(1) Domination by Florida's D, allowing 74 yards total and completely shutting down the Heisman Trophy winner.
(2) Troy Smith's atrocious game (4/14, 34 yds, 1 INT, 0 TD), mirrored by Chris Leak's ultimate redemption. For the last four years, I've been up and down on Chris -- the last year, mostly down. But his legacy is secure.
(3) Hoops-Football titles back-to-back, making Florida the first team to hold both titles simultaneously in NCAA history.
(4) Urban Meyer winning a national title in Year 2, which can be attributed to a couple of things: His emphasis on speed, his instant-impact recruiting and his meticulous management of his program.
(5) Florida's offensive play-calling and balance -- the former which had been a problem all season long, the latter which had been the core of Urban Meyer's system.
I mean, it was such an ass-kicking that I think most fans -- whether you're a Florida fan, an Ohio State fan or simply a college football fan -- were left as shocked as possible. It was possible, though preciously rare, to predict that Florida would win (cough, cough), but impossible to predict that Florida would win in such a dominating way.
(Hell, even Kirk Herbstreit is giving Florida credit, which is saying something. It's easy to forgive him in victory, particularly knowing how frustrated and upset he must be over the way OSU lost this game. I'm especially impressed the way he rejects OSU's 51-day layoff as a factor, when that seems to be something everyone wants to attribute the result to.)
Here's my question: Can you remember such a substantial and consensus underdog delivering such a thorough ass-kicking in a championship game? The two most notable underdogs -- Texas last year and Ohio State in 2003 vs. Miami -- both barely squeaked by with upset wins.
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I head off to bed way too wired, but also stunned at the level of domination by Florida in this game over Ohio State. National champs. Wow. I'm thrilled to know that I had faith it would happen, but I could have never allowed myself to imagine it would happen this way. Maybe more cogent thoughts during the day Tuesday. -- D.S.
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39 comments:
Great win Gators!! Nobody thought the Gators would blow out Ohio State. Just proves media doesn't win championships, the players do. And that defense was UNSTOPPABLE! I'm still shaking my head. Unbelievable. Congrats to Meyer, Leak and all!!!
National Champs Basketball/Football!
Nothing more to say!
I was surprised everyone was saying whoever won the Rose Bowl would be the consensus pre-season #1. The Gators are still young and have two studs coming back in Tebow & Harvin. Is the mainstream media really going to overlook Florida again?! And props to Dan for picking Florida. Great call!
Here's my theory:
Dan finally gives UCLA credit after shitting on them all season. This credit-give is after ranking two-loss Florida over UCLA until UCLA finally proved something to him with the win over Washington. Since then, Shanoff has experienced this karma mega surge, where UCLA goes down, the Heisman winner is rendered useless, Ginn goes down, and Florida plays out of their minds.
Man.
Don't just give props to dan since there have been a bunch of florida homers all season shouting their praises. I've said it since the first USC loss that we were a team of destiny and that things were falling in place for us. I didn't think they gators would dominate this much. I honestly thought we might win by ten points tops but this was one of the most lopsided asskickings I have seen in recent years. It is totally reminiscent of what the cornhuskers did to the gators in 95 except few actually expected us to do that.
How did Ginn get hurt anyhow? It is a shame since I would have liked to have seen him play more.
To all the gators fans is this one more sweet than the first one?
To all of my fellow gators enjoy a slap on the back and savor this moment because I just can't see how we can top being football champs and bball champs at the same time except if we were to repeat in bball or football. Does this win make us the most dominant sports program in America?
As far as next year goes, there are a few teams out there who might be better than Florida:
Obviously, USC will probably be the preseason #1 and deservedly so. Michgan will probably be #2.
Beyond them, I think West Virginia is going to factor into the Nat'l Champ picture with both Steve Slaton and Pat White coming back.
It will also be very interesting to see what happens at Louisville. If Brohm and Bush come back, they're a loaded team, but if they follow Petrino out the door, not so much.
GO GATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amazing Night and a great way to finish my last few months in OHIO.
I was hoping for a win, I was NEVER expecting a freaking blowout.
It will be a long LONG time before a team is DOMINATED like OSU was in the title game, ever again.
Go Gators!!!!
Joe (Dayton)
I picked it yesterday for Florida to win by 2 scores at little off but still a blow out. It was the most impressive win by a underdog since the PAtriots beat the Rams in the Super Bowl. That game was not a blow out but the final score was much closer then the actual game was.
WVU beat Georgia last year. IIRC Georgia won the SEC championship game...correct me if I'm wrong
Is the mainstream media really going to overlook Florida again?!
there could be a mass exodus from the gators in the coming days... so we'll wait and see.
I am not a UF fan, but I felt good for Leak. As I said yesterday, he had every reason to just flip off the UF fans and boosters for the grief he took. But he seems like a good kid and I hope he at least gets a chance in the NFL.
As for the Ginn injury excuse, I saw a lot of posts yesterday that OSU had 5 WRs who could start for UF. What happened to the other 4?
There is only one way to spin yesterday's game and that is FLORIDA was the BETTER team. Plain and simple. If it was a close game and Florida won you could have some doubts but due to the utter domination of Florida you have to say Florida was the Better team maybe just maybe Ohio State was slightly overrated.
Oh yeah and so much for all the People who said that Florida should not of been in that game.
As a huge Ohio State fan and SEC hater, I tip my hat to the Gators. They won in every phase of the game -- offense, defense, penalties, and turnovers, and at least got a push on special teams following the opening kickoff.
I am not going to be an apologist for tOSU, but I would have liked to see Ted Ginn play 4 quarters. At 21-14, we forced a 3 and out, I thought the Bucks had a chance then to tie the game and right the ship. The quick penalty, our own 3 and out, and it was game over. The Florida defense outplayed the Ohio State offense and for the first time in the sweater-vest era, we were completely outcoached.
But man are Gator fans obnoxious!
1) It is not too impressive that you picked your favorite team to win it all. It's not like you were going to pick OSU.
2) Just remember that you are a bandwagon fan with no ties to Florida. If they were 6-6 you wouldn't be a fan.
3) I am happy for Leak, just because all the bandwagon dumbasses have been calling for Tebow all season and Leak played ridiculously well in that game.
4) Do you have no memory? Just 3 months ago the underdog Cardinals completely demolished the Detroit Tigers.
Funny... #4 on your list is how Tressel won his title in 2002.
This game just proves that despite all the hoopla, hype, arguments on speed, etc....the game of football comes down to the guys in the trenches.
Florida got pressure on Smith, not with speed, but with brute strength. I didn't see the Florida DEs run around the OSU tackles at all...I only saw them pushing them back or out of the way. That's strength.
For the OSU D...what the fuck was with their defensive gameplan?? Rushing 4? Rushing 3?!
The only way to take Smith out of the game is to put up constant pressure. Florida knew this and did it.
The only way to take Leak out of the game is to put constant pressure. Ohio State knew this...then dropped into 8 man zones 10 yards from the line of scrimmage. Tressel should bitchslap Jim Heacock. Then he should bitchslap himself for not making adjustments after the first quarter.
One last thing...this post is getting too long... I am surprised that Ohio State didn't just try to run up the gut (yes, obviously that 3rd and 4th and 1 got stopped). Pittman..on the few carries he was given..did pretty well.
Again, I think Florida played off of instinct and whupped butt. Ohio State thought TOO much and tied themselves in knots.
woo hoo, no more college football!! :)
...but seriously, it was a pretty dominating performance and since i have no stock whatsover in either team, it was entertaining to watch.
You thought it was entertaining? It was a snoozer after the first quarter.
Is it me or did this whole bowl season just suck? Lots of blowouts. Only one awesome game (BSU/OU), a few average games, then a lot of sucktitude.
Florida isn't going to be overlooked next year...but cmon, Gator Nation has had a hard-on for Tebow all year (ridiculously shameful considering they had a good one in Leak), but Tebow hasn't really shown that much. Sure...he can run. Can he manage a game? Lead by example? etc. And don't the Gators lose their leaders and playmakers on defense?
Urban Meyer winning a national title in Year 2, which can be attributed to a couple of things: His emphasis on speed, his instant-impact recruiting and his meticulous management of his program.
The 1st item on your list should be that Urban Meyer inherited a team loaded with stars from Ron Zook's incredible recruiting.
Horatio - here is the info on your beloved SEC conference. The SEC conference champion has lost it's BCS game 3 times in 9 years. The SEC overall is 9-4 in BCS games. Those 4 losses being ALA to Mich in 1999, Tenn to Neb in 1999, Florida to Miami in 2000 (are you a Gator fan and conveniently forgot that one?), and Georgia to WVU two years ago. The rest of the conferences run down like this:
Big Ten: 8-7
Pac-10: 7-4
Big East: 5-4
Big 12: 5-7
ACC: 1-8
Others: 2-3
Alright, I am done arguing against the SEC after this one final stat line, bowl records in the BCS Championship Game:
SEC: 3-0
Big 12: 2-3
Big East: 1-2
ACC: 1-2
Big 10: 1-1
Pac 10: 1-1
Go SEC. The TRUE power conference.
I'm not really sure that Tebow actually has an arm.
Dude has a cannon. There might be some high school highlights of his on youtube; you should check them out. Problem is, his accuracy is a little suspect I believe. But hell, that's what the offseason is for.
Florida received all but one of the 65 first-place AP votes. Boise State (13-0) got the other from Greg Archuleta of the Albuquerque Journal in New Mexico.
all the bandwagon dumbasses have been calling for Tebow all season
all I want to know is... who are all these people? The "Gator fans have been calling for Tebow over Leak all season" stuff is starting to sound like Musberger and Herbstriet talking about the "bloggers" calling for Lloyd Carr's head--where is this coming from?
Dan,
As I said at the beginning of the College Football season (back in the MQ)... Chris Leak was going to come up big this year. Now, at the time you picked Tim Tebow over Leak, but I think we might have both won this.
@Lenny,
Tebow threw a TD pass last night.
22 of the 24 starters on last night's Florida team were recruited by Ron Zook. So much for Urban Meyer's "instant impact recruiting".
Why don't you get your tongue out of Urban Meyer's ass and give credit where it's really due, Ron Zook. This is the current trend in college football of taking credit for someone else's hard work.
Does this mean Arkansas and by default Wisconsin are better than OSU?
Urban gets credit because, though they were Zook's recruits, it was Urban that won the games with those players. Zooker couldn't.
Troy (Gainesville): You seriously haven't seen, over the course of the season, all the Gator fans clamoring for Tebow??? Commenters in this blog certainly did at times. The kid was even booed (and Tebow cheered) in games this year.
That game was certainly a butt kicking by every measure of the words itself. Congrats to FL, they showed who the best team in the nation was.
Nice shot of mini-shanoff.
Florida < Auburn < Arkansas < USC < Oregon State < Boise State.
Boise St. should be the champs.
lololol
From the "Credit where it is due" department...
Congrats to you Dan, the heroin sheik, joe in dayton (must be an interesting dynamic there right about now...) and Troy from Gainsville, and any other Florida fans I may have missed. It wasn't a "squeak it out" type of win, it wasn't anything that happened on a freak play or a blown call, it was just 100% complete domination.
And, @ futurelegendvinceyoung:
Dude, don't encourage him to make his kid a Cubs' fan. No child deserves that.
In more fun news..anyone want their own country?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070108/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_island
I thought is was an awesome game for a blowout. Just because Florida made some really amazing plays on offense.
Ohio State was just way out-classed by Florida's d-line. Just a huge shock for a Big 10 school to get pushed around like that.
Speed came into play as Florida's D chased Smith down over and over and over again.
I'm not sure Smith's stock will tank or not. GMs are notoriously difficult to predict because they are mostly idiots (Leinart 11th last year, Mario over Reggie, the Lions, etc.).
Leak isn't going to be drafted high, because his own teammates describe him as a loner. On the other hand, maybe the Raiders will take him for that reason.
"It's great to be a Florida Gator('91)"
I was all set to call out the OSU/Mich/Big Ten slurpers, but after an ass kicking like that I just don't have the heart. So I will respond to some of their points over the last few weeks.
1.) The sweater vest will NOT get out coached: the only way UF can win is by some lucky breaks because OSU has more talent.
Tressel CLEARLY got out coached and Florida was the more talented team. That was clear about midway through the first quarter. Surprising but clear.
2.) SEC is overrated.
I have said before how meaningless bowl games do not indicate strength of conference due to a variety of reasons, so no bringing up Wisco and Penn State. The only meaningful bowl game was the NC game, and clearly the Big 10 has been exposed. OSU played 1 meaningful game all year(Mich). Florida played several. Now maybe prople will understand how damn tough that conference is and why UF had trouble with South Carolina, even Kentucky to some degree, not to mention the rest of the SEC big boys. Also, some have brought up the fact that the SEC is 3-0 in BCS title games...and let's not forget how Auburn got screwed in 04(not saying they would have beat the juggernaut USC team, but they still got hosed out of a chance)
3.) OSU is equal in speed to UF
Are you kidding me? Outside of Ginn, UF had the CLEAR speed advantage. Harvin was the fastest player on the field and the UF defensive line got to Smith through power AND speed.
4.) Troy Smith will not crap the bed. It will be Chris Leak.
Smith was terrible, but not all his fault. OSU offensive line was overwhelmed. Leak played his best game of his career on the big stage. I was shocked, but very happy for him. It's what he came to UF to do.
Florida took advantage of the system this year and is CLEARLY the best team in the country. Don't give me Boise State, who got past an OU team(barely) that cold not hold UF's collective jock. But that doesn't mean I don't wish Boise did not have a chance to show their stuff. I, now more than ever, still call for a 16 team playoff so it can all be settled on the field.
A couple more tidbits. I watched evey single Gator game this year from start to finish. This stuff about the UF fans booing Leak is way out of proportion. It was the Kentucky game, and what was happening at the time was Urban Meyer was flip flopping Leak and Tebow in a way he had not done before. UF had a first and goal at the KY 4 yard line and Meyer left Leak in the game and the Gators had a couple bonehead plays. Then a drive later they had a first and 10 at the Kentucky 19 or so and in comes Tebow. A couple more bonehead plays, and the fans started getting restless. The boos were not aimed at Leak and were frustrations of Meyer's use of the 2 in unusual situations. Gator fans have much more class than to boo Leak, even though we will admit to some frustration in his play. The media ran wild with that and took it out of context...so a big "fuck you" to the media for that.
I don't know if Herbstreit finally came around on the SEC or not last night...after all, what could he say after that domination by UF? I don't think anybody should slurp the SEC...just give credit where it is due and try to overcome your biases, not let them cloud your judgment.
UF is stocked and a top 5 class is fully expected again for next year. They should be number one heading into the season, though I do not subscribe to the "it's theirs until someone knocks them off" theory because the turnaround is so great year to year. I am hoping some of their juniors(reggie nelson especially) take a cue from the hoops team and come back, but would not begrudge any of them if they left for the NFL. I think the next 2 years people are going to love or hate tebow and harvin, much like leinart and bush. because they are going to rule college football.
Urban Meyer is THE MAN
one more quick point: tip of the cap to zook for his recruiting. it's too bad he could not do as well as a game day coach, and that led to his downfall. i think we will see how good a recruiter meyer is in the next couple years. if tebow and harvin are any indication, uf is in good hands in both aspects. excellent hands.
IM pretty sure nelson has already said he is going pro. I really think the zooker deserves at least a token of appreciation from UF. See if we still had a class act like lombardi as president I bet he would make foley give zook a ring. Of course machen did help us get meyer.
I was fully expecting the gators to win and I am still shocked at how easy it was.
Id really like to see boise state play florida in a plus one game but I would be weird with all that orange and blue.
My dad called me from the game last night and it was so loud I was getting feedback in my ear. He said in his 50 plus years of attending games he had never seen an opposing teams fans so dumbstruck. He said by the time we had that fantastic run before the half most of OSU's fans looked like deer in the headlights.
I can't wait for the celebration at the swamp on saturday. Looks like it will be a good time to get a celebratory tat. Maybe something special celebrating the "Gator slam" as the WWL proclaimed it.
We need to come up with a term for holding the two major sports titles simultaneously.
To all you gators how many of you are calling in sick with hangovers? I wish I didn't work in a kitchen because I know I will be worthless til at least my fourth or fifth shot.
Sure we seem obnoxious now but really unless they are your teams fans arent all fans obnoxious on some level. Give us a few days to gloat IM sure dan will be praising meyer as the second coming for a while but isn't that his right since our team won?
2 bits 4 bits 6 bits a dollar all for the gators stand up and holler.
The first person to comment on this page mentioned that the game "...just proves media doesn't win championships.."
...well, for all those who bitch about the BCS, had there not been this game and OSU had say, won the Rose Bowl, they would have been unanimous champs...without having to go through the Gators. With the exception of the split championship year in '04, when these BCS Championship games are over, you do kinda end up feeling like the winner was, after all, the best.
Go figure.
Don't think that Smith forgot him. He's just used to that extra split second of time to make his play. The DEs didn't give him that split second.
joe -
"except the 04 split championship?" i think you meant 03(04 bowl games). how about 01 when oregon and/or colorado should have been playing miami? how about 04 when auburn got hosed? come on...we still need a playoff.
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