Jan 8, 2009 5:39 pm US/Eastern
BCS Title Game Kickoff Just Hours Away
Florida won title in 2006-07 season, Sooners won title in 2000-2001 season
Game is final bowl game of the college football season
Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m.
MIAMI (CBS4.com) ―
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BCS College Football Championship trophy
AP
The time for talking is over. After Thursday night's game, college football fans across the country will know who the national champion is, at least with respect to the USA Today coaches' poll. The game will feature two Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks, Florida's Tim Tebow and Oklahoma's Sam Bradford. The game might also answer the question, if for just this season, as to which conference, the SEC or the Big XII, is superior.
Thursday's game also marks the end of a three game series at Dolphin Stadium that has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy. It started with the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day which was expected to bring in around $200 million. Then, the Miami Dolphins hosted a playoff game against the Ravens. And Thursday night, the Gators and Sooners meet to decide the BCS Championship.
"It means a lot of things for a lot of people, but in the end a lot of people come to town and do great things for the hotels, the rental car industry, the restaurants, the community, and it employs people," said Eric Poms, CEO of the Orange Bowl Committee.
So, after all the pre-game festivities are completed, how does each team break down against the other?
Oklahoma's offense has lit up scoreboards across the Big XII Conference all season long. The Sooners' attack, led by the aforementioned Bradford, have turned in numbers that seem like they are coming out of a video game.
The Sooners set a Division I/FBS, record for most points scored in a year with 702 for the season, that translated to an average of 54 points per game. Bradford turned in staggering numbers, throwing for 48 touchdown passes to only 6 interceptions. He also completed nearly 70 percent of his throws for the season.
But it wasn't just a dazzling passing display that helped propel the Sooners to the title game. Running backs Chris Brown and DeMarco Murray each rushed for over 1,000 yards and an amazing 34 combined touchdowns. All total, the Sooners rushed for 45 touchdowns and averaged 200 yards per game on the ground.
The running game was helped by a senior laden offensive line that featured future NFL stars Phil Loadholt, a 6'8" 337 pound left tackle and 6'5" 335 pound left guard Duke Robinson. Both players, even at their size, helped Bradford work a hurry-up offense that resulted in countless touchdown drives that lasted 2 minutes or less.
But, it wasn't just offense that has led the Sooners to the brink of the BCS title. Defensively, the Sooners faced some of the most prolific passers/offenses in the country. Oklahoma State, Kansas, Missouri, Texas Tech, and Texas all were led by five of the best quarterbacks in the country and with the exception of Texas, the Sooners defense gave up on average, 31.8 points per game. While that may seem high, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Texas and Missouri were some of the highest scoring teams in the country which made the defensive numbers impressive.
The defense did more than try to limit the other team from scoring; they also excelled at taking the football away from opposing offenses. The very young defensive backfield helped pull in 17 interceptions for the season and returned one of them for a touchdown. The defense caused 15 fumbles for the season. Both of those statistics helped put an already prolific offense in even better field position. And when it came to getting to the opposing team's quarterback, Oklahoma brought constant pressure. The Sooners averaged 3.2 sacks per game and had 42 for the season.
While all of that may sound like the irresistible force, the Florida Gators may be the immovable object.
Florida's offense begins and ends with quarterback Tim Tebow. The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner led a Gator attack that averaged 45 points per game. Tebow threw for over 2,700 yards and rushed for 564 more. He accounted for 43 touchdowns for the season and only threw a total of 3 interceptions.
Tebow was aided by wide receiver/running back Percy Harvin who caught 35 passes for 595 yards and 7 touchdowns. Senior Louis Murphy who led the team in receptions with a total of 36 helped out Harvin. But, the passing game wasn't the primary threat of the Florida Gators offense.
The running game, much like everything else on offense, ran through Tebow. While he didn't lead the team in rushing, his ability to tuck the ball and pickup the short yardage first down or power his way into the end zone provided headaches to SEC defensive coordinators all season long.
A pair of freakishly fast freshmen, Chris Rainey and Jeffrey Demps, led the team in rushing. The duo combined for 1,237 yards for the season and added a total of 11 touchdowns to the equation. What might be the most eye-popping stat of all is that combined both running backs rushed for over 8 yards per carry.
But playing in the SEC, you can't get very far without a stout defense, and Florida brought one of the best in the league. Defensive coordinator Charlie Strong's defense held opponents to an average of 12.8 points per game. Much like the Sooners defense, the Gators intercepted 24 passes for the season, and averaged just fewer than 1.7 turnovers per game.
Both teams have been turning up the rhetoric as preparations conlude. On Sunday, a defensive back for Oklahoma said Tim Tebow would be the fourth or fifth best quarterback the team has faced this year. Tebow laughed off the comment, but it probably just added fuel to the fire for him to play even harder. Some Florida players joked about Oklahoma's schedule, before it was pointed out that Florida's only loss came against a then unranked Ole Miss Rebels team.
Most experts believe the key to the game will be Florida's defense. If the Gators can hold Oklahoma to around 30 points, there's every reason to believe the Gators can conquer the highly vaunted Sooners attack. Actually doing that will be tougher than many may think as the Sooners have scored at least 45 points in each of their past 7 games and more than 60 in their last five.
Whoever wins the BCS National Championship Game will be the national champions by rule, but several teams will lay claim to being the best team in the land. Texas coach Mack Brown, whose team beat the Sooners, and Utah coach Kyle Wittingham, who beat the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl to finish the season 13-0, both vowed to vote their respective teams number one in the coaches poll. By rule, the coaches are not allowed to vote for a team number one unless that team won the BCS championship game.
But, the media can choose to go their own way and crown a different team national champion, as they did in 2004 when LSU won the BCS and USC won the coaches poll. This season, multiple teams will finish the season with only one loss (Penn State, USC, Texas and either Florida or Oklahoma), possibly creating a tough choice for AP voters. Most believe if either Florida/Oklahoma dominate the other, they will be crowned as the national champion by both polls, but if the game is close and neither team looks especially dominating, the chance for a split title will increase exponentially.
Regardless of all of this possible chaos, conference commissioners, university presidents, and bowl officials will likely not change anything with the current system. So any dreams you have for a playoff to determine the champion on the field, will have to remain just that, dreams.
By the way, the SEC is undefeated all-time in BCS title games (Tennessee in 1998, LSU in 2004/2008, and Florida in 2007). The Big XII have won 2 championships (Oklahoma in 2001 and Texas in 2006) since the inception of the BCS. If Florida wins, it will become only the second team to win multiple BCS championships.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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