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Football
Buckeyes Like Opportunity to Face Gators
By John Porentas
The waiting, speculating, arguing, posturing, politicking and pontificating is over. It will be the Florida Gators in the BCS Championship Game against the Buckeyes on January 8. The Gators nosed out Michigan for that opportunity, moving up two spots in the BCS ranking to move past the Wolverines in the last week of the season while Michigan sat idle, their season completed.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Urban Meyer [/FONT]
Florida Head Coach Urban Meyer is an Ashtabula, Ohio, native and alumnus of Ohio State. Meyer got his masters in sports administration at Ohio State and spent two years on Earle Bruce's Ohio State staff as a grad assistant in 1986 and 87. Meyer was the Head Coach at Bowling Green prior to moving to Utah, then to Florida.
Meyer lobbied publicly and hard to get his team to the championship game. Now that it is there, his rhetoric on the BCS has softened, but he still finds reason for criticism.
"It's an imperfect system," said Meyer.
"I think the people who have been dealt the job to find a national champion, I don't think they'll ever find it because it depends on how the season goes. For the time being I think in the near future you're going to see one. Obviously if you want a true national champion the only way you can do it is on the field," Meyer said still lobbying for a playoff rather than the current BCS system.
Despite his displeasure with the system Meyer and his team are happy to be in the national championship game, and the Buckeyes are pleased to see them there.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Jim Tressel
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Photo by Jim Davidson [/FONT]
"It's extremely exciting to be playing a team from the Southeast Conference, a team like Florida, to go through the conference like they did and then go win the championship game is a tremendous thing on their part. I think it will be a great experience," said OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel.
"There's just something intriguing about playing somebody new," said OSU co-captain and senior defensive tackle David Patterson.
"Whoever they put in front of us we were going to work hard and get prepared to give them a great game. With a team like Florida that we've never played before it's just intriguing. You have the whole bowl practice to work on them. It's a whole new concept, a whole new set of plays that you've never seen before. It's going to be a great challenge," Patterson said.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]David Patterson [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Photo by Jim Davidson[/FONT]
Now that the Buckeyes know who their opponent will be they can begin preparing, but isn't likely to start soon. OSU is in the middle of finals week, so preparations will be put on hold until finals are over and the OSU coaching staff will use then next week to concentrate on recruiting. The Buckeyes have had minimal football activity since the Michigan game.
"We've practiced two days (since Michigan), but for the most part we've been weight lifting, and guys have a lot of finals," said Patterson.
"I had two finals last week. We've been concentrating on school a lot, but we've been getting our lifts in. We really haven't been doing that much practicing.
"We have watched the Michigan film and we broke that down and we just looked back at some games this year to see what we could have done better and just try to improve on things.
"At these practices our coaches have been preaching getting back to our fundamentals, making sure that we were staying low and being in our right gap and block or tackling the right way, because those things are very important. It's just like spring ball when you have time when you're not preparing for any opponent, you just prepare to get yourself better in all the little things," Patterson said.
Buckeyes Like Opportunity to Face Gators
By John Porentas
The waiting, speculating, arguing, posturing, politicking and pontificating is over. It will be the Florida Gators in the BCS Championship Game against the Buckeyes on January 8. The Gators nosed out Michigan for that opportunity, moving up two spots in the BCS ranking to move past the Wolverines in the last week of the season while Michigan sat idle, their season completed.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Urban Meyer [/FONT]
Meyer lobbied publicly and hard to get his team to the championship game. Now that it is there, his rhetoric on the BCS has softened, but he still finds reason for criticism.
"It's an imperfect system," said Meyer.
"I think the people who have been dealt the job to find a national champion, I don't think they'll ever find it because it depends on how the season goes. For the time being I think in the near future you're going to see one. Obviously if you want a true national champion the only way you can do it is on the field," Meyer said still lobbying for a playoff rather than the current BCS system.
Despite his displeasure with the system Meyer and his team are happy to be in the national championship game, and the Buckeyes are pleased to see them there.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Jim Tressel
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Photo by Jim Davidson [/FONT]
"There's just something intriguing about playing somebody new," said OSU co-captain and senior defensive tackle David Patterson.
"Whoever they put in front of us we were going to work hard and get prepared to give them a great game. With a team like Florida that we've never played before it's just intriguing. You have the whole bowl practice to work on them. It's a whole new concept, a whole new set of plays that you've never seen before. It's going to be a great challenge," Patterson said.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]David Patterson [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Photo by Jim Davidson[/FONT]
"We've practiced two days (since Michigan), but for the most part we've been weight lifting, and guys have a lot of finals," said Patterson.
"I had two finals last week. We've been concentrating on school a lot, but we've been getting our lifts in. We really haven't been doing that much practicing.
"We have watched the Michigan film and we broke that down and we just looked back at some games this year to see what we could have done better and just try to improve on things.
"At these practices our coaches have been preaching getting back to our fundamentals, making sure that we were staying low and being in our right gap and block or tackling the right way, because those things are very important. It's just like spring ball when you have time when you're not preparing for any opponent, you just prepare to get yourself better in all the little things," Patterson said.
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OregonBuckeye
Semper Fi Buckeyes
Steve19;677918; said:
That would be great. Especially if it was to another senior like Roy Hall.
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Dispatch
BCS CHAMPIONSHIP
It?s Florida! Gators get go-ahead to play OSU
Monday, December 04, 2006
Ken Gordon
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel abstained from voting for either Michigan or Florida in the final USA Today coaches poll, saying he had too much respect for both programs.
The college football system awarded Ohio State something new yesterday, rather than the same old Maize and Blue.
The Buckeyes will face Florida in the national championship game Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz. The Gators (12-1) surpassed Michigan in the final Bowl Championship Series standings released last night.
OSU (12-0) and Florida have never met, while the Buckeyes defeated Michigan just 16 days ago in a 42-39 thriller.
The Wolverines thought they deserved a rematch, but OSU players stayed out of that debate.
"From my standpoint, it really didn?t matter who we played," said quarterback Troy Smith, whose teammates voted him the Most Valuable Player yesterday. "It?s good knowing who we?re going to play, and (Florida) is definitely a worthy opponent."
This will be the third different No. 2 team the Buckeyes will face this season, after Texas and Michigan.
Florida lost to Auburn earlier in the year but came back to win the Southeastern Conference championship game Saturday. That, coupled with Southern California?s loss to UCLA, was enough to boost the Gators past idle Michigan.
The final pairings were not free of controversy. OSU coach Jim Tressel abstained from voting in the USA Today coaches poll, which makes up one-third of the BCS formula.
His vote would not have made a difference in the outcome, but poll officials were not happy that he abstained.
"The respect I had for Michigan and Florida made it impossible in my mind to make it appropriate to vote," Tressel said.
The Buckeyes are trying for their sixth national championship and their second in five years. Florida has won one title, in 1996.
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BCS CHAMPIONSHIP
It?s Florida! Gators get go-ahead to play OSU
Monday, December 04, 2006
Ken Gordon
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The college football system awarded Ohio State something new yesterday, rather than the same old Maize and Blue.
The Buckeyes will face Florida in the national championship game Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz. The Gators (12-1) surpassed Michigan in the final Bowl Championship Series standings released last night.
OSU (12-0) and Florida have never met, while the Buckeyes defeated Michigan just 16 days ago in a 42-39 thriller.
The Wolverines thought they deserved a rematch, but OSU players stayed out of that debate.
"From my standpoint, it really didn?t matter who we played," said quarterback Troy Smith, whose teammates voted him the Most Valuable Player yesterday. "It?s good knowing who we?re going to play, and (Florida) is definitely a worthy opponent."
This will be the third different No. 2 team the Buckeyes will face this season, after Texas and Michigan.
Florida lost to Auburn earlier in the year but came back to win the Southeastern Conference championship game Saturday. That, coupled with Southern California?s loss to UCLA, was enough to boost the Gators past idle Michigan.
The final pairings were not free of controversy. OSU coach Jim Tressel abstained from voting in the USA Today coaches poll, which makes up one-third of the BCS formula.
His vote would not have made a difference in the outcome, but poll officials were not happy that he abstained.
"The respect I had for Michigan and Florida made it impossible in my mind to make it appropriate to vote," Tressel said.
The Buckeyes are trying for their sixth national championship and their second in five years. Florida has won one title, in 1996.
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Dispatch
Buckeyes seem happy to face somebody different
Monday, December 04, 2006
Ken Gordon
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
KYLE ROBERTSON DISPATCH Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith was all smiles after learning the Buckeyes will play Florida.
They said it didn?t make any difference, but reading between the lines, it was clear Ohio State players were excited to be facing a new challenge rather than an old foe in the national title game.
Florida jumped from fourth to second in the final Bowl Championship Series standings released last night, passing No. 3 Michigan and getting a chance to face No. 1 OSU in the championship game Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz.
The Buckeyes (12-0) and Gators (12-1) have never met. Heading into yesterday, the debate was whether Michigan deserved a rematch with OSU after its 42-39 loss on Nov. 18 in Ohio Stadium.
Voters apparently didn?t think so. The final computer rankings had Florida and Michigan dead even, but the Gators climbed to second in both human polls to win the coveted spot.
"Any team that we played, I think we were going to be ready," defensive tackle David Patterson said. "Some guys wanted to play Michigan again and some guys, it really didn?t matter. For the most part, most guys were just happy to be going to the national championship, no matter who we played."
Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel certainly couldn?t make up his mind. Feeling Michigan and Florida both were equally deserving, he said he felt it would be inappropriate to vote in the USA Today coaches poll.
He abstained, upsetting poll officials. But his vote would have made no difference in the final standings.
Tressel said he thought his players would be fired up to face a new opponent. In fact, none of the current Buckeyes have played any Southeastern Conference teams.
The last time OSU played an SEC team was a 31-28 loss to South Carolina in the 2002 Outback Bowl, in Tressel?s first season. The Buckeyes are 7-9-2 overall against the SEC, including 0-6 since a win over Louisiana State in 1988.
"I know they?re looking forward to this," Tressel said. "To play a team like Florida, to go through the conference they did and then go win the championship game is a tremendous thing on their part. I think it will be a great experience."
Tressel was gracious to Michigan, calling the Wolverines an outstanding football team.
But the Wolverines probably are hopping mad about not getting a rematch. They were No. 3 before the weekend, and the No. 2 team (Southern California) lost and still they are not in the title game.
Asked if this might add to the OSU-Michigan lore, Buckeyes center Doug Datish said, "I think it does in the long run. If you?re writing a good book and you?re kind of leaving it on the edge for your sequel, this is a good way to end this particular chapter. It?s very suspenseful, I think."
Patterson sounded eager to get another chance to dispel the myth of "Southern speed." The stereotype has the Big Ten as more physical and the Florida teams faster.
Despite the fact OSU beat the University of Miami in its last title game in 2003, Patterson knows the perception lingers.
"We want to see just what our speed is," he said. "Everyone always talks about the SEC is pretty fast, and I know we have some pretty fast guys on our team. We have this one guy named Theodore (receiver Ted Ginn Jr.), so it will be interesting."
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Buckeyes seem happy to face somebody different
Monday, December 04, 2006
Ken Gordon
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
They said it didn?t make any difference, but reading between the lines, it was clear Ohio State players were excited to be facing a new challenge rather than an old foe in the national title game.
Florida jumped from fourth to second in the final Bowl Championship Series standings released last night, passing No. 3 Michigan and getting a chance to face No. 1 OSU in the championship game Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz.
The Buckeyes (12-0) and Gators (12-1) have never met. Heading into yesterday, the debate was whether Michigan deserved a rematch with OSU after its 42-39 loss on Nov. 18 in Ohio Stadium.
Voters apparently didn?t think so. The final computer rankings had Florida and Michigan dead even, but the Gators climbed to second in both human polls to win the coveted spot.
"Any team that we played, I think we were going to be ready," defensive tackle David Patterson said. "Some guys wanted to play Michigan again and some guys, it really didn?t matter. For the most part, most guys were just happy to be going to the national championship, no matter who we played."
Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel certainly couldn?t make up his mind. Feeling Michigan and Florida both were equally deserving, he said he felt it would be inappropriate to vote in the USA Today coaches poll.
He abstained, upsetting poll officials. But his vote would have made no difference in the final standings.
Tressel said he thought his players would be fired up to face a new opponent. In fact, none of the current Buckeyes have played any Southeastern Conference teams.
The last time OSU played an SEC team was a 31-28 loss to South Carolina in the 2002 Outback Bowl, in Tressel?s first season. The Buckeyes are 7-9-2 overall against the SEC, including 0-6 since a win over Louisiana State in 1988.
"I know they?re looking forward to this," Tressel said. "To play a team like Florida, to go through the conference they did and then go win the championship game is a tremendous thing on their part. I think it will be a great experience."
Tressel was gracious to Michigan, calling the Wolverines an outstanding football team.
But the Wolverines probably are hopping mad about not getting a rematch. They were No. 3 before the weekend, and the No. 2 team (Southern California) lost and still they are not in the title game.
Asked if this might add to the OSU-Michigan lore, Buckeyes center Doug Datish said, "I think it does in the long run. If you?re writing a good book and you?re kind of leaving it on the edge for your sequel, this is a good way to end this particular chapter. It?s very suspenseful, I think."
Patterson sounded eager to get another chance to dispel the myth of "Southern speed." The stereotype has the Big Ten as more physical and the Florida teams faster.
Despite the fact OSU beat the University of Miami in its last title game in 2003, Patterson knows the perception lingers.
"We want to see just what our speed is," he said. "Everyone always talks about the SEC is pretty fast, and I know we have some pretty fast guys on our team. We have this one guy named Theodore (receiver Ted Ginn Jr.), so it will be interesting."
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Dispatch
Rematch? No thanks, OSU-Florida is best game
Monday, December 04, 2006
ROB OLLER
Michigan is without doubt the second best college football team I watched this season, which is why Florida should play Ohio State for the national championship.
If my No. 2 couldn?t beat the Buckeyes, then give my No. 3 a shot.
The voters and computerized numbers crunchers agree, having vaulted the Gators past the Wolverines into the second spot behind OSU in the final BCS rankings released last night.
So it will be the orange and blue instead of the maize and blue playing the Buckeyes on Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz. For all the marbles.
As for Michigan, Lloyd Carr will take his effervescent personality to the Rose Bowl, not a bad booby prize, but also not a PlayStation 3 waiting to be opened Christmas morning.
The Wolverines will wail and howl about the unfairness of it all, of course, and rightfully so.
"We won our games more impressively than did Florida," they will argue, slamming fists on tables.
And they are correct.
"Our one loss is a better loss than Florida?s one loss," they will shout, throwing their M caps on the ground while stomping around.
And they are right.
But if I had a vote, I would still leave them out of the title game, not because I detest rematches ? Ali-Frazier and Affirmed-Alydar, after all, were well worth the price of admission ? but because Michigan didn?t take care of business on Nov. 18 in Ohio Stadium when it had the chance.
You lose once, that?s it. At least according to Bo Schembechler, who expressed his disdain for a rematch four days before his death on Nov. 17.
"Once you beat a team, it?s over," he huffed. "If you?re a loser, of course you want to play those guys again. But I would not be in favor of that under any circumstances."
Despite Bo?s bristling, there remains for me a dilemma. If the intent of the BCS is to pair the two best teams, and if I think Ohio State is No. 1 and Michigan No. 2, how can I justify thinking Florida should play for the national championship?
The explanation rests in the hijacking of the BCS goal. It turns out that selecting the best two teams is not as important as selecting the best matchup. The poll voters, who make up two-thirds of the concoction that is the BCS ratings, already know what Ohio State-Michigan looks like. The better matchup, based on intrigue, is Ohio State-Florida.
Make no mistake that many and probably most of the poll voters think Michigan would defeat Florida if the two teams played next week, but those voters still chose to send Florida to Glendale. Some scuttled their logic because the thought of an Ohio State-Michigan rematch turns their stomach. Some thought a rematch would be unfair to the Buckeyes. Others followed my rationale, bumping Florida ahead of the Wolverines because the Gators deserve a shot at the Buckeyes more than Michigan deserves a second chance.
Regardless of the reasoning, it is voter opinion that is flying Florida to the desert. If objective results are more your thing, then ponder this. Michigan and Florida tied in the computer portion of the BCS ratings, so let them settle it on the field. Play the game two weeks from now at a neutral site. Winner gets Ohio State. Loser goes to the Rose Bowl. There would still be plenty of time to prepare for the Buckeyes, who themselves would gain minimal edge, not knowing which opponent they would be playing.
In some ways, a more practical approach would have been for Michigan and Florida to meet in one of the four BCS games, then play OSU a week later; the early smell of a future playoff system in which No. 1 faces No. 4 and No. 2 faces No. 3. That setup would be unfair to the Ohio State opponent, given a one-week recovery time. But I have a funny feeling Michigan would be in favor.
Rob Oller is a sports reporter for The Dis patch .
Rematch? No thanks, OSU-Florida is best game
Monday, December 04, 2006
ROB OLLER
Michigan is without doubt the second best college football team I watched this season, which is why Florida should play Ohio State for the national championship.
If my No. 2 couldn?t beat the Buckeyes, then give my No. 3 a shot.
The voters and computerized numbers crunchers agree, having vaulted the Gators past the Wolverines into the second spot behind OSU in the final BCS rankings released last night.
So it will be the orange and blue instead of the maize and blue playing the Buckeyes on Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz. For all the marbles.
As for Michigan, Lloyd Carr will take his effervescent personality to the Rose Bowl, not a bad booby prize, but also not a PlayStation 3 waiting to be opened Christmas morning.
The Wolverines will wail and howl about the unfairness of it all, of course, and rightfully so.
"We won our games more impressively than did Florida," they will argue, slamming fists on tables.
And they are correct.
"Our one loss is a better loss than Florida?s one loss," they will shout, throwing their M caps on the ground while stomping around.
And they are right.
But if I had a vote, I would still leave them out of the title game, not because I detest rematches ? Ali-Frazier and Affirmed-Alydar, after all, were well worth the price of admission ? but because Michigan didn?t take care of business on Nov. 18 in Ohio Stadium when it had the chance.
You lose once, that?s it. At least according to Bo Schembechler, who expressed his disdain for a rematch four days before his death on Nov. 17.
"Once you beat a team, it?s over," he huffed. "If you?re a loser, of course you want to play those guys again. But I would not be in favor of that under any circumstances."
Despite Bo?s bristling, there remains for me a dilemma. If the intent of the BCS is to pair the two best teams, and if I think Ohio State is No. 1 and Michigan No. 2, how can I justify thinking Florida should play for the national championship?
The explanation rests in the hijacking of the BCS goal. It turns out that selecting the best two teams is not as important as selecting the best matchup. The poll voters, who make up two-thirds of the concoction that is the BCS ratings, already know what Ohio State-Michigan looks like. The better matchup, based on intrigue, is Ohio State-Florida.
Make no mistake that many and probably most of the poll voters think Michigan would defeat Florida if the two teams played next week, but those voters still chose to send Florida to Glendale. Some scuttled their logic because the thought of an Ohio State-Michigan rematch turns their stomach. Some thought a rematch would be unfair to the Buckeyes. Others followed my rationale, bumping Florida ahead of the Wolverines because the Gators deserve a shot at the Buckeyes more than Michigan deserves a second chance.
Regardless of the reasoning, it is voter opinion that is flying Florida to the desert. If objective results are more your thing, then ponder this. Michigan and Florida tied in the computer portion of the BCS ratings, so let them settle it on the field. Play the game two weeks from now at a neutral site. Winner gets Ohio State. Loser goes to the Rose Bowl. There would still be plenty of time to prepare for the Buckeyes, who themselves would gain minimal edge, not knowing which opponent they would be playing.
In some ways, a more practical approach would have been for Michigan and Florida to meet in one of the four BCS games, then play OSU a week later; the early smell of a future playoff system in which No. 1 faces No. 4 and No. 2 faces No. 3. That setup would be unfair to the Ohio State opponent, given a one-week recovery time. But I have a funny feeling Michigan would be in favor.
Rob Oller is a sports reporter for The Dis patch .
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Dispatch
Florida perseveres to reach title game
Monday, December 04, 2006
Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Florida rose through the smoke of an embattled Bowl Championship Series ratings system yesterday to challenge Ohio State for the national championship.
And as Florida coach Urban Meyer told reporters in Gainesville, Fla., he hoped the battle waged off the field with Michigan for the right to take on the Buckeyes doesn?t take away from what his team ? fresh off a Southeastern Conference championship game victory over Arkansas the night before ? has accomplished.
"What gets lost in the shuffle in all the discussion and debate is a group of players who won their conference championship and who played 13 games and won 12," Meyer told The Tampa Tribune. "A bunch of guys went through a lot of stuff in the last four or five years. To see them make it to a championship game is well deserved, and I?m proud of them."
They went through a coaching change. They moved from Ron Zook, fired in the midst of the 2004 season, to Meyer, hired away from Utah in 2005 after guiding the Utes to an unbeaten season that climaxed with a win over Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl. It marked the first appearance by a team from a non-BCS conference ? Utah is in the Mountain West ? in a BCS bowl.
Now Meyer, in his second season at Florida, has the Gators playing for their second national championship. He has guided a team that had a couple of major injuries early, and somewhat of a quarterback quandary throughout (playing senior Chris Leak and freshman Tim Tebow) to the brink of the ultimate prize.
OSU quarterback Troy Smith isn?t surprised. He said last night that even though OSU and Florida have never met on the field, he and Meyer have met face to face. Asked what came to mind when Meyer?s name was mentioned, "The first thing for me would be Bowling Green, because that?s where I met him."
Meyer ? a native of Ashtabula, Ohio, whose first graduate assistant coaching job was at OSU in 1986 and ?87 ? tried to recruit Smith to his shotgun option system five years ago at BG before taking the act to Utah. Smith opted to sign with Ohio State, but Meyer made an impression.
"Obviously, he is a great football mind," Smith said. "He does great things with his program and he is going to continue to grow as a coach, I believe."
Not that Smith was surprised by how far Meyer already has come.
"I believe good things happen to good people," Smith said. "He came off to me as a great person, and I am sure this is why the positive things are happening to him."
Things weren?t so positive after Florida lost 27-17 at Auburn on Oct. 14. That?s when the doubts started about whether the Gators were deserving, even though they did finish with six straight wins, including the 38-28 victory over Arkansas on Saturday night.
But that game also highlighted at times how good the Gators can be when things are going right. They blocked a punt, they scored on a muffed punt recovery in the end zone, they picked off two passes in the fourth quarter, and they even scored on a textbook shotgun-option, 67-yard run up the middle by receiver Percy Harvin that broke Arkansas? back.
All along, "We felt like we had a good team," Meyer said.
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Florida perseveres to reach title game
Monday, December 04, 2006
Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Florida rose through the smoke of an embattled Bowl Championship Series ratings system yesterday to challenge Ohio State for the national championship.
And as Florida coach Urban Meyer told reporters in Gainesville, Fla., he hoped the battle waged off the field with Michigan for the right to take on the Buckeyes doesn?t take away from what his team ? fresh off a Southeastern Conference championship game victory over Arkansas the night before ? has accomplished.
"What gets lost in the shuffle in all the discussion and debate is a group of players who won their conference championship and who played 13 games and won 12," Meyer told The Tampa Tribune. "A bunch of guys went through a lot of stuff in the last four or five years. To see them make it to a championship game is well deserved, and I?m proud of them."
They went through a coaching change. They moved from Ron Zook, fired in the midst of the 2004 season, to Meyer, hired away from Utah in 2005 after guiding the Utes to an unbeaten season that climaxed with a win over Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl. It marked the first appearance by a team from a non-BCS conference ? Utah is in the Mountain West ? in a BCS bowl.
Now Meyer, in his second season at Florida, has the Gators playing for their second national championship. He has guided a team that had a couple of major injuries early, and somewhat of a quarterback quandary throughout (playing senior Chris Leak and freshman Tim Tebow) to the brink of the ultimate prize.
OSU quarterback Troy Smith isn?t surprised. He said last night that even though OSU and Florida have never met on the field, he and Meyer have met face to face. Asked what came to mind when Meyer?s name was mentioned, "The first thing for me would be Bowling Green, because that?s where I met him."
Meyer ? a native of Ashtabula, Ohio, whose first graduate assistant coaching job was at OSU in 1986 and ?87 ? tried to recruit Smith to his shotgun option system five years ago at BG before taking the act to Utah. Smith opted to sign with Ohio State, but Meyer made an impression.
"Obviously, he is a great football mind," Smith said. "He does great things with his program and he is going to continue to grow as a coach, I believe."
Not that Smith was surprised by how far Meyer already has come.
"I believe good things happen to good people," Smith said. "He came off to me as a great person, and I am sure this is why the positive things are happening to him."
Things weren?t so positive after Florida lost 27-17 at Auburn on Oct. 14. That?s when the doubts started about whether the Gators were deserving, even though they did finish with six straight wins, including the 38-28 victory over Arkansas on Saturday night.
But that game also highlighted at times how good the Gators can be when things are going right. They blocked a punt, they scored on a muffed punt recovery in the end zone, they picked off two passes in the fourth quarter, and they even scored on a textbook shotgun-option, 67-yard run up the middle by receiver Percy Harvin that broke Arkansas? back.
All along, "We felt like we had a good team," Meyer said.
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Dublin Buckeyes
All-American
I couldn't be more excited. As a Florida student and a lifelong OSU fan from Ohio, I've already won the national championship game.
Very exciting!!!!!!!
Booking a flight now!
Very exciting!!!!!!!
Booking a flight now!
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I think we sell Florida short when we suggest they don't have the athletes to cover us on D. Experience and health may be issues - but not athleticism.
But I think Florida may underestimate our ability to pound the ball - not exclusively, but enough to open up the pass. Our linemen on the left side are both 6'8" and go over 325 - and can move. Pittman and Wells compliment each other and can pound the ball. Wells is an absolute beast. I love to watch McFadden - but he can't touch Wells for pure power running and he is just now hitting his stride. You have some of the fastest LBs I have seen. But you may need more than just speed at times.
Add to that Troy Smith. He is the Heisman candidate for a reason. It is not just his ability to pass or to run - but five years experience and ability to pick D's apart with absolute poise. Whether you focus on stopping our run or stopping our pass Troy will exploit what you leave open.
Not flaming, but Leak has never impressed me with his poise. I swear I have actually seen the kid flinch a few times when he was about to get hit. You will burn us with your speed a few times, but you can't afford any wounded ducks - and I have seen 'em from Leak.
And of course, you will have to cover ALL of our receivers - just like we will have to cover ALL of yours. No hiding shaky DBs in this game.
The hallmarks of the OSU D since JT has been here are that they 1) hit and 2) play their assignments. Not suggesting that a team which beat LSU doesn't know how to play physical football, but there will be some pops. And we are deeeeep - as many as 10 players in the DL rotation. And in the Texas game we used an entirely different OL on the third series of the game - did that pretty much all year. I know you guys are banged up but I don't know how deep you will be by the time we match up.
Most non-OSU fans judge our D by the Michigan game. We gave up 30 points more than our average in that game. That IMO had more to do with Michigan power than Michigan speed. We match up better with a fast team than a powerful team right now IMO.
All that said, this will certainly be a competitive matchup and you can't overlook coaching. There was actually a small and ill advised movement at one point to move JT to AD and hire Meyer - so there is no shortage of respect on this end. But JT has the advantage of preparing for his sixth NC. He knows the routine. And what Meyer will see on film may bear no resemblance to what we do on the field.
Meyer will have a great game plan, no doubt. But will his players be at the right emotional level for this kind of game? Will they be too loose or too tight? Will they practice too hard or not hard enough? Will all those young players be ready to play under this kind of pressure?
Finally, I think your biggest advantage may be that you played two weeks longer than we did. This is an awfully long layoff. It sure didn't help the Detroit Tigers.
In any case, it's gonna be fun.
Tell us more about your OL and DL.
But I think Florida may underestimate our ability to pound the ball - not exclusively, but enough to open up the pass. Our linemen on the left side are both 6'8" and go over 325 - and can move. Pittman and Wells compliment each other and can pound the ball. Wells is an absolute beast. I love to watch McFadden - but he can't touch Wells for pure power running and he is just now hitting his stride. You have some of the fastest LBs I have seen. But you may need more than just speed at times.
Add to that Troy Smith. He is the Heisman candidate for a reason. It is not just his ability to pass or to run - but five years experience and ability to pick D's apart with absolute poise. Whether you focus on stopping our run or stopping our pass Troy will exploit what you leave open.
Not flaming, but Leak has never impressed me with his poise. I swear I have actually seen the kid flinch a few times when he was about to get hit. You will burn us with your speed a few times, but you can't afford any wounded ducks - and I have seen 'em from Leak.
And of course, you will have to cover ALL of our receivers - just like we will have to cover ALL of yours. No hiding shaky DBs in this game.
The hallmarks of the OSU D since JT has been here are that they 1) hit and 2) play their assignments. Not suggesting that a team which beat LSU doesn't know how to play physical football, but there will be some pops. And we are deeeeep - as many as 10 players in the DL rotation. And in the Texas game we used an entirely different OL on the third series of the game - did that pretty much all year. I know you guys are banged up but I don't know how deep you will be by the time we match up.
Most non-OSU fans judge our D by the Michigan game. We gave up 30 points more than our average in that game. That IMO had more to do with Michigan power than Michigan speed. We match up better with a fast team than a powerful team right now IMO.
All that said, this will certainly be a competitive matchup and you can't overlook coaching. There was actually a small and ill advised movement at one point to move JT to AD and hire Meyer - so there is no shortage of respect on this end. But JT has the advantage of preparing for his sixth NC. He knows the routine. And what Meyer will see on film may bear no resemblance to what we do on the field.
Meyer will have a great game plan, no doubt. But will his players be at the right emotional level for this kind of game? Will they be too loose or too tight? Will they practice too hard or not hard enough? Will all those young players be ready to play under this kind of pressure?
Finally, I think your biggest advantage may be that you played two weeks longer than we did. This is an awfully long layoff. It sure didn't help the Detroit Tigers.
In any case, it's gonna be fun.
Tell us more about your OL and DL.
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OregonBuckeye
Semper Fi Buckeyes
Dublin Buckeyes;677949; said:
See, if Oregon played Ohio St. in the NC game I'd hate/love it. It'd be great to see my 2 favorite teams in the NC game but it'd also suck to know one of them would have to lose in such a big game. I'd obviously root for the Buckeyes with every ounce of passion I have in my body but it would hurt to see the Ducks lose.
So, who are you going to pull for, the gators or bucks?
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cincibuck
You kids stay off my lawn!
Enjoying the conversation with the Gator fans. I have four nieces who graduated from Gainesville, so I'm going to catch a ration of shit before kick off.
It looks to me as though these two teams match up well and those Ohio State fans who point fingers at the South Carolina game seem to have forgotten the Buck's game at Illinois.
If I were to pick one factor that favors OSU it would be Troy Smith. He can kill you with his feet, or his arm, or both. He's not the game breaking runner that Vince Young was, but he certainly knows when to buy time or take off. He's a much better passer than VY (and he has better receivers). If this were baseball you'd have to say he has them all: fastball, curve, change. He has a cannon, he's amazingly accurate on the deep ball and then he can kill you with his touch on end zone and over the middle routes. He seldom tries to force a ball and he's proven time and time again that he can take a hit. He plays with a ton of courage and confidence and that just seems to affect the rest of the team, offense and defense.
If I were to pick one factor that scares the hell out of me in this game it is the number of times the Buckeyes put the ball on the ground. Two years in a row they should have killed Michigan, but put the game into a could-have-gone-either-way category. They made last year's Fiesta Bowl interesting for a while with turnovers. If they hold onto the ball in this game you gator fans could be in for a long day.
It looks to me as though these two teams match up well and those Ohio State fans who point fingers at the South Carolina game seem to have forgotten the Buck's game at Illinois.
If I were to pick one factor that favors OSU it would be Troy Smith. He can kill you with his feet, or his arm, or both. He's not the game breaking runner that Vince Young was, but he certainly knows when to buy time or take off. He's a much better passer than VY (and he has better receivers). If this were baseball you'd have to say he has them all: fastball, curve, change. He has a cannon, he's amazingly accurate on the deep ball and then he can kill you with his touch on end zone and over the middle routes. He seldom tries to force a ball and he's proven time and time again that he can take a hit. He plays with a ton of courage and confidence and that just seems to affect the rest of the team, offense and defense.
If I were to pick one factor that scares the hell out of me in this game it is the number of times the Buckeyes put the ball on the ground. Two years in a row they should have killed Michigan, but put the game into a could-have-gone-either-way category. They made last year's Fiesta Bowl interesting for a while with turnovers. If they hold onto the ball in this game you gator fans could be in for a long day.
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JoJaBuckeye
First we take Michigan--then the whole world!
osugrad21;677929; said:
Which begs the question, has any team ever dispatched 3 No. 2's in an entire regular season/bowl series before?
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Been addressed several times. Do a search. I'd do it for you, but I'm lazy.JoJaBuckeye;677978; said:
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I don't quite understand what argument you're attempting to make here, because Pittman and Wells are each individually better than Kenny Irons. As a pair, the two Akron products are one of the best one-two RB punches since Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown.dingyibvs;677841; said:
Pittman's numbers have been statistically superior to Irons's for two straight seasons now.
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bkochmc
Assistant Coach
Correct... and the stats to back up your argument:Dryden;678011; said:
Antonio Pittman
YEAR ATT YDS AVG LNG TD
2005 243 1331 5.5 67 07
2006 232 1171 5.0 56 13
Kenny Irons
YEAR ATT YDS AVG LNG TD
2005 256 1293 5.1 74 13
2006 174 0821 4.7 58 04
For argument's sake, expand Kenny's carries out to 245 for comparable numbers to Pittman (Pittman had 9 less carries this year, give Kenny 9 less since their attempts were almost the same)... at that average he gets 1151 yards and 6-8 touchdowns, still not as many as Pittman. Pittman is more productive but since he is not the most explosive player on his team he is not noticed as much.
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