BCS Championship: Battle of the 2 offensives
The BCS title game features the highest-scoring offense of all-time against one of the most unique
BY JAKE TROTTER
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95
Published: December 21, 2008
Sam Bradford at the Big 12 Championship game in Kansas City. Photo by Chris Landsberger.
NORMAN — During the Big 12 Championship, Missouri receiver Jeremy Maclin, a connoisseur of awesome offense, watched Oklahoma with admiration.
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"Five straight games of 60 points? Are you kidding me? That offense is unbelievable,” Maclin said. "Coach (Kevin) Wilson, their offensive coordinator, does a great job coming up with new schemes to keep defenses off-guard.”
But while OU used an array of weapons and schemes against his Tiger defensive teammates, the element that impressed Maclin most was the speed at which OU snapped the ball.
"I’ve never seen anything like it, them being that fast-paced,” Maclin said. "I think that has a lot to do with their success. We try to run a little fastball, but it’s not nearly as fast as their fastball is.”
In the BCS National Championship, Fastball meets Powerball in a matchup featuring two offenses college football has never seen before.
While Wilson has utilized a fast-break attack to keep defenses on their heels,
Florida has unleashed Powerball, a different kind of weapon over the last three seasons that continues to overwhelm opposing defenses.
That weapon is
Tim Tebow, who throws like a drop-back quarterback but runs like an
NFL fullback.
OU coach
Bob Stoops was asked if he has a player on his roster who might be able to run a scout-team version of Tebow to go against the Sooner defense.
"Maybe
Matt Clapp,” Stoops said of his 235-pound fullback. "We need a big physical guy.
"But I don’t think Matt can throw very well. In fact, I know he can’t.”
The result of these innovative offenses has been staggering, record-setting numbers.
The
Sooners became the first team in
NCAA history to score more than 700 points, culminating with five straight 60-point efforts to close the season.
And no team in the postwar era has averaged more points per game than OU.
Tebow, meanwhile, has accounted for 98 total touchdowns over the last two seasons, including 58 last year, breaking the
SEC records for both rushing touchdowns and total touchdowns accounted for in a single season.
After a slow start to 2008, Tebow returned to his old self, producing 16 touchdowns over Florida’s last three games.
"I think, being a QB, being a decision-maker, being the leader of the team, I’ve had a better season,” he said. "As a playmaker making plays, maybe not.
"But everything else, for sure.”
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Talk about OU playing Chattanooga, how about Florida playing the Citadel?
Seriously, get in touch with reality and understand the sport a little bit. That is the first game of the season. OU is running a new offense. Bradford has just 1 season of experience. You have to get your guys snaps and develop them. Especially early in the season. If it was late in the season you might have a point. Even though it's one 11 yard pass(big deal). But it's the first game.
2008 4th quarter points scored by Texas: 115
Eliminate the points scored in the 4th quarter of close games to be fair to both teams:
Texas: OU, OSU, TxTech = 29
Oklahoma: Texas, OSU = 31
4th quarter points scored when the game was no longer in doubt...
Texas: 86
Oklahoma: 62
Note: OU played one more game than Texas
This is not to show that Texas runs up the score, it's just to show that there is very little evidence that points to OU running up the score. How does reality taste Hugh?
"Sam Bradford pass complete to Jermaine Gresham for 11 yards to the Okla 43 for a 1ST down." Does that say when the score was 50-2 late in the 4th Quarter Bradford was still playing? Must be a mistake...is OU's backup named Bradford as well? Yeah, Bradford doesn't milk stats.
If they don't fix that, then if you hit refresh to reload the comments do not click the 'retry' button, click the 'cancel' button, then go back to the first time you loaded the article, you'll still be logged in, if not just hit refresh and you'll be logged in because your machine has a cookie on it that tells the server you are logged in and who you are.
As far as the comment about 7x points against OU, that is not going to happen. Texas was only able to score 45 even with fresh injuries happening to Oklahoma's best MLB, and them not adjusting to his loss for 2 games! Texas Offense scores just as good as Florida's does, and so if Texas could only put 45 on OU, there is no way Florida can put more than that on them. Also, Jess was right, Florida's Defense has not seen anything like Oklahoma's Offense. There is no way they can be prepare for it from the start of the game, as their offense is not even as fast as Oklahomas. They can snap the ball so fast, Florida will be caught off guard half the time. Oklahoma has the great ability to change the call just before the snap and will catch Florida in bad formations...
So if you think Oklahoma will get dominated, you must be smoking Crack with LSD laced into it! Oklahoma is on fire, Florida has a chance to win, just as Oklahoma does, but I don't see either team, DOMINATING the other. I think both teams will score, and the total score will probably be 3 digits, but I don't see Florida outdoing Texas output, and Oklahoma is 10 times better on offense even w/o Murray, then when they played Texas.
I wonder how Dana would explain Florida's loss to an unranked team at home?
I don't think the reptiles would be competetive in the Big XII South, probably finishing fourth or fifth.