Gators swallow No. 1 spot in college football
The college football season mercifully has ended with Florida's convincing 24-14 victory over Oklahoma for the national championship on Thursday night.
There won't be unanimous agreement on the Gators being No. 1 in all the land, of course. There never is. But we enjoyed the game with its shortcomings and with its dramatics. We do not agree with Associated Press' label of "sloppy" for this national title contest. Less than perfect game? Yes. Not a classic championship game? Yes. But "sloppy" isn't deserved.
Florida quarterback Tim Tebow was the hot item emerging from the game, and he is a dandy. No doubt there. But our opinion is that the deciding factor in the championship game was one with a Conway connection.
Florida's defense, orchestrated by now-veteran Charlie Strong, the former University Central Arkansas player, was what tipped things Florida's way.
The Gator defense had two successful goal-line defenses, denying Oklahoma 14 points on the scoreboard. What was the difference in the final score? Ten points. Florida's defense had a crucial pass interception to halt another Sooner threat late in the game.
This makes twice that a Charlie Strong defense has been at the forefront of a national championship for the Florida team. It happened two years ago too.
Tim Tebow's emotional leadership and rallying of the Florida players will rightfully be talked about for quite some time. He earned offensive player of the game accolades. But he also threw two interceptions along with two touchdown passes. And he unwisely caused the Gators to be hit with a 15-yard penalty late in the game for Tebow's giving the Gator chomp sign to an Oklahoma player.
Tebow had lost out on the Heisman Trophy to Oklahoma's Sam Bradford recently, and Bradford was definitely out-shined in this game. Bradford also had two interceptions charged to him, but one was caused by his receiver's bobble and a Florida defender strong-arming the ball away from him.
All right, Florida is the national champion, and there will be grumblings in the state to the west of us because coach Bob Stoops, who could have walked into the Oklahoma governor's spot just a few years back, the same Bob Stoops who build a reputation as a big-game winner earlier, now has five straight bowl losses and three straight setbacks for national titles.
The Southeastern Conference now has three straight national championships.
Florida's Urban Meyer continues to be a hot commodity. Stoops is also, despite the nay-sayers. So is Southern Cal's Pete Carroll. The luster is washed off LSU's Les Miles after last season's national title, and the shine is also diminished on Alabama's Nick Saban after being whacked soundly by Utah in bowl play this year.
Now we will have to listen to the gripes from Utah, from Texas and from Southern Cal whose devotees think their favorite team ought to be national champion instead of Florida.
Utah finished undefeated, winning through a somewhat light schedule then pummeling Alabama. Texas lost to Texas Tech, a skyrocket team that lost its fuel later. Southern Cal was beaten by Oregon State, a team that lost four times this season.
And yes indeed, Florida suffered a one-point loss to Ole Miss, that place where Houston Nutt landed in his golden parachute.
Hey, it is football college football.
One more note on that Florida victory over Oklahoma. At the end, our strong impression was that Florida wanted the game more than Oklahoma did. Both were exceptionally good teams that earned the right to play for the national title.
(c)Copyright 2009 The Log Cabin Democrat and Morris Digital Works
OU coach Stoops denies reports
MIAMI SHORES -- Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops denied a report on Saturday saying he has been contacted by the Denver Broncos about their head coaching vacancy.
Speaking after practice at Barry University, Stoops said he was unaware about a story in the Denver Post that claimed the Broncos had interest in him replacing Mike Shanahan. Shanahan was fired last week.
Stoops, who is preparing his team to face Florida in Thursday's BCS National Title game Thursday at Dolphin Stadium, called the report just speculation.
"That's a rumor that I haven't heard," Stoops said. "No one has contacted me about that so I don't know anything about it. We're preparing for a national championship and that's all my focus and that's all my concentration is on. Obviously, I'm not a candidate or someone might have told me other than (the media)."
Talk of Stoops moving onto to the professional level is nothing new. He's been one of college football's top coaches the last decade. He is 109-23 during his Oklahoma tenure and just received a $3 million bonus for completing his 10th season.
The Sooners will play in their third national title game under Stoops, winning the championship in 2000.
Stoops refused to rule out NFL interest in the future. He called the Broncos a "great organization" and has always been a fan of coach Mike Shanahan, who was fired last week.
"At some point in my life or career, that may be the case. Everyone wants you to tell them what you're going to do 10 years from now. Who knows?
Copyright (c) 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Tide's ride tops state sports stories
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) -- It was a steamy August afternoon at Bryant-Denny Stadium, and Antoine Caldwell was feeling pretty good about Alabama's chances of contending for a Southeastern Conference title.
"I feel like this is the first year that I can legitimately say that we can compete for the SEC West," the Crimson Tide center said after a preseason practice. "Talentwise, we've got everything. We've got the pieces to the puzzle."
Turns out Caldwell was aiming low. Alabama's stunning return to the top of the rankings and the national title scene was named the state's biggest sports story of 2008 by The Associated Press.
Caldwell and the Tide not only proved they had the pieces for a terrific season but fit them together seamlessly.
The result was a 12-0 regular season, a No. 1 ranking and a berth in the SEC championship game against Florida with a national title shot on the line. That game finally proved a barrier 'Bama was unable to surmount, losing 31-20 to the Gators.
The Tide's rise came in contrast to a disappointing season by Auburn that culminated in the resignation of Tommy Tuberville after a mostly successful decade-long tenure and the surprising hire of Gene Chizik from Iowa State.
Indeed, the college football fortunes of the state's college football powers flipped for at least one year. Those six years of being stuck as No. 2 in the state are history, and the Tide was even tops in the nation for more than two months.
'Bama's terrific season was directly related to several of the other top events on the list.
The end of Auburn's school-record run of six consecutive Iron Bowl wins was No. 3 among top AP's top sport stories, followed by all the honors that poured in for Tide players and coach Nick Saban. The Tide routed the Tigers 36-0, the most lopsided game in the series in 46 years.
Saban was AP's college football coach of the year for the second time in his career. Linemen Andre Smith, Terrence Cody and Antoine Caldwell were first-team All-Americans. Safety Rashad Johnson (second-teamer) and linebacker Rolando McClain (third) also garnered All-America honors.
Smith also won the Outland Trophy as the nation's top interior lineman. McClain was a finalist for the Butkus Award given to college football's best linebacker.
No wonder Alabama was able to steamroll through the regular season with a 12-0 record. The Tide fell out of the BCS national championship hunt with the loss to the Gators in the SEC title game.
Still, No. 4 Alabama will face No. 7 Utah (12-0) on Jan. 2 in the Sugar Bowl. Not too shabby a consolation prize for a team that started out ranked No. 24 nationally and was overshadowed by Auburn and LSU in the Western Division before the season.
"We all came into the season thinking we had a chance to be a good team," Johnson said. "To come out and go 12-0, that was a little bit higher than a lot of people had expected or thought we could accomplish. As we won games, we gained more confidence and that really helped us along the way."
Along the way, Alabama also toppled more highly touted teams like Clemson, Georgia, LSU and Auburn.
And now it's back to the Sugar Bowl for the first time since ending the 1992 season by beating Miami to claim the national title. Saban called playing in a BCS bowl - only the second for Alabama and first since '99 - "a fantastic opportunity" for the team and the fans.
The Tide isn't quite satisfied yet.
"What has happened to this point really doesn't matter," Saban said. "This team will be remembered a lot by their last game."
Added Johnson: "It's all about going out and winning this game and ending this thing on a good note."
(c)2008 Alabama Live LLC
Poinsettia Bowl - TCU vs. Boise State
The college football bowl season has 14 days of college football games left, as we get closer to the big BCS Championship game between Florida and Oklahoma. Recap all of yesterday's action.
Poinsettia Bowl: TCU vs. Boise State
This is a so-called minor bowl, but the teams playing in rank higher than the teams in the so-called major Orange Bowl. The No. 11 TCU Horned Frogs and the No. 9 Boise State Broncos will both be trying to pick up a win on December 23 when they battle at Qualcomm Stadium in the Poinsettia Bowl.
Odds were not yet posted for this game at time of post, so check back later for the opening line and total.
(c)2000 - 2008 Cappersmall.com.
Mitchell-Thornton meets Kiffin up close
It's not often that a prospect remains firmly committed to a coach he's never met.
Most prospects would waver. Not Nigel Mitchell-Thornton.
The 6-foot-2, 230-pound linebacker from Stephenson High School in Stone Mountain, Ga., had only spoken to newly hired Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin once on the phone since he was hired Dec. 1.
Mitchell-Thornton said Kiffin apologized for not visiting him in Georgia this month. After this weekend, consider the apology accepted.
"At the official he was a great guy," Mitchell-Thornton said of Kiffin. "He talked like one of the guys."
As Mitchell-Thornton headed home to Georgia on Sunday afternoon, he was still impressed with Kiffin's handling of his first official visit weekend as a Vol.
"It was great," Mitchell-Thornton said. "It was just a great experience.
"Although he is new, he acted like he had been there since the beginning of the year."
Meeting with academic advisors was a high priority for Mitchell-Thornton, who plans to enroll at UT in January.
"They just made everything crystal clear for me," he said.
Mitchell-Thornton said he's not concerned about enrolling at UT before he knows who Tennessee's next defensive coordinator will be. Kiffin is expected to hire his father, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. No formal announcement has been made.
"That would be almost like winning the lottery," Mitchell-Thornton said of playing for Monte Kiffin. "You're learning an NFL system in college.
"I think I'll be able to adjust to any kind of new system no matter what it is."
Safety Eric Berry and linebacker Nick Reveiz served as Mitchell-Thornton's hosts during his official visit. That was probably a bit of challenge since the semester ended last week and few students were on campus.
"I still was able to get somewhat of a feel," Mitchell-Thornton said. "We still had a couple of guys to show us around from the football team."
Academics, facilities and campus life were all worth checking out. But finally meeting Lane Kiffin was key.
"As a person," Mitchell-Thornton said, "I thought he was just a great guy."
(c) 2008 The E.W. Scripps Co.
New era begins in USC-UCLA rivalry
PASADENA, Calif.: Time out! A new era begins Saturday in one of college football's most intense rivalries.
For the first time in 26 years, Southern California and UCLA will both wear home jerseys when they meet for the 78th time at the Rose Bowl. That means cardinal red for the visiting Trojans and powder blue for the host Bruins.
"I think it's a cool thing," Trojans guard Jeff Byers said. "It creates another aspect to this rivalry that's really cool."
The Trojans and Bruins played their home games at the Los Angeles Coliseum until UCLA moved to the Rose Bowl in 1982. They began wearing home jerseys against each other the first time they met, in 1929, when USC won 76-0.
The tradition continued the first time the teams played at the Rose Bowl, but when the NCAA passed a rule that would penalize teams one timeout if they didn't wear their proper home and road jerseys, the Bruins wore white at the Coliseum in 1983. The visitors have worn white ever since.
USC coach Pete Carroll announced this week he would gladly suffer the consequences - a lost timeout after the opening kickoff - to get back to the home jersey tradition. Carroll said he had thought about making the move for several years, but it didn't work out until now.
"It always looked awesome, it was just a part of the matchup and the spectacle, kind of playing for rights here in Los Angeles and in Southern California," he said. "So hopefully everybody will get something out of it. I'm just willing to make the statement that we want to go for it."
First-year UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel not only approves of the concept, he said he'll call a timeout immediately after USC's forced timeout to level the playing field.
In reality, though, that shouldn't affect the outcome. Fact is, a UCLA victory would be an absolute shocker since No. 5 USC is listed as a 33-point favorite over the mistake-prone Bruins.
"History isn't devoid of games where somebody who is a deep, deep underdog has found a way to get one more point," Neuheisel said. "It isn't as though we have to reshape the world. This is football, and things happen, especially in rivalry games. We're excited about our chance."
A victory will give the Trojans (10-1, 7-1 Pac-10) an unprecedented seventh straight BCS bid, seven consecutive 11-win seasons, seven straight Pac-10 championships, and a fourth consecutive appearance in the Rose Bowl game.
As hopeless as the situation might appear, Neuheisel and the Bruins (4-7, 3-5) have only to look to what happened two years ago to give them hope. The Trojans were heavily favored, but UCLA came up with an outstanding defensive effort to win a 13-9 decision at the Rose Bowl, knocking USC out of the national championship game.
The Trojans had beaten their crosstown rivals seven consecutive times before the surprising setback, one of just 10 losses in 94 games for USC since the beginning of the 2002 season. USC rebounded with a 24-7 triumph over UCLA at the Coliseum last year.
UCLA's defensive coordinator is DeWayne Walker, the first assistant hired by Carroll when he came to USC in 2001. Walker served one year as associate head coach and secondary coach before becoming leaving to take a position with the NFL's New York Giants. He is finishing his third season with the Bruins.
The Bruins are solid on defense again, ranking second in the country in pass defense. They'd probably be in even better shape had the offense performed more effectively. UCLA has committed 28 turnovers while forcing only 17, with quarterback Kevin Craft throwing 20 interceptions including 12 in the last four games with only seven touchdown passes. And the opposition has recorded 35 sacks.
"(Craft) has been an very accurate short-range thrower," Carroll said. "He has good legs, runs well with the ball when he takes off and runs. They've had some problems with their turnovers."
Craft had an especially difficult time in a 34-9 loss at Arizona State last weekend, when the Sun Devils scored all four of their touchdowns on defense - three on interception returns and the fourth on a fumble return. The Bruins allowed only 122 yards, their best defensive performance since the 1989 Cotton Bowl against Arkansas.
"We've got to be ready for their defense," said USC quarterback Mark Sanchez, who has passed for 2,525 yards and 28 touchdowns with only nine interceptions.
UCLA's shaky offense has to be ready as well. USC's hard-hitting defense has held nine of its 11 opponents to 10 points or less, and leads the country in total defense ((210.55 yards) and scoring defense (7.8 points).
"They are stacked across the board," Bruins tailback Kahlil Bell said. "We have to play our best game, plain and simple. When that whistle blows, we're going to take our punches and give them a fight, because that's what it's about."
UCLA's offensive coordinator is Norm Chow, who held a similar position at USC from 2001-05 before leaving under questionable circumstances.
"It was time for me to leave, time to move on," Chow said this week, declining to comment further.
Chow, fired after three seasons as offensive coordinator of the NFL's Tennessee Titans, joined the Bruins after Neuheisel was hired last winter.
Copyright (c) 2008 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved
UL football: Cajuns cannot play in New Orleans Bowl
If UL's football team goes to a bowl game this season, it won't be in New Orleans.
That's what Sun Belt commissioner Wright Waters said during the league's weekly teleconference call.
According to the NCAA postseason football handbook, conferences are required to fill its contracted bowl slots with seven-win teams before six-win teams. The New Orleans Bowl is the Sun Belt's lone guaranteed bowl game, though in July the conference reached secondary agreements with the PapaJohn's.com Bowl in Birmingham, the St. Petersburg Bowl in Florida and PetroSun Independence Bowl in Shreveport.
In that case, Saturday's winner between Troy (7-4 overall, 5-1) and Arkansas State (6-5, 4-2) would advance to the New Orleans Bowl. The loser would be left to compete for an at-large bowl berth.
UL (5-6, 4-2) and Middle Tennessee (5-6, 3-3) play at 6:08 Wednesday night at Cajun Field. The winner becomes bowl eligible and will also fight for an at-large bowl bid.
Copyright (c)2008 The Daily Advertiser
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