America can go ahead and start taking its shots. After all, this is open season on the Bowl Championship Series. The 10-year-old system loathed by so many has much of the college football world scratching its head once again.
Yet to all those Texas fans who despise Oklahoma even more and everybody else who wants a football tournament pool in their office someday, they can’t deny one fact. The Jan. 8 BCS championship game between Oklahoma and Florida, both 12-1, is one of the most intriguing matchups in years.
In Oklahoma, the country has the highest-scoring team in modern college football history going against the champion of the best defensive conference in college football. It is Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, who could become only the second player to win two Heisman Trophies, against Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford, who could beat him out for this year’s.
It’s two coaches from Youngstown, Ohio, with Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops trying to end a string of BCS defeats and Urban Meyer trying to win his second national title in three years in only his fourth year on the job.
After they won their conference title games Saturday, Sunday’s announcement of No. 1 Oklahoma vs. No. 2 Florida was no surprise. Nor was it any surprise that Stoops had to defend his team again for making the title game, despite losing to Texas, which wasn’t even awarded the Big 12 South Division title.
“I always find it ironic that everybody has complaints about the system after the fact,” Stoops said on a national teleconference call Sunday night. “They never complain before the season starts.”
Playing as if every point they scored made a point to the skeptics, the Sooners have set up a challenge that no ballyhooed SEC defense has ever faced. Oklahoma enters the game averaging 54 points a game, with five straight games of at least 60.
Not since the 1904 Minnesota Gophers, playing the likes of Grinnell and Twin Cities Central High School, has a major college scored this many points.
Florida must not only find a way to stop Bradford, who has thrown for 4,464 yards and 48 touchdowns with only six interceptions, but also 1,000-yard rushers in Chris Brown and DeMarco Murray.
“We kind of put our nose to the grindstone and continued to work,” Stoops said. “We kept making improvements. DeMarco Murray got back to his old stuff, and we put an emphasis on stronger running of the football. The team kept with it.”
Then again, Oklahoma built its stats in the Big 12, where critics, particularly those with Southern drawls, feel the defenses couldn’t stop some of the Great Plains’ larger tumbleweeds.
Florida’s defense is no tumbleweed. It finished ninth nationally, has the nation’s second-best pass-efficiency defense and is second in turnover margin.
Florida is big, fast and physical.
“We’ve not faced a team like Oklahoma,” Meyer said. “But we’ve faced good offensive teams. It all comes down to personnel. We have a strong core of people. We’ll be ready for the game.”
If there’s a perceived weak link in this game — Florida opened as a 1 1/2-point favorite — it’s Oklahoma’s back seven. Although they’re opportunistic and are No. 1 in turnover margin, the season-ending injury to star linebacker Ryan Reynolds in the Texas loss has made the Sooners appear vulnerable.
They are only 65th nationally in total defense. Part of it is that darn Oklahoma offense scoring so quickly, but Florida may have the fastest team in the nation. Twelve Gators run under a 4.4 40, and the most dangerous of them all — receiver/tailback Percy Harvin — will be healed from the sprained ankle that kept him out of Saturday’s SEC championship comeback win over Alabama.
And no team is more balanced. Florida averages 229.77 yards on the ground and 212.62 through the air.
“The way we came back in the fourth quarter, I won’t say I was surprised but we take pride in our toughness,” Meyer said.
Both teams limped to the end of the regular season. Bradford had surgery to repair ligaments on his non-throwing hand Sunday but can practice in nine days and start taking snaps three or four days before departure. Stoops will also get back a linebacker and two defensive ends. Murray, who suffered a knee bruise on the opening kickoff Saturday, should be fine.
Meyer will not get back defensive tackle Brandon Antwine, who blew out his knee Nov. 29 at Florida State and is lost for the season.
“People talk about shootouts, but a lot of times that doesn’t happen,” Stoops said. “Defenses are usually better than given credit for, regardless of what offense they face.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
BCS national championship
Oklahoma (12-1) vs. Florida (12-1)
Jan. 8, 6 p.m., KDVR-31
A classic confrontation between a great offense (Oklahoma’s) and a great defense (Florida’s) with lots of subplots. The two quarterbacks, Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow, above, could finish 1-2 (you guess the order) in the Heisman race. Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops was Florida’s defensive coordinator from 1996-98 but must improve this defense. It has been roasted in its last three BCS bowls, and this year’s pass defense is a mystery. Florida throws the nation’s second-ranked secondary against Bradford, the nation’s No. 1 passer.
