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Nov 28, 2009 8:35 am US/Eastern
FSU vs. UF Set For Saturday Showdown
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
After you've stuffed yourself full of all the turkey and fixings you can have, there are countless big matchups in the football world that fans should check out. From Bedlam to the Civil War, the bowl season could start to come into focus over the weekend. One of the biggest games will take place up the road in Gainesville.
The number one ranked Florida Gators will square off against their arch-rival Florida State on Saturday afternoon on CBS4. The Gators are looking to send off Tim Tebow with a final win at home, and for Gator fans, nothing would be better than to have Tebow's last win be against the Noles.
Florida's offense has started clicking lately, and while not at the level of the 2008 offense, Florida has been efficient at exploiting the opposing team's weakness. For the Noles defense, the weakness has been pretty much the entire defense. The Noles have seen bad teams run roughshod over their once vaunted defense, but do bring with them a very powerful offense.
While FSU will play hard, especially for outgoing defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews, there's simply too much talent on the Florida defense for the Noles to pull the upset in Gainesville. Florida will move past the Noles and set their sights on a team coached by one of the most reviled men for all Dolphins fans, Nick Saban.
Saban and his Alabama Crimson Tide had their own tough game on Friday during the annual Iron Bowl game against its in-state rival Auburn. Bama had already won the SEC West title and will play Florida in the SEC Championship no matter what happened in the Iron Bowl, and it looked like Bama was on cruise control throughout the Iron Bowl.
The Tide's vaunted defense was shredded by Auburn to start the game before settling in and stuffing the Tigers throughout most of the second half. Alabama's running game struggled and it likely pushed running back Mark Ingram out of the lead for the 2009 Heisman Trophy. Alabama won the game with what Bama fans are already calling, "The Drive." It was a 7 minute drive deep in the fourth quarter that sealed the deal for Bama, but they were shown to be beatable for the second time this season.
Tennessee had already put together a defensive game plan to beat the Tide, and with Florida's speed and spread option attack, Auburn laid down a game plan for UF to utilize against Bama.
Moving west, the annual Bedlam game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will determine whether one team will have a shot at getting into a BCS bowl game. The strange part is that Oklahoma State is looking for that BCS berth. OU has been decimated by injuries all year and has lost badly to average teams. OSU will likely have their star quarterback Zac Robinson back for the game, which should propel the offense to high levels against a struggling Oklahoma defense. If OU loses, it will probably fuel the fire of rumors that Sooners head coach Bob Stoops may leave for the head coaching gig at Notre Dame.
Finally, there's the annual Border War between Kansas and Missouri, two teams that seem to be going in the opposite direction. Kansas' head coach Mark Mangino has been hounded by rumors of mistreating players and other scandals for the past few weeks and his team, which was supposed to contend for the Big XII North championship, has instead ended up at 5-6 heading into the Border War.
On the flip side, Missouri struggled during the middle of their schedule against Nebraska, Texas, and Oklahoma State. The Tigers also suffered a brutal loss to Baylor at home. But, since then, the Tigers have knocked off Kansas State and Iowa State in consecutive weeks. The Tigers high-powered offense is manned by sophomore quarterback Blaine Gabbert, who is finally healthy after suffering a sprained ankle against Nebraska. In addition, the Tigers have a redshirt freshman defensive end named Aldon Smith who is in the top 10 in sacks in the country.
Given Kansas' struggles, Missouri should knock off the Jayhawks without much of a problem. However, as is the case with all of these games, a rivalry game means throw out the records and put the children to bed, cause the games will be rough and close.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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