BCS National Championship: Florida's Spikes fires back at Sooners

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Florida’s Tim Tebow chuckled Monday when asked his reaction to comments made by Oklahoma cornerback Dominique Franks, who said Tebow would be the Big 12’s fourth-best quarterback.

But for Gator linebacker Brandon Spikes, it was no laughing matter.

Spikes fired back at the Sooners on Monday as the bulletin-board material for both teams continued to pile up heading into Thursday’s BCS National Championship.

"If they can stop our offense, hey, my hat goes off to them," Spikes told reporters during media day. "But I really don't think they can. As long as we play well on defense, give the ball back to Tim and the rest of those guys, we should roll.

"You keep hearing they've done this and scored all these points in the last five games. But I really feel like they haven't faced a defense like ours, and Big 12 defenses are a joke. It's always like a bunch of basketball scores when I watch SportsCenter. So we'll see."

Spikes said the Sooners were "living in a fantasy world" if they think Tebow would be the fourth-best quarterback in the Big 12.

Spikes’ comments were in reaction to Franks’ remarks on Sunday that Tebow would rank behind OU’s Sam Bradford, Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell and Texas’ Colt McCoy if he competed in the Big 12.

Franks said he was irritated after he’d heard Tebow had insulted Big 12 defenses last month.

During the broadcast of the SEC Championship, CBS play-by-play announcer Verne Lundquist said Tebow had discussed his Heisman vote with Lundquist and analyst Gary Danielson. According to Lundquist, Tebow told them he respected the Big 12 quarterbacks, but that he “would like to throw against some of those defenses in the Big 12.”

“You know, him saying he wants to face a Big 12 defense, it’s been great listening to all the comments they’ve been making,” Franks said.

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