NBC2 SPORTS BLOG – GATORS (are) WIN(ning) ... This one’s all over
“The sun has gone down and the moon has come up… and long ago somebody left with the Cup” -- from Cake’s “The Distance”
As I begin to write this posting, the Florida Gators lead Ohio State 41-14 with 10:00 left in the National Championship game.
Journalistically speaking, I should probably wait until the end of the game before trying to sum things up… but this one’s in the books. The improbable run through the SEC spearheaded by a maligned QB and a coach with one year of major college football coaching experience is complete. The Florida Gators are going to be National Champions.
Argue all you want they didn’t deserve to be there in the first place… they proved on the field they most certainly did. By the way, please remind the Gator-haters that Florida was one terrible call in the Auburn game (the Leak non-fumble late in the game deep in Auburn’s end) from going undefeated.
With 10 still to go, Ohio State’s offense that averaged 410 yards this season has a total of 84. I can’t see much changing between now and the final gun to change the fact that the Florida Gators out-prepared, out-worked and out-executed Ohio State for the final 59:44 of the BCS Championship Game.
After Ohio State’s Ted Ginn knocked the Gators to the canvas by returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown, it was all Gators. Had it not been for that one glitch, Florida’s holding Ohio State to 7 points would have been considered one of the most impressive feats in Gator football history.
It did help that Ginn was injured in the first half. QB Troy Smith may have won the Heisman, but Ted Ginn was the Buckeyes offensive sparkplug. Smith appearing to be lost once Ginn left Monday’s title game proves the point. Unless he catches fire in the final minutes, the Heisman winner will end this game with no more than 5 or 6 completions. That’s unthinkable.
Florida’s glorious night will be perfectly illustrated in a photo you’ll probably see on sports pages and websites across the nation Tuesday: Florida senior LB Earl Everett sacking Smith in the 3rd quarter despite Everett having lost his helmet earlier in the play.
That one photo will symbolize how the entire night … maybe even the entire season … went for the Gators. Down… but not out. Seemingly out of contention… but charging back into the fight.
Florida becomes the first school in NCAA history to hold both the basketball and football National Championships. The block parties are going to be pretty interesting in one Gainesville neighborhood where Urban Meyer and Billy Donovan live four houses apart.
Gator fans should take a step back and give a lot of credit to UF Athletic Director Jeremy Foley. Not only is the UF Athletic Department one of the most well-run and progressive departments in college sports, it’s also one of the most successful. Foley is the man responsible for bringing Donovan and Meyer to town at points in both programs’ history where they weren’t the giants they now appear. Both had success in the past, but as Donovan and Meyer took over their respective programs, the Gators were on the downswing.
Each not only revived the program, rebuilt the recruiting pipelines and instilled a sense of pride in Gator Nation. They delivered National Championships.
Then there’s Chris Leak…
I could write an entire article on the collegiate journey of Chris Leak. Hailed as a prospect, Leak endured some major peaks-and-valleys as he made his way from his freshman season to the BCS game Monday night. Talent aside, Leak seems like a good kid. His work ethic has never been questioned and he handled the aforementioned valleys with class and character. Anything before Monday night was rendered moot after his game-of-a-lifetime performance against Ohio State. Leak was confident, precise, focused, ruthless, loose… all words you may not have hung on him in after some of his past performances.
If he’s not the MVP of this game, nobody should be. Leak may not go on to make much noise in the NFL, but he stepped up in heroic fashion in what may end up being the biggest game of his life.
Looking ahead, Leak’s graduation hardly leaves the cupboards bare. Tim Tebow and 12 other true freshmen return next year to try to add a third title to the Gator football trophy case. Gator fans should celebrate tonight not just for the win that the team is about to earn… but for the white-hot future they seem destined to have in front of them. Here’s hoping Southwest Florida’s own Markihe Anderson, Chevon Walker and Wondy Pierre-Louis, all non-playing members of this title-winning team, find their way into the spotlight down the road.
As I glance up from the computer screen - Urban Meyer just took the Gatorade shower, Chris Leak just knelt on the ball and the Gators are flooding the field as National Champions for the second time.
Streamers and confetti rain down on the Gators, and they’ll have their hands on the crystal football in just a few minutes.
The Florida Gators are the National Champions.
Honestly, who really thought thought this was possible?
At the start of the season, few thought any team would survive the tough SEC without too much damage to crack the polls and computer rankings. Even after Florida passed the conference trial, few thought they’d have the poll and computer pull to make it into the title game. Heck, even once they got there, fewer still thought they’d be able to beat Ohio State. In fact, that last hurdle - beating the mighty Buckeyes - might have been viewed as the toughest to clear of them all.
So much for that… they did it in a blowout.
I can’t think of anybody who could possibly have thought 41-14 Gators was the way it would wrap up. Then again… Earl Everett, Chris Leak, Urban Meyer and Jeremy Foley might have thought it was possible. They just needed the chance to prove it to everyone.
Done and done.
CLICK HERE for the boxscore of the BCS Championship Game
