A tale of two championship games

Actually, more like a few random observations from two games that were a blast to watch for totally different reasons.

• Herbstreit, of all people, made an excellent point about the ‘Bama, Florida and Oklahoma offenses last night.  The Tide and the Gators sought to impose their will on each other like, to use the most overworked analogy of the week, two heavyweight prize fighters.  Oklahoma’s offense, on the other hand, is all about jiu-jitsu – line up, wait for the defense to align and then use what is left exposed against it.  Is that a difference in offensive philosophies, or the result of what defenses are like in the SEC versus the Big XII?
• And the Dawgnation had a single thought watching Arenas field that heading-out-of-bounds kickoff:  why couldn’t that have happened in a Georgia game?
• Both Florida and Oklahoma were missing a big time skill position player for their games.  It didn’t matter for either team, as the quarterbacks picked up the slack nicely.  Bradford’s had an awesome season, both statistically and in the won-loss department.  But after watching the SECCG, were I a Heisman voter, I’d have a hard time not voting for Tebow.  He carried that team in crunch time yesterday and by any reasonable measure was the difference.
• Speaking of quarterbacks, one of this season’s little mysteries for me is how someone with Chase Daniel’s completion percentage could throw as many interceptions as he has.
• I was really hoping after that sideline infraction penalty on Meyer that somehow ‘Bama would keep the Gators out of the end zone, force a field goal and then march back down the field for a score.  It would have made for a great post game presser.  No such luck, though.
• It probably gets lost in the wake of five straight 60 points or more performances by the Sooner offense, but as Doc Saturday points out, it’s not like Oklahoma’s been too shabby on the defensive side of the ball of late.
• The smartest thing the Gator coaches did yesterday?  They remained mindful of the fact that Alabama, for all of its success this year, is not a particularly deep team.  Florida flat wore the Tide out in the fourth quarter with those long drives.
• A month ’til the BCS title game presumably means there’s enough time for Murray and Harvin to heal.  That’s a good thing.  If I had to pick a winner right now, Stoops’ recent postseason record and Tebow’s will to win would push me to say Florida.

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And up the road from the Georgia Dome…

they had a good practice up in Athens yesterday, where, according to Richt, the players “got after it”.

I just wish the coaches would stop talking to the press sometimes, though.  There’s too much of a risk that I’ll want to bang my head against the wall after reading some of it.  Here’s a quote from Tony Ball:

“I think what you saw today was the result of most of us being gone this week,” Ball said. “Guys are still not doing the little things. It’s creating an environment of what it takes to be a major college player. The environment that we expect and that you have to have to compete in this conference. That’s what you saw, and that’s the way it should be. Some of these guys still don’t understand what it takes and you can’t expect them to know until we show them.” [Emphasis added.]

Nice of the coaches to get around to showing them, I guess.

At this point, I’m not sure what would be more frustrating to see in the bowl game – the same old stuff that’s plagued this team all season, or a marked improvement.