Gator Football 2006

[craig]

What a fan-fucking-tastic game that was. Aside from the third quarter, the Gators played arguably their best game all season. I'm really pleased that they got their championship ring. I'm especially pleased for Leak, who I think got kind of a shitty deal at Florida (having the option pushed on him when he is clearly a drop-back passer).

In any case, it's up to the voters to decide where we go from here. The BCS is such a frustratingly inept system...a group of old farts sitting on their ass should not decide the fate of players who work their ass off. We desperately need a playoff system, but I could ramble on that for hours, so I'll stop here. The Gators are currently ranked #2 in the AP and the Coaches Poll. The Harris Interactive Poll hasn't been released yet. I'm eagerly awaiting 8:00 to arrive, when the bowl pairings will be announced on FOX. The Gators deserve a shot against Ohio St. for a number of reasons. ESPN has a really good article citing SEVERAL reasons why Florida should play and not Michigan, and when it comes down to it, Florida has played harder, has won more, and survived a tougher schedule. Check out the article here.

Besides, when it comes down to it, isn't Ohio State-Florida a sexier matchup then Ohio State-Michigan, which we all have already seen?

[craig]

Glendale, here we come! Ohio State vs. Florida should prove to be one sexy matchup. I have two issues with the BCS games though. Notre Dame and USC? A BCS berth? After losing two games? Both teams lost two games. Both teams are extremely overrated. I don't understand why the media loves them so much. USC lost two games to TWO UNRANKED opponents, yet they still are going to the Rose Bowl. Notre Dame...they just really aren't that good of a football team. They have been overrated all season. Wisconsin got screwed on this one. They are 11-1 and deserving of a BCS game, at least way more deserving than Notre Dame. Wisconsin should be playing LSU in the Sugar Bowl, not Notre Dame.

In any case, we all know the BCS is a flawed, inept system. So no sense in continuing to beat that horse to death. The fact of the matter is this: Florida fought their way to take on Ohio State for the national title! I think we'll give Ohio State a good game. I think Ohio State is an excellent team, but they are overrated too. Yes, they are undefeated, but their only TOUGH game was against Michigan (and Texas, but Texas isn't a good team this year). All I know is I can't wait until January 8th!

[deza]

I found this neat little online graph on cnnsi.com, which shows how the coaches voted on the final USA Today Coaches poll:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/graphics/coaches_fb_poll_2006/flash.htm

Nice to see that Zook voted in his former players into the BCS Championship game rather than vote in his conference counterpart.

[ross]

I'm watching USC mop up Michigan in the tail end of the Rose Bowl. Even though I hate USC, I wanted them to win this game to shut Michigan up. I know that the Wolverines were crying about not getting another shot at Ohio State, but this drubbing by USC should get them to quit flapping their gums.

I am sad to see that the SEC has not fared particularly well in their bowl games. Florida is always able to argue that they won in the toughest conference in college football, but just how tough is our conference if SEC teams aren't dominating in their bowl games? Here's what we have:

WIN in the Cotton Bowl: #10 Auburn b arely over #22 Nebraska, 17-14.

LOSS in the Outback Bowl: #17 Tennessee bounced by unranked Penn State, 10-20.

LOSS in the Capital One Bowl: #12 Arkansas falls to #6 Wisconsin, 14-17.

LOSS in the Independence Bowl: Alabama loses a close one to Oklahoma State, 31-34.

WIN in the Music City Bowl: Kentucky strolls past Clemson, 28-20.

WIN in the Liberty Bowl: South Carolina guns down Houston, 44-36

WIN in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl: unranked Georgia has a huge comeback against #14 Virginia Tech, 31-24.

So it looks like we're 4-3 in bowl games so far. Hopefully LSU will beat overrated Notre Dame, and the Gators will triumph over Ohio State.

[ross]

Well, the SEC moves to 5-3 after LSU destroyed the Dying Irish, 41-14. Besides putting up a palindrome, LSU proved a point that we all know in our hearts: Notre Dame is the most overrated team in college football history. In some ways I hate Notre Dame more than USC because, unlike USC, Notre Dame doesn't deserve any of the hype it gets.

Now the question is whether the Gators can come out on top against Ohio State. I have to admit that I'm not terribly optimistic about this game. I feel like we've kind of scraped our way through this season, though that might have something to do with all the points we threw away wide right and wide left of the uprights. I want to see Chris Leak dig deep on this one; last game, last chance.

[deza]

Can you believe it??? NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! Wow!!!

Go Gators!!!

[chris]

Plus the final score was a palindrome! I really enjoyed the first half, especially how they put in Tebow for several 3-6 yard surges right through the middle, and then one time he passed out to the left where there was NO coverage for a TD. The offense just kept on going, Leak repeatedly throwing to receivers that weren't well covered. And the defense was BRUTAL.

[ross]

I celebrated this win during and after the game, including a dazzling call to the Jim Rome show. All through the game, we kept saying to ourselves, "It's not over yet, it's not over yet." But this game was over at half time. It was over when Tressel made that desperate 4th-and-1 attempt on his own 30. The game was over when it became evident that Heisman winner QB Troy Smith was going to have to try to play the game without his best receiver and with no offensive line.

I want to see Chris Leak dig deep on this one; last game, last chance.

QB Chris Leak had his day in the sun. He finished his career going 25 of 36 for 213 yards, a TD, and no interceptions. He had a few throws that might have gotten picked off in the SEC, but the Buckeyes made almost no plays on defense. Damn, it was good to see the Leakster holding up that BCS trophy at the end of the game.

Now the question is whether the Gators can come out on top against Ohio State. I have to admit that I'm not terribly optimistic about this game.

I guess I had bought into the hype as much as everyone else. This was one of those games that was so one-sided that there isn't much to talk about. Meyer went with the spread offense and Ohio State couldn't stop it. What could they do? Every down they have to try to figure out whether Wynn is going to run up the middle, whether Harvin or Caldwell will get the ball via screen, direct snap, or reverse, whether Leak will pass or run a QB draw... the Buckeyes were overwhelmed.

I think that this is the offensive performance that Meyer was trying to get, for example, in the Georgia and South Carolina games. I think that what we saw was all the pieces fitting together, in combination with facing a defense that just is not SEC caliber.

I was intrigued by the use of DeShawn Wynn. He ended up with 73 yards and a TD on 19 carries, with most of that coming in the second half when we were burning clock. The tailback wasn't exactly breaking the game open, but I think he provided a great change of pace to the Harvin/Caldwell speed demons. Speaking of speed demons, Harvin ended up with 82 all-purpose yards and a TD.

WR Ingram was more involved in the offense than I thought he would be: 4 catches for 58 yards. Baker was kind of quiet in this game: 4 receptions for 23 yards and a TD. I continue to believe that Cornelius is our best pure WR: 5 catches for 50 yards. Caldwell saw some action both running and catching, but was limited to 19 all-purpose yards - he had a TD though. Sometimes I wonder whether that broken leg last year is still hampering his game.

Last but not least, I have to give some love to our future starting QB Tim Tebow. He went 1/1, hitting a single completion: a 1-yard TD pass to Caldwell. He also rumbled for 39 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. We challenged the Buckeyes by charging them with Tebow and, more often than not, he moved the chains. If this guy can show us that he can chuck the ball around a little bit, then I think he's going to get the Heisman one of these years.

A few quick notes:

• Hetland was 2/2 with kicks of 40 and 42 yards.
• Reggie Nelson was held on that Ted Ginn opening kickoff TD return. Emmitt Smith even pointed it out during halftime.
• Is Billy Latsko a senior? I hope not, because that guy gets a lot of work done behind the scenes.
• A few times we had Leak and Tebow in the game, with Leak dashing out to line up at wide receiver on the outside. Both times I think we ran Tebow up the gut. We were dominating so much that we never did anything tricky out of that set.

Our defense held the number one team in the country to a total of 82 yards of offense. This is quite a bit shy of the Gators' 370 yards of offense. The numbers are laughable. We ran 80 plays, they ran 37. We had the ball for 40:48, they had it 19:12. We were 10/19 on 3rd down and they were 1/10. The only stat they hung close with us on was penalties: we had 6 for 50 yards and they had 5 for 50 yards.

And how did the highly-touted Heisman quarterback do? 4 of 14 for 35 yards, an interception, and no touchdowns. He's a running quarterback, dontcha know? He gained -29 net yards on 10 attempts, and coughed up a fumble. Smith was sacked FIVE times for 51 yards. The defense, especially Derrick Harvey, was overpowering.

The Buckeyes 1000-yard rusher was actually pretty solid: Antonio Pittman had 10 carries for 62 yards and a TD. They should've given that guy the ball 30 times, but I guess they felt like they needed to play catch-up. I think that the Buckeyes panicked - they almost never trailed in any game this season, and certainly never had to try to come back from a 20-point halftime deficit.

Well, there it is. A 2006 National Championship under Meyer to accompany our 1996 title under Spurrier. Again, you have to feel good for Chris Leak. He was thrown into the mix as a freshman under Zook, then had to completely shift gears as a Junior when Meyer came in. Maybe he didn't put up Heisman numbers every year, but he gave a solid performance in almost every game. I don't think he was ever given the opportunity to put up the kind of crazy passing stats he could have in a Fun N' Gun style offense. That's kind of a shame, especially when you consider his accuracy and that beautiful spiral he throws. I mean, how often did Leak get to throw a fade? Anyway, under Chris Leak we went 8-5, 7-5, 9-3, 13-1, capped off with SEC and BCS Championships. A great career for a great college quarterback.