Based on the season, I'd still have to go with Ohio State as the best team in the country. You can't lose 2 games in the 2nd half of the season and call yourself the best team in the country at the end of the year.
On any given day any team can be beat. USC was very beatable and ordinary vs. UCLA but they were outstanding vs. Michigan. Florida could beat OSU but also could lose to Michigan if they were to play. Tenn loses to PSU in part due to a freak fumble return of 85 yards. They could play 10 more times with a mixture of outcomes to sure. That's college football....and by the way that's usually how it is in college basketball too. Sometimes though a team can be dominant when it counts and that's what UF hoops did last year and that's what OSU fans expect from their football team next week. They may or may not get that result but again....that's college football on any given day.
That was no freak fumble, Arian Foster got the sh!t kicked out of him with 3 defenders converging on the tackle. That was a forced fumble all the way. He had no blockers to protect him. Penn State outplayed Tennessee, and won in spite of 3 missed field goals.
OK so lets suppose that this year that there was a +1 game, where the top 2 teams after the bowls played in a championship game. Would the winner of the Ohio State/Fla game play USC or would they play Boise State?
+1 my a$$! How many times do we have to beat the most recently annointed #2 team? 3? 4? 5? Until we lose? Enough already! :wink:
I don't buy into the argument than USC's talent level is that much greater than M's. My bet is the number of NFL players coming from both squads will not be all that different. This was a really talented Michigan team, especially on defense. I think the key difference between the two teams is the disparity in talent between the two coaching staffs, most importantly in their ability to use the time between the end of the season and start of the bowl game to prepare for the other team.
It's like they say in real estate, "Location,Location, Location. Foster was out on the edge, almost all alone. Worst place to fumble if you ask me. There's nothing freakish about returning one for 6. Davis had a wide open field. He didn't have to fight through traffic or any opposing players. One can blame the kid for fighting for that extra yard and not protecting the ball, but the ultimate blame goes to the UT coaching staff. Why attack the edge when Foster was chewing us up the middle? Nothing freaky about converting a turnover into a TD. Almost every team has at least 1 per year. This was Davis's 2nd one this year. The guy from BC ,Trimble, had 3 tds returned on INT's. It's part of the game as are turnovers. Even before PSU stepped on the field, UT averaged 1.42 turnovers per game, which BTW, is a very good rate in college football.