Phoenix – A small mariachi band and a lukewarm bevy of fans waving blue-and-orange pompoms greeted the Florida Gators when their plane arrived Tuesday afternoon. Excuse the Valley of the Sun if it wasn’t gaga over the second-ranked Gators six days before their BCS championship showdown with top-ranked Ohio State.
This area is still hung over from Monday night’s epic Fiesta Bowl, which put Boise State on the map and more charcoal on the fire blazing under the debate about a national playoff. The Broncos’ stunning, exhilarating, thrilling 43-42 overtime upset of Oklahoma proved mid-majors belong in the title hunt.
Too bad it ended too late for those back east, such as in Gainesville, Fla., to catch it.
“I hate to say this. I fell asleep and my wife kept hitting me,” Florida coach Urban Meyer said Tuesday after the team arrived. “She said it was the greatest football game she ever saw.”
However, Boise State’s season ended at 13-0. The Broncos go home to the snow and will watch Florida (12-1) and Ohio State (12-0) play the usual winner-take-all title game. But the buzz around America indicates Boise State might deserve a shot at the national title. In a playoff system, it would.
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel and Meyer, safe in their one-game BCS setup, weren’t going to bite. Meyer adamantly stumped for a playoff during the December debate of whether Michigan, which finished the regular season 11-1, deserved the No. 2 bid over Florida.
He also earned his coaching stripes at Utah, like Boise State a mid-major that went to the same Fiesta Bowl two years ago and blew out Pittsburgh 35-7. The only difference was Utah was favored. Boise State was a seven-point underdog.
“I think that just shows you that there are great football teams out there,” Meyer said. “In the coaching circles in college football, everybody knew what Oklahoma was getting into, everybody that knows football. Boise State is an excellent team.
“I think that the separation of BCS and non-BCS, that era is over.”
But does he think the Boise States of the world deserve the same shot he gets Monday night?
“National title, I think it will still be some time before you see that,” he said.
Tressel led Youngstown State to four titles in Division I-AA, which has a playoff, but he doesn’t see the Boise State win having any influence on a BCS format contracted through 2010.
“I heard one of their kids say after the game, when asked a similar question, he said, ‘We had our bowl game,”‘ Tressel said. “‘We are excited and we are proud of ourselves, and let us enjoy that.”‘
Meyer smiled broadly when asked about how Boise State coach Chris Petersen beat Oklahoma: a hook-and-ladder pass play to tie it with seven seconds left, an option pass for the touchdown in overtime and a modified Statue of Liberty play for the winning two-point conversion. Meyer used a similar hook-and-ladder to score against Pitt, one of his many victims of trick plays.
“I was on the plane working on a few more of them after I heard what he did,” Meyer said. “I think that tells you what kind of coach that guy is.”
John Henderson can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
