing how long this post is already I'll end it and make some comments about the team in the next post.[/i]
Back to the topic at hand, the game. This is an intriguing match up, two of the highest scoring teams in the country, the last two Heisman winners and two of the Class A coaches in the college game. The Sooners are without their top running back but my understanding is that they have other good ones who can take his place. The big question surrounding this game is whether the Sooner offense is that good or have they not played good defenses. The defenses they have played are not rated that high, but how much of that is because the Sooner offense is so good that once you have played them your defense can't be ranked that high? The Gator defense has been the surprise of the season in many ways. They couldn't stop anything last year and are among the best in the country. I expected they would be good but I didn't know they would be this good. The Gator offense is firing on all cylinders. If the Sooner offense wasn't so outstanding there would probably be more discussion about the Gator offense which has put mega points on the board also. Tebow is an outstanding QB but Percy Harvin is every bit as important to the Gator offense. He runs the ball, catches the ball and has been an outstanding player for the Gators from the day he stepped on the field as a freshman. He was injured against FSU but all indications are that he will be ready for Oklahoma. The Gators gain a lot of yards rushing the ball but we don't have one every down back, it's done by committee. Harvin runs the ball a lot, Chris Rainy has the most yards. Harving, Rainy, Demps and Moody all get some touches with of course Tebow getting his yards also. Even though we don't have a single runner near 1,000 yards, as a group they get their yards. Tebow has passed less this year but still had thrown a lot of touchdowns and only has 2 interceptions. He spreads the ball to a lot of receivers so none of them rank high in the NCAA stats. I think the big questions will come down to can the Gator defense slow down the Sooner juggernaut and is the Sooner defense good enough to stop the Gator offense. I saw Lou Holtz last night in ask Dr. Lou and he took a call from Urban Meyer asking how the Gator defense could stop the Sooners. Dr. Lou said only Bob Stoops could stop the Oklahoma offense and only Urban Meyer could stop the Gator offense and this should be one of the most entertaining BCS Championship games. I think that might also mean that if one defense is obviously better than the other it could be a blowout. I'm looking forward to this game a lot. Happy New Year.
I think the Gators at this point in the season are the best team in college football. They have one ingredient that nobody else has: Tebow. I expect UF to win by double digits.
I see the Gators are talking to Scott Loeffler formerly of the Meechigan Wolverines. He's a very good recruiter, esp with QB's.
After taking note of the bowl results my prediction for this game is about the same. I think UF scores 41 points or right about there and I think OU scores 31 points or as many as 35. I'll go with 41-34 Florida.....with OU scoring late to close the gap to seven points. I see pressure on Bradford that he hasn't seen before along with 2-3 picks that he hasn't experienced much before. On offense for Florida, OU has a decent first quarter defensively but then a Brandon James punt return, a Percy Harvin breakaway and some bull rushes by Tebow open up the game for Florida in the 2nd qtr. Third qtr is all Demps and Rainey with a little Harvin mixed in just for kicks. 4th qtr Moody takes over the running game and punishes a tired OU defense. Yeah....I like it.
Tebow would only be 4th best QB in the Big 12. I guess that's some improvement over being only the 5th string QB at S. Cal. Tebow Would Be 5th Best QB In Big 12
"Oklahoma defensive back Dominique Franks this morning added spice to the long-running Big 12-SEC debate. Franks said Florida's Tim Tebow, the 2007 Heisman winner and 2008 finalist, would "probably be about the fourth best quarterback" in the Big 12. That's behind OU's Sam Bradford - the 2008 Heisman winner - Texas' Colt McCoy and Texas Tech's Graham Harrell. "I really think with those three guys, it's a lot harder to prepare for those guys," Franks said. " We're coming in and facing Tebow, and he wants to run the ball a lot more. "He's predominantly a running quarterback. So to me [playing in the secondary] it's going to be a lot easier for us to prepare to stop the run than having to face a quarterback that might throw the ball 40 or 50 times a game." Boy....how I do hope the rest of the OU defensive players and coaches feel that way about Timmy. :lol: :shock:
I haven't posted on this topic as I don't really have anything to add. These are two excellent football teams and I am hoping for a great game and a gag, cough, gag...an Oklahoma win!!
Terry, glad to see you pulling for your fellow conference member. :twisted: :twisted: Of course under the circumstances I could probably understand why you might not so you are a big man!!! :wink: :wink:
From Mandel of SI: "Where do you begin? For one, while Franks' opinion is perfectly justifiable -- keep it to yourself, dude. Dodge the question. Have you seen Tebow when he's angry? He's exactly the kind of player who takes perceived slights personally. Furthermore, Franks' comments came early enough in the week that they're now going to be brought up by reporters to nearly every single Florida player between now and game time, giving them a little extra juice, too. As for the "predominantly a running quarterback" part ... what tape is this guy watching? Yes, Tebow runs more than most QBs, but the last I checked, he was also the nation's fourth-rated passer. (Though in Franks' defense, that is in fact place him lower than No. 1 Bradford and No. 3 McCoy.) And finally, wouldn't the fact that Tebow runs and passes make it fundamentally harder to prepare for than a guy who solely stands in the pocket? I suppose from a cornerback's perspective, perhaps it's easier that he won't have to cover a receiver downfield 50 times during the game, but it's not like he doesn't have a role in run support. Asked later about Franks' assessment, OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables put it thusly: "[Franks] hasn't watched enough tape. I mean that." Guess we know what he'll be doing for the next four days."
I am hoping Florida finish the job just like Spurrier told them too after they thrashed South Carolina. Win 4 more in a row! Well they've won 3.