NCAA Kickoff: Who will win it all?

You won't see Florida celebrating again in 2009.

It's the first big day of the 2009 college football season, which means it's time for some fearless predictions.

Nearly every writer and analyst is picking the Florida Gators to make back-to-back appereances in the BCS Championship game. Most are taking the Gators to will win it all. I can see why. 

The Florida defense returns 11 starters and all the top reserves, making it one of the deepest units in the country. And fearless leader QB Tim Tebow returns for his senior season. But I see trouble in Gainesville this year.

First, new offensive coordinator Steve Addazio has been experimenting with the I-formation this offseason. That means the Gators will likely use Tim Tebow more under center and not exclusively out the shotgun. Basically, Florida's explosive spread offense will be handicapped by their play calling. Why change something when it clearly not broken?

I think this is the ball game for Gator coach Urban Meyer and his spread. If his coaching staff cannot shape Tebow into a NFL caliber quarterback, elite QB recruits will recognize Alex Smith and Tebow could not make the professional jump and snub the Gators.

The second area of trouble for the Gators is fact they will speedy wideout Percy Harvin (now a Minnesota Viking). Harvin was a college game-changer and his presence is really irreplaceable. Put the ball in his and something special happens. Like USC without Reggie Bush, I think Florida will struggle in some key situations without Harvin.

Where do the '09 Gators end up? Here are my picks...

ORANGE BOWL: Georgia Tech (ACC champ) vs. Ohio State (At-large)

SUGAR BOWL: Florida (At-large) vs. West Virgina (Big East champ) 

FIESTA BOWL: USC (At-large) vs. Texas (At-large)

ROSE BOWL: Penn State (Big 10 champ) vs. Oregon (Pac-10 champ)

TITLE GAME: Oklahoma OVER Alabama

NCAA Kickoff: Will Tebow-love ever end?

It goes beyond being called a bromance. The media's infatuation with Florida QB Tim Tebow qualifies as straight up man love. 

Unfortunately, it's not going to stop anytime soon. There's even an entire blog devoted to all things Tebow.

What's not to love, right? He is the leader of the indisputable preseason favorite to win a third national championship in four years. The media voted the Gators No. 1 in the AP poll with a record 96.7 percent of first-place votes.

The bullish Tebow has already amassed 110 career touchdowns (running, passing and jump-passing), a pair of SEC titles, two national championships, one Heisman award and one post-game speech immortalized outside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. That's quite the list. 

And now, everyone is fawning over Tebow accomplishments. They say he's going to be the best ever.

CFN's Pete Fiutak writes "if Tebow leads the Gators to the national title, and/or if he wins a second Heisman, the question won't be whether or not he's the greatest college quarterback of all-time; the question will be how wide the gap is between him and the No. 2 guy on the list."

Blogger Dan Shanoff writes "Tim Tebow is already in the conversation for 'Greatest Ever,' even before this season starts. Layer in another national title and another Heisman, and I don't think it's close."

Even the more skeptical SI.com writer Stewart Mandel seemed to heed the hype after developing a greatest score.

I just can't buy into it. Tim Tebow's "greatness" is unequivocally tied to Florida coach Urban Meyer and his offensive system. Which makes Tebow a "system guy." Just look at this comparison:

PASSING STATS

--Alex Smith ('04): 2,952 yards, 9.3 yds/att, 32 TDs, 4 Ints, 176.5 Rating

--Tim Tebow ('07, Heisman winner): 3,286 yards, 9.3 yds/att, 32 TDs, 6 Ints, 172.5 Rating

RUSHING STATS

--Smith: 802 yards, 14 TDs, 4. 9 yds/carry*

--Tebow: 895 yards, 23 TDs, 4.3 yds/carry 

Eerily similar? 

OK, I fudged on Smith's rushing stats. He actually rushed for 631 yards and a mere 10 touchdowns. But the Utes leading rusher from '04, Marty Johnson, actually put up those near *matching numbers.

It was Meyer's gimmicky spread offense turned in an undefeated season for Utah in 2004 and made then QB Alex Smith into a No. 1 pick. So shouldn't this really be a discussion about him?

Tim Tebow is reaping the benefits of playing under one of the most destructive offensive schemes in college football history. He's been more productive than previous quarterbacks Smith and Omar Jacobs. But that doesn't make him great.

Greatness envelops talent. You could see it in the likes of Archie Griffin, Jim Brown, Herschel Walker and even Peyton Manning. That's where the media is missing in the love-fest. Tebow's true talent has yet to be measured.

Where will Tebow measure up? Only time will tell. But for now get the antacids ready, because it's Tebow's world and we're living in it.

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)
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Next In: Oregon (10-3)

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...