2009 BCS Championship - Florida vs. Oklahoma | Documented Sports Handicapping

2009 BCS Championship - Florida vs. Oklahoma

The game we have all been waiting for is upon us. Florida Gators vs. Oklahoma Sooners in Miami, who will be this year’s national champion? Who is the best team in college football? Well a winner will be decided Thursday night but could we possibly have a year where the #1 team in the land isn’t debated? It’s very unlikely considering Texas come from behind win last night. Texas feels they should be in the BCS Championship and so does undefeated Utah. Surely we aren’t the BCS but the Documented Handicappers will break down the national championship game for all fans and sports investors alike.

The biggest question among media and college football fans heading into Thursday night is how will this year’s Heisman winner Sam Bradford matchup against last year’s Heisman winner (this year’s runner up) Tim Tebow? Now we all know there are other play makers on both teams but the QB is what makes both teams tick. In recent bowl games Heisman winners have not been as successful as they were in the regular season. Last year Tim Tebow and the Gators lost to Michigan. 2006 winner Troy Smith was stopped in his tracks when the Florida Gators beat Ohio State 41-14. In 2005 Reggie Bush and the USC Trojans lost in nail bitter to Vince Young and Texas, 41-38. And we can’t forget Jason White’s 2003 performance against LSU. If recent history holds true this Thursday, Sam Bradford and Oklahoma might be in trouble.

We often forget how much a factor the time off between the end of the conference championship games and the BCS bowl games. It has been over a month since each team has played in their conference championships, which team will have used the time wisely and to their advantage is the question? The time off will typically slow the hot team causing rust and leaving teammates out of sync. If either team is able to put points on the board their first possession, this may very well give the team a leg up and sense of cohesiveness the rest of the game.

All though defense is rarely talked about in college football, we all know defense wins championships. A question arising this postseason is did the Big 12 teams offesense overshadow the poor defenses? Texas Tech played zero defense and got beat by Ole Miss. Missouri squeezed out a victory against Northwestern by playing poorly on offense and minimal defense. Oklahoma State got rolled over by Oregon in the Holiday bowl. The reason you ask, terrible defense. Florida’s defense is very young but very athletic. The Gators secondary hasn’t allowed more than two touchdowns in any game this year and hasn’t given up a 300 yard passing day either. If Florida’s defense can just slow down the explosive Oklahoma offense the Gators will win this game because we can pretty much assure ourselves Florida will score on Oklahoma’s defense.

With the loss of OU star RB DeMarco Murray the Sooners will have to fill this hole with other talent. This shouldn’t be too big a problem considering they are loaded with talent at the RB position. It is on special teams that his impact will be missed the most. Murray averaged close to 28 yards per kickoff return. To compensate for this loss OU’s coverage teams, punt return team and punting game must play their best game. Flip the coin and Florida may have one of the best special teams in America. Advantage Florida.

Granite both teams will be fired up for this game. Both conferences have very strong winning traditions. Both teams and conferences want the bragging rights of winning the national championship. The question will remain as to which team will be able to better handle the hype, media and jitters that come with playing in this game. Florida was here two years ago with Tebow sharing time at QB. Tebow wants to win a championship he can call his own. Florida should be better prepared for all of the variables that go along with this game. We like Florida to walk away Thursday night as the 2009 BCS National Champion.

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Tags: 2009 BCS Championship, Big 12, College Football Championship, Florida, Oklahoma, SEC

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 2:50 pm and is filed under College Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2009 BCS Championship - Florida vs. Oklahoma

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