Yesterday I went to the Gin Mill, the Gotham Gator’s Alumni association spot for UF alum and fans to watch the BCS Champion ship game. University of Florida and Oklahoma University going helmet to helmet for the champion spot. The end result was unanimous: the Gators are repeat champs!
ALL HAIL FLORIDA – GATORS NATIONAL CHAMPS
MIAMI — The Florida Gators apparently were right after all.
Three Things to Know
1. Quarterback Tim Tebow rushed for 109 yards and threw for 231 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-clincher on a jump pass to wide receiver David Nelson with 3:07 remaining in the game.
2. The UF defense sacked quarterback Sam Bradford twice and pressured him all night, and the Gators came up with two critical stops inside the 5-yard line in the first half to keep it a 7-all game going into halftime.
3. Percy Harvin, playing for the first time in more than a month, had a 52-yard run and rushed for 122 yards and a touchdown to take some of the heat off Tebow and the other playmakers.
Oklahoma obviously had not seen a defense like UF’s this season. And Tim Tebow? There’s no way he is the fourth-best quarterback in the Big 12.
With the defense coming up with critical stops when it had to, and with Tebow, Percy Harvin and the offense generating points when the game was on the line, the Gators were clutch in the second half and beat the Sooners 24-14 Thursday night at Dolphin Stadium to give Florida its third national championship, and second in three years.
“This is one of the best teams in the history of college football,” UF coach Urban Meyer proclaimed moments after the game.
Meyer becomes the first coach to win two BCS Championship games.
The Gators (13-1) earned the victory by stunningly slowing down what many consider to be one of the most prolific, high-scoring offenses in the history of college football.
Offensively, the Gators did just enough.
Tebow rushed for 109 yards and completed 18-of-30 passes for 231 yards and two touchdowns. He was named the game’s most outstanding player. Tebow and the offense received a huge boost from the return of Harvin, the star wide receiver who sustained a high ankle sprain on Nov. 29 and dinged his ankle on Tuesday.
“I promised the guys that I would go out and play with all my heart,” Tebow said. “I was so motivated tonight. Oklahoma’s a great team and they came out and played hard. I’m so proud of my teammates right now. I can’t put it into words. It was just an incredible night.”
Harvin rushed for 122 yards and a touchdown. His 2-yard touchdown run with 4:21 remaining in the third quarter broke a 7-7 tie.
“I thought Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin sparked our offense in the second half,” Meyer said. “Tim converted several big third downs running and throwing. Percy had several big plays and showed what a tough guy he is coming back from the injury.”
The Gators clinched the victory with a 4-yard jump pass to David Nelson with 3:07 left in the game to put UF up 24-14.
“My congratulations to the University of Florida and Coach Meyer,” said OU coach Bob Stoops, who has lost his last five BCS games. “It was a heck of a game. I’m proud of our players the way they fought and played.
“We had some opportunities early in the game in the red zone, where we’ve been so efficient the entire year. We had some opportunities. Down the stretch, we came up a play or two short, and (the Gators) made them. They just made more plays.”
The Sooners came into the game averaging 54.0 points a game, having scored 60 or more points in their last five games.
But this was a different defense than the ones OU ravaged all season.
The Gators put a steady rush on Heisman-winning quarterback Sam Bradford all night and came up with two critical red-zone stops (inside the 5-yard line) in the first half.
Bradford threw for only 256 yards and the Gators outgained the Sooners 480 yards to 363.
“Credit to them,” OU defensive back Nic Harris said. “They’re a great team with great players and they made great plays.
“Percy Harvin is a tremendous player. We ultimately just didn’t make the plays when needed to make.”
The victory reaffirms Florida as one of the elite programs in college football.
“It feels great,” Meyer said. “It is humbling when you consider all the great coaches and players who have had an opportunity (to win two national titles in three years). It only shows the professional way that our coaches and players prepare every week.
“Our defense did a great job with two stops at the goal line in the first half, and I thought (strong safety) Ahmad Black’s interception (midway through the fourth quarter) was the turning point in the game. Oklahoma was driving for the lead and it turned the game around.”
Oklahoma vs. Florida
Tebow, Gators do it again, claim title with victory against Sooners
CBSSports.com wire reports
MIAMI — The game defied expectations. Tim Tebow fulfilled them.
He rescued No. 1 Florida, running through and throwing over No. 2 Oklahoma for a 24-14 victory Thursday night that gave the Gators their second BCS championship in three years.
It was hardly a high-wattage matchup of Heisman winners — more a sloppy, choppy affair that the rough-and-tumble Tebow took over at the end.
The style won’t satisfy fans of Utah, Southern California and Texas, who all want to claim the top spot.
No matter to the Gators. They finished far ahead of the Utes in the final Associated Press poll Friday, receiving 48 of 65 first-place votes.
“I’ll tell you, we’re going to enjoy a big win, we’re going to enjoy the national championship,” coach Urban Meyer said. “Let someone else worry about that. Gators are No. 1.”
Beaten out for the Heisman this season by Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford, Tebow outplayed him and was picked the game’s Most Outstanding Player.
“I wanted to do whatever I could to help my team win this game, and if I was trying to run and run some people over, to get the crowd into it, to get the momentum, then that was what I was going to try to do,” Tebow said.
“They were doing a good job of getting to me and trying to get some licks, but I felt my body was able to withstand it,” he said.
Percy Harvin ran wild and Florida made two goal line stands against the highest-scoring team in modern history.
“Tebow, just call him Superman,” Harvin said.
National chomps, indeed!
Tebow shook off a career-high two interceptions and drove the Gators (13-1) to the clinching score. He took two hard steps toward the line, jumped and zipped a 4-yard touchdown pass to David Nelson with 3:07 left to make it 24-14.
Tebow carried the ball on the Gators’ final six plays, smashing into the line five times. He also drew an unsportsmanlike penalty for woofing at the Sooners and doing the Gator chomp.
“I was already motivated for a national championship game. But you know, there was some trash talking going on, and it just gets me going during the game,” said Tebow, who ran for 109 yards.
His passing wasn’t so precise — 18-for-30 — yet it was his sheer will that kept the Gators going.
Tebow finished third in this year’s Heisman voting behind Bradford and Texas’ Colt McCoy, and kept that in mind.
“I try to use everything as motivation,” he said.
Tebow added to the title he helped the Gators win in 2006 with a rout of Ohio State and, one season after winning the Heisman, brought home another trophy. He figures to soon decide whether he’ll come back for his senior season or enter the NFL Draft.
Harvin returned from an ankle injury and dashed for 122 yards on only nine carries for the Gators. His 52-yard gallop set up Jonathan Phillips’ 27-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter for a 17-14 lead.
It was Florida’s third national title overall, and the third in a row for a team from the Southeastern Conference, and it was the Sooners’ fifth consecutive loss in a BCS game. Oklahoma (12-2) set a modern record for scoring with 702 points this season and put up at least 60 points in its last five games, yet never found its rhythm.
“In the end, I’ll be glad to try again next year,” Sooners coach Bob Stoops said. “If that’s the biggest burden I have to bear in my life, I’m a pretty lucky guy.”
Bradford was a disappointing 26-for-41 with two interceptions. Like Tebow, he’s going to explore his potential for the NFL Draft — not exactly the performance he wanted.
“Obviously, they’re a great defense. I think just a couple times we got ourselves in trouble,” Bradford said.
These teams totaled an average of 99 points per game, but wound up with a scoreless first quarter. In the second quarter, Florida’s defense made a pair of goal-line stands that left it 7-all at halftime.
By then, college football fans around the country were certainly wondering whether these were indeed the two best teams. And it surely gave steam to the suggestion by President-elect Barack Obama and others that a playoff system is needed.
Cheered on by a flock of rooters who made the five-hour drive from The Swamp in Gainesville, the Gators became the second team in the 11-year history of the BCS to win two titles.
Nicknamed “Big Game Bob” for his early success, Stoops lost for the third time with a national championship on the line. This was the first time Florida and Oklahoma played — Stoops was the Gators’ defensive coordinator when Steve Spurrier led them to the 1996 title.
Tebow struggled throughout the first half, his lone highlight a 20-yard touchdown pass to Louis Murphy for a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter. Bradford came right back with a swift 65-yard drive, capped by his 6-yard TD toss to Jermaine Gresham.
Florida’s defense, rather than Tebow, Harvin and its speedsters on the other side of the ball, kept the Gators close.
Poised to break the tie midway through the second quarter, Oklahoma owned a first-and-goal at the 9. Chris Brown carried four consecutive times and the Gators stood up the 1,100-yard rusher, twice stuffing him from the 1.
Rarely turned back in the red zone this season, the Sooners let it happen to them again in the final minute before halftime.
There were 10 seconds left and Oklahoma was out of timeouts when Bradford dropped back from the 6. He tried to hit Manuel Johnson at the goal line, but the pass deflected off him and the Gators ran a perfect tip drill, with three defenders touching the ball before Major Wright had the interception.
Tebow, meanwhile, kept stopping the Gators.
The interceptions were bad picks, too — Tebow telegraphed a long, cross-field throw that Nic Harris easily grabbed and later made a short flip over the middle right to Gerald McCoy.
Were the Gators out of whack? Hard to tell, though offensive coordinator Dan Mullen certainly had a lot to think about. Hired recently by Mississippi State, he becomes the Bulldogs’ full-time head coach Friday.
Both teams seemed to have trouble with the game officials. The crew kept interrupting play for various reasons, and the result was a sloppy, scoreless first quarter.
Stoops and Meyer took turns hollering at ACC referee Ron Cherry, as if to tell him “Let ’em play!”
Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes was equally vocal. A few days after calling Big 12 defenses “a joke,” he got into a couple of early shouting and shoving skirmishes with the Sooners. It was even a bit edgy before the game — warming up in the end zone, an Oklahoma kicker rolled his eyes when two Gators leaned against the goal post right behind him.
Tebow, naturally, came out charged up.
He got off the team bus, walked over to a clutch of Florida fans, waved his arms and then ripped off his tie and threw it into a bunch of tailgaters — tail-Gators, in this case.
By the time Tebow trotted out for warmups, most of the Gators were already kneeling along the goal line to stretch. Tebow walked up and down the line, slapping hands and backsides of all 90-some players.
Notes
* The BCS title game next year will be played at the Rose Bowl.
* Oklahoma opens the 2009 season against BYU in the Dallas Cowboys’ new $1 billion-plus stadium. Florida starts off at home vs. Charleston Southern.
All Photos except first are by Dennisadair – Full Set