Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Random National Championship Game Thoughts

* Sports Illustrated has announced that they will be offering their special commemorative University of Florida National Championship collectible set complete with an annual yearbook, a blue and orange football, and individually numbered, limited edition Florida Gators National Champions Jorts.

* Seriously, congratulations to Florida - they fucking dominated when it mattered most. Extra special congrats to the 4 cool Gators that I know personally; my 2 cousins CBG & BGE, Orson Swindle, and of course the legendary Ranalli.

* It sure looked like Florida did a great job looking at film, studying, and preparing a game plan, and practicing it during their 5 week layoff. Did Ohio State even practice 1 time, or look at 1 game tape of Florida? Sure didn't look like it. Everyone knows that blitzing Leak and pressuring him is the key to stopping the UF offense (everyone except the Georgia defensive coaching staff in 2005 & 2006 that is). Rushing 3 the whole game was a decisively stupid decision. Well done to UF on both sides of the ball.

* You could tell very early that the OSU offense was confused as hell at what is saw from the UF D, and that what was happening as plays developed was not at all what T Smith & Co. were expecting to happen. He looked as confused and frustrated as an American man given the task of translating the Koran. Not from Arabic into English. From Arabic into Mandarin Chinese.

* Ditto for the D. It wasn't just that both teams came out, did their things, and UF came out the victor. It was more than that. UF looked so prepared and tOSU looked so lost and hopeless - again, it looked like they didn't even practice.

* Troy Smith must be verrrrrrry happy that the Heisman Trophy is awarded BEFORE the bowl season. My God the Gators D made him look awful, as did the utterly inept OSU O-Line. Dude is probably the most mobile QB in America and they sacked him 5 times. Imagine if he was an immobile QB in the mold of Craig Krenzel? Dude would have been sacked 20 times. I'm too lazy to look, but I wouldn't be suprised if Troy Smith hadn't been sacked 5 times all year before last night. It was truly painful to watch him try to do anything against the Gator D. It was like watching Paris Hilton take the SAT; the ineptitude was that painful.

* Maybe Boise State would have given Ohio State a good game after all...

* I am not an SEC RULZ every other conference SUXXXX guy, but I think the SEC this year turned out to be the SEC that SEC fans think that it is every year. I mean, damn. Georgia was the 7th best team in the conference.

* I was reminded of the World Cup this summer and how disappointing the US was, but then when it was all said and done there was the thought "maybe we aren't that bad after all", considering they battled Italy to a draw with only 9 men and then Italy went on to become World Champions. I had a similar thought: "maybe UGA isn't that bad after all: we battled the Gators to a 7-14 loss whereby one of their touchdowns was a direct result of us fumbling inside our own 10 yard line. Now they have gone on and won the National Title, so maybe we weren't that terrible. This thought, in addition to the sentiment that most likely finish 11-2 if our stud FG kicker doesn't get a freak injury is myopic but will rattle around in my brain all spring.

* I can't really come up with a good analogy to describe what it feels like to wake up a Bulldog today in a world where The Gators are national champions in both football and men's basketball (the 1st school to ever hold both titles concurrently). At first I envision a Chappelle skit where a white supremacist golf fanatic has to deal with Tiger Woods holding 4 majors at the same time (this happened in 2001), but the hate we have for the Gators and that kind of hate are two pretty distinct things. Maybe Georgia is like a kid in High School whose arch-nemesis, Florida, not only took his little sister's virginity and continues to hit it on the regular, but he won Homecoming King, Prom King, and now after you are awarded as the Salutatorian of your Senior class he outshines you again and is named valedictorian. And your Mom is even hitting on him too. That's a bit over the top, but it might be a better way of explaining how much we are their bitch over the last 17 years (2-15), and now they have their 2nd title, and despite all of the amazing success and accomplishments that Mark Richt has achieved in his 5 years at Georgia, a stud recruit in South Georgia can look at what Meyer has achieved at Florida in only TWO years before he decided which program to commit his talents to.

* Forget all that shit I just blabbered about. The best analogy is Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez in 2003 saying simply "maybe the Yankees are my Daddy". That pretty much sums it up.

* Given all of that, there is still one bit of juvenile snarkiness that I managed to come up with:

"Nice little national championship Gators, your 2nd in 11 years. Give us a call sometime when you manage to make it through an entire football season undefeated."

(Georgia: undefeated twice. 1980 - national champions. 1946 - finished 3rd in the polls I believe)

It's pretty weak, but at this stage it is about all we've got.

And I must say that living in SF, where college football registers as the faintest blip on the radar, I have it much better than the vast majority of the UGA diaspora who live in places where college football is woven so deep into the social fabric that it is the social fabric, and they will have to shut up and deal with Chad in Accounting crowing about the Gators from now until, well, forever.

- "Morning Chad"

- "If you ain't a Gator you're Gator bait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

10 comments:

moinllieon said...

Ask and you shall receive:

http://www.glink.net.hk/%7Ehkiya/c_quran.html

More snarkiness. Mandarin Chinese ain't no language. :D

It's kinda weird to try and figure out the SEC vs. Big 10 thing based on the bowl season. The clearly second tier Big 10 teams beat the barely second tier SEC teams, and then OSU goes and lays an egg. I'm just saying, we were one game away from complete and utter ownage of the SEC by the Big 10. Besides this OSU game, what else is this idea of SEC greatness based on this year? UGA coming back against a bad VT squad? LSU manhandling an ND team that everyone agreed should not have been in the game?

How's about Julio Baptista huh? Glad to see he finally got over trying to play fancy and just be bullying.

Unknown said...

The OSU FL game tells me two things:

1. A 5 month wait between the last regular season game and the "title" game is slightly too long.

2. Fast is good. M'kay.

Seriously, anyone that has played or coached ANY type of sport will tell you if you take 2 months off from playing against real competition, you are not going to play your best the first game back. OSU might have been the best team at the end of the season... 2 months ago. Hell, it is now spring football.

FL looked great. But in my opinion, it was due to OSU playing (as the dreamy Backstreet Kirk said) with ankle weights on. OSU’s line play was horrible. They looked like slow lumbering Big Ten players. Wan’ a bet OSU's OLine will be wearing tutus this spring.

This all point to the (hello Captain Obvious) need for some sort of Playoff system. But the playoffs need to start immediately after the regular season ends. I have had enough of the Winter/Spring Season Championships. I want Fall College Football with a playoff. Who wouldn’t want to see 1st round games of Boise State vs Arkansas. Or how about West Virginia, Louisville, Rutgers, or Louisville taking on OSU.

Who knows what team we would end up honoring as the national champion. But I just don't think FL is it. Chomp on that beotch!

Anonymous said...

I still don't buy this whole "the wait is too long" reason. Didn't Florida have a one-month long lay-off? So a one-month long lay-off is ok but add 2 weeks to that and "Woah Nelly! That's too much"?

One thing about the playoff that I don't like that people are always kind of skipping over: it rewards the hot team, not the best team. So there's that to consider. Best way to determine the championship? The way they do it in European Soccer, every team play home-and-home against every other team. Team with the best record by the end wins. But that's not gonna be possible with CFB is it?

Anonymous said...

The layoff should have worked better for OSU. They should have known our offense and defense inside out. It's OBVIOUS that Florida is a better football team, because they showed it on the FIELD. All of your whining and crying just proves the obvious.

41-14 over THE osu!!! BITCHES!!!!

Unknown said...

It sounds like FL fans are afraid of what would happen in the playoffs. Do you have reason to be? Yup!

Was FL clearly better than OSU two months after the season was over... damn straight. Were they the best team in the nation? I'd like a playoff to answer that question.

As to awarding a "hot team"... Currently there are only two teams GIVEN a chance to win the title. What happens if one team is "hot" as happened with FL and the other is "cold". The system gives the title to FL. Enjoy your win over OSU and the title that was GIVEN to you.

Give me a playoff system over computers and press rankings any day. Until then, we will continue to dance with a pretty girl who doesn’t put out only because the 10 other girls that can suck golf balls through garden hoses were not invited to the party. At least we can sneak in drugs and alcohol.

Anonymous said...

Nothing was GIVEN to FLORIDA. UNLIKE OSU, Florida beat 9 bowl teams to get to the championship game. Who did OSU beat? An over-rated Michigan and Texas.

Don't even use the excuse that the game should have been played after the Michigan game. YOUR conference decided that you needed 51 days to get an a$$ whopping.

I definitely agree we need a playoff, and I don't think OSU would have made the championship game. I believe several teams including LSU would have beat them.

Unknown said...

My team won their BCS bowl game. Go fish.

FL’s win was impressive, and they might have ended up winning a playoff, BUT (...as my CardChronical friend Mike puts it) "Not that it changes the fact that you should have lost to South Carolina and Tennessee, were within a score of losing to Florida State, Georgia (LOL - Hell even KY beat them) and Vanderbilt (LOL), and did lose to Auburn by double digits, but still, impressive." So to sum it all up, FL lost to a team (Auburn) that lost to a team (Georgia) that lost to Kentucky (ROTFLMBFAO). S-E-C! S-E-C! S-E-C! LOL

Until there is a playoff, any team that is crowned a champ will have the title GIVEN to them. It was just FL's turn. Good for them. Way to go Gators!

Anonymous said...

Actually, one correction, right now we have 2 teams given a SECOND CHANCE at the national title. That's what playoffs are, a 2nd chance. Because the first chance is to finish the season with best record and that'll be that. The entire concept of a playoff is a second chance for the teams without the best record.

I suppose you are a Louisville fan? Sounds a bit like it since you were referred to the Cards. Well, beat Rutgers next time to earn your second chance. :)

Anonymous said...

Hey I know, let's give the Super Bowl Trophey to the SD Chajahs. They finished the regualr season the top rated team I believe. Screw the playoffs!

Anonymous said...

Sorry hit,

Give up the drugs. My only dog in this race was the pointspread. The Gators weren't given anything. They TOOK the title from from a loudmouthed bully who just stood around and bled during the bitchslaping. Probably screwed their mothers/sisters/girlfriends too.