Jan 7, 2009 11:35 pm US/Eastern
Sooners To Battle Gators For BCS Title Thursday
TIm Kephart
MIAMI (CBS4.com) ―
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BCS College Football Championship trophy
AP
Who is the number one team in all of college football? We will have a champion crowned in South Florida on Thursday night, but will it be the Oklahoma Sooners led by Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Sam Bradford, or will it be the Florida Gators led by Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Tim Tebow?
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, or 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.
With kickoff still more than 48 hours away, both teams have been turning up the rhetoric as preparations continue. 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.
Add to that the fact USC only has one loss and demolished a highly ranked Penn State team, and you have quite a mess to be sorted out by the Associated Press voters on Friday.
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.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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