Friday, January 9, 2009

Who's the BCS Champ? Flori-Duh

One thing is certain after the BCS national championship, the media loves a good pun. From “Chompions” to “Gators take a bite...” puns sprung up “Sooners rather than later”.

To give credit where credit is due, Real Clear Sports blogger Robbie Gillies came up with the title for this post. There's a few more good puns to check out.

What's not certain following Florida's 24-14 win over No. 1 Oklahoma is which school can claim they are college football's true champion. Sure, the Gators are the BCS champions, but a handful of other schools have legitimate gripes.

The game itself was sloppy and choppy, but one glaring thing stood out. Sooners coach nicknamed “Big Game Bob Stoops” continues to suffer paralysis in the biggest games. Again, when it mattered most Stoops mentally imploded.

It's not as if Oklahoma failed to show up as Sportsline's Gregg Doyel writes. The Sooners had ample chances to bury the Gators in the first half, but questionable, conservative play calling doomed OU in a pair of red-zone visits.

Then in the second half, Oklahoma failed to exploit its main advantage. You can blame the coaching staff. The Sooners huge, NFL-caliber offensive line was limited to just pass blocking. OU didn't stick with a ground game, netting just 107 yards.

Oklahoma is now 2-5 in the BCS under Bob Stoops. It's unbelievable they've made seven BCS trips, including four to titles games, but in these situations too often Stoops has called plays not to lose the game rather than call plays to win the game. It's inexplicable that the Sooners didn't continue to pound the ball at Florida. OU failed to play football at its best.

The Gators won the BCS title game as much as the Sooners lost the game.

So who really should be No. 1? We can all talk until we're blue in the face, but who knows for sure. Here's my final rankings, with style-points deducted for jump passes.

1. Utah (13-0)
2. Florida (13-1)
3. USC (12-1)
4. Texas (12-1)
5. Oklahoma (12-2)
6. Penn State (11-2)
7. TCU (11-2)
8. Alabama (12-2)
9. Ohio State (10-3)
10. Texas Tech (11-2)
---
Next In: Oregon (10-3)

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Game!? What game?

ESPN's talking heads are lounging in Miami analyzing every aspect of tomorrow's college football title bout between Florida and Oklahoma. But columnist everywhere don't seem to care. They've already crowned a champion.

Rick Reilly says the undefeated Utah Utes (13-0) are national champions, because the BCS has no credibility. The End.

Yahoo's Dan Wetzel writes that Utah can score and tackle with anyone, but was cursed by lack of overall attention. "ESPN, the 800-pound gorilla of college football hype, is notorious for promoting the games and teams that it broadcasts. This past season that meant lots of Big 12 talk."

And then there's John Feinstein who in an open letter to the 65 members of the media who vote in the AP Poll, implores them to cast their final ballot of the season with one team and one only team ranked No. 1: the University of Utah.

So does anyone care there's a game tomorrow night?

I for one will be watching, and I think Sportsline's Dennis Dodd will be too.

After all, Dodd summed up the Sooners-Gators battle into one succinct matchup. Take a look...

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Buckeyes loss was a win

An old football axiom held true last night, Ohio State feasted off their blitz for 59 minutes. But that same blitz betrayed the Buckeyes in the waning seconds.

Texas QB Colt McCoy read the defense and delivered a strike to wide receiver Quan Cosby for a 26-yard touchdown putting the Horns up 24-21 with 16 seconds left in the game. The Cosby catch provided yet another dagger in hearts of Buckeyes everywhere.

Following the game McCoy had a message for the pollsters: "I don't think there's anybody in the country who can beat us at this point."

The Buckeyes nearly did, and in losing the game they won.

The football factory in Columbus has been much maligned after a string of high profile losses. Ohio State was crushed in consecutive national championship games first by Florida (41-14) after the media had coronated them champs before kick off. Same story second verse as they fell to LSU (38-24) last year and then in a September game at USC the Buckeyes looked overmatched in another lopsided loss (35-3).

Last night was a different story. Ohio State's defense that quit in other big games limited Texas' potent offense to three first half points. In the third quarter, with fans and announcers waiting for the kill, the Buckeyes "D" was stout coming up with a pair of stops.

Coach Jim Tressel responded by tossing his standard offensive Big Ten playbook, opting for a variey of formations using both freshman QB Terrelle Pryor and senior sub Todd Boeckman. And Tressel was rewarded when Boeckman tossed a 5-yard TD pass to Pryor.

In the end a missed tackle was all that separated national championship-caliber Texas and the "undeserving" Buckeyes.

This year's Fiesta Bowl was an instant classic and a sign that Ohio State is still a relevant football program.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Fearless NFL Playoff Predictions

After 17 weeks on the gridiron, dozens of amazing plays and an inexplicable tie it's time for the playoffs. That's right, we're taking about the playoffs!?

One obvious storyline includes Miami and Atlanta, two of last year's worst teams, both making the postseason. But what jumps off the page in this Wild Card round is that only one home team (Arizona) is considered a favorite.

Without going into prolonged detail, here are the FPS expert prediction for the 2009 NFL playoffs.

WILD CARD WEEKEND



DIVISIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS




CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS




SUPER BOWL CHAMPION


Thursday, January 1, 2009

Emotional ending to '08

We've turned the over the calendars and officially waved goodbye to one of the best sports year's in recent memory. From David Tyree's catch to Tiger's determination and Michael Phelps drama in Beijing, it will be hard to surpass the achievements and memorable moments from 2008.

So is it time to cry? Here's one experts opinion.

Personally, I disagree, but sometimes showing some emotion can be a good thing.

Have a Happy, Fun New Year!