Florida Swamping

As it stands right now, there is about eight and a half minutes remaining in the BCS National Championship. With Ohio State running it up the middle on third and long, they've just told the world they're done. No kidding. The Buckeyes were done out of the tunnel. Ted Ginn, Jr.'s 93=yard kick return on the opening kickoff was a fluke it seems in hindsight. The Florida Gators are going to win the National Championship going away. Thank God we had to wait 50 days for this. As a fan of neither squad, I was just hoping for a good football game. No dice. Florida was good, yes, they were very good, but Ohio State was terrible. In every aspect of the game, they were dominated. They rolled over and gave up in the second quarter. Of the National Championship. C'mon now. Florida just killed the clock, by the way and it's over.

All we heard for the weeks leading up to this was how great Troy Smith was. Yeh, well, he went 4 of 14 for 36 yards and a pick. Fantastic. Jim Tressel, supposedly one of the best coaches in the nation, which he is. Not tonight. Going for it on fourth and short on his own 35 with his team down 10 points in the second quarter. That was basically the game right there, as Florida piled on 10 more points after that to take the 20 point lead into halftime. Sure, people thought Florida could take Ohio State. I don't think anyone saw a blow out. And they shouldn't have really. The ones who took Florida, and the ones who took Ohio State for that matter, actually thought the Buckeyes would show up. That didn't happen though obviously.

While we're at it, this one was very reminiscent of the Rose Bowl in which a favored Michigan squad got picked apart by USC. Which leads me to this conclusion. Get over the Big Ten. The fact that the Buckeyes got dump-trucked, should even further quiet those who were advocates of a Ohio State-Michigan rematch. It would have been a better game, sure. It just wouldn't have been a National Championship. Not even close really. It's interesting to look at in hindsight, how much more impressive a one-loss record in the SEC is than an undefeated record in the Big Ten. Florida played the likes of LSU, Arkansas, Alabama,the list goes on. Ohio State? Michigan State, Indiana, Northwestern. Even the Pac-10 looks really strong compared to the Big Ten. Which I believe is one of the reasons, USC made taking out Michigan look so easy.

Where do things go from here? Well, Troy Smith will probably still be projected higher in the draft than Chris Leak. Ted Ginn, Jr. will still be a first round pick. And Florida has got to be excited about having Tim Tebow for at least two more years. Don't see much change there, but I'm not really a big talent evaluator, nor have I ever claimed to be.

But if I'm Ohio State and fatigue is Florida right now, it's about time for me to run it up the middle on third and long, and call it a night. But hey, at least it I made it seem like I showed up ready to write for longer than Ohio State showed they were ready to play.

Night kids. -MC