Tebow Finally Comes From Behind

ATLANTA (AP) - Tim Tebow took it upon himself to give Florida a shot at another national championship.

With one of his best weapons watching from the sidelines, if the Gators needed a big run, Tebow tucked it under his arm and ran. If they needed to complete a pass, he threw it right where it needed to be.

Tebow threw three touchdown passes - including the clinching score with just under 3 minutes remaining - to lead the No. 2 Gators to a 31-20 victory over No. 1 Alabama in the Southeastern Conference championship game Saturday.

The win should be enough to give Florida (12-1) a spot in the BCS title game for the second time in three years, and Tebow's performance will surely bolster his chances of becoming just the second player to win the Heisman Trophy two years in a row.

''We don't want to be denied in anything we do,'' said Tebow, who carried his team with Percy Harvin watching from the sidelines.

Showing it could win a close game in a season of routs, Florida (12-1) went into the fourth quarter trailing 20-17. But Jeff Demps, among those filling in for the injured Harvin, scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 2-yard run with 9:21 remaining. Tebow finished the scoring with a pass that couldn't have been thrown any better, hitting Riley Cooper for a 5-yard TD with 2:50 left.

''I've had some great players, and I've got some great players on this team,'' Florida coach Urban Meyer said. ''But I've never had one like this. Tim's got something special inside him. I'm not talking about throwing. I'm not talking about running. I'm talking about making everyone around him better. That fourth quarter was vintage Tim Tebow .''

Alabama (12-1) couldn't have picked a worse time to lose. The Crimson Tide will likely settle for a spot in the Sugar Bowl, ruining any chance of adding another national championship to its glorious history.

Instead, mark down a spot in the title game for Florida, which won it just two years ago with a rout of Ohio State. The Gators came into the game ranked fourth in the BCS standings, but the impressive win over unbeaten and top-ranked Alabama will surely be enough to move them into one of the top spots.

Their opponent? Oklahoma had the inside track heading into Saturday night's Big 12 championship game against Missouri. Texas was waiting in the wings if the Sooners were upset.

Whoever it is will have to stop Tebow, who was 14-of-22 passing 216 yards and led the team in rushing with 57 yards. He tossed a 3-yard touchdown pass to Carl Moore to finish off Florida's opening possession, went 5 yards to David Nelson to give the Gators a 17-10 halftime lead, and came through one more time to clinch the victory.

Alabama coach Nick Saban, who needed only two years to restore the Tide to Bear Bryant-like prominence, knew who was mainly responsible for his team's first loss.

Tebow.

''He's a great competitor. He takes his teammates on his shoulders a lot,'' Saban said. ''They have a lot of confidence he's going to make plays, and they play that way. They scored two touchdowns where we had them covered about as well as we could cover them.''

With Florida facing third-and-goal at the 5 after a rare sideline interference penalty, Tebow found Cooper breaking toward the middle in front of Marquis Johnson . The perfectly thrown pass - low enough to give no chance of an interception but high enough to catch - was cradled by a diving Cooper to make it a two-score game.

Joe Haden 's interception ended any hope of a comeback. Tebow was named the game's MVP.

''One more year! One more year!'' the Florida fans chanted afterward, hoping their junior quarterback will return for his senior season.

Alabama trailed at halftime for first time this year, but just the fact that it was close put the Gators in an unusual position.

Florida came in as the nation's third-highest scoring team (46.3 points a game) and its average margin of victory was a staggering 37 points. Then again, the Gators did lose their only close game, a shocking 31-30 defeat to Mississippi at the Swamp on the final weekend in September.

The Tide was feeling good about itself after Mark Ingram scored on a 2-yard run and Leigh Tiffin booted his second field goal, a 27-yarder that pushed Alabama ahead going to the final period.

But Florida caught a huge break when Demps was dragged down short of the marker on third down, but Dont'a Hightower got a handful of facemask. The 15-yard penalty gave the Gators first down at the Bama 27.

Tebow took it from there. A 13-yard pass to Nelson. Then a 6-yarder to Nelson again to convert another third down by a yard. And finally, a quick pitch to Demps, who streaked around the left side and hurdled over two fallen players at the goal line for a 24-20 lead.

''Going 12-0 is a hard thing to do,'' Saban said. ''Every time they needed to make a play, Tim Tebow made the plays that made the difference in the game.''

This was the 41st meeting between the top two teams in The Associated Press poll. No. 1 still holds a 23-16-2 edge.

The Gators had to play without Harvin, who didn't even suit up after spraining his right ankle the previous week in a win over Florida State. He walked on the field stiff-legged - clearly, it wasn't even a close call whether or not he would play - and watched the game from the sideline wearing his No. 1 jersey.

During the regular season, Harvin was the team's top receiver with 35 catches for 595 yards and seven touchdowns. He also was second on the team in rushing with 543 yards, scoring nine TDs on the ground.

But Florida still had Tebow. That was the difference.

Meyer, not surprisingly, gave his endorsement for another Heisman.

''I think he's the best college football player in America,'' the coach said.

The Alabama-Florida matchup was a mainstay of the SEC championship in its early years. The teams met in the first three title games and four of the first five, beginning with the historic 1992 game in which the Crimson Tide won on a late interception return by Antonio Langham.

Alabama went on to rout Miami in the Sugar Bowl, winning its sixth national title. They'll have to wait another year for a shot at No. 7.

The first 1-2 matchup in the 17-year history of the SEC championship drew a record crowd of 75,892 to the Georgia Dome. The fans were essentially split down the middle - crimson and white on one side, blue and orange on the other.

The Gators marched right down the field on their first possession, looking as unstoppable as they did in most games this season. Tebow handled most of the load, completing three passes for 26 yards and running four times for 19 more.

But Alabama wasn't going to go down as meekly as most of Florida's opponents. Glen Coffee ran for 112 yards and a touchdown. Julio Jones hauled in five passes for 124 yards. The Tide defense delivered numerous crushing blows, hoping to rattle the Gators.

Tebow wouldn't let them bite.

''We kind of ran out of gas a little bit in the fourth quarter,'' Saban said. ''We didn't finish, and they did.''

Why Plaxico?

Last time I checked it was a constitutional right to carry a firearm, right? Plaxico Burress has been essentially removed from the NY Football Giants roster until next season for accidentally shooting himself in the thigh. I know it has been more than a rough year for Plaxico and the Giants front office. You know that shooting oneself is really not the smartest thing I can think of off the top of my head. I’m glad to find out that Plaxico did not receive the charge of "unlawfully carrying a weapon" so his weapon was legal, but not in the state of New York, because he was charged for illegal weapons possession instead. This gave me enough room to propose a theory.

I do not blame Mr. Burress one bit for having a weapon on him. Professional football players would be smart to follow in the footsteps of Plax and protect themselves as many NFL players have been gunned down in the last few years. Better safe than sorry! Remember Darrent Williams, Sean Taylor or the most recent occurrence earlier this year where Jacksonville Jaguar offensive lineman Richard Collier was shot and is paralyzed from the waist down and lost his lower left leg after being shot multiple times. Rashard Mendenhall was robbed for all his jewelry before he could put a Steelers jersey on, it is just a shame that athletes are being targeted the way they are . Let me reitereate, I don’t blame Burress one bit for protecting himself in a crazy world in fact I commend him because I would rather be a gun carrier whose story made the sixth page than to be the victim who made the first page.

The only outlier in this story is that the person in question shot himself in the thigh. I think that his conduct was detrimental to the team. He should have protected himself from himself and kept his health while trying to keep his health. The moral of the story is that I don’t blame Plaxico Burress for trying to avoid one of the major pitfalls that come with being a professional athlete, maybe next time he will use the safety and keep himself safe.

Sincerely, Yosemite Clayborne

P.S. The Kid had the .40 Cal. Glock, he wasn't playing no games

Fixing the BCS: Conference Realignment

Seems quite funny that all the drama surrounding the BCS in relation the Big 12 south this year really is not connected to the BCS.

The BCS is simply a tool used as the 5th option in a result of a three-way tie in the South Division of the Big 12 conference. People want to say that the BCS is "BS" but it is simply a rating system. How quickly we forget about the mythical national championship system that was used prior to the inception of the BCS. In the old system, a 1-2 matchup was only possible if specific bowls tie-ins made it possible to play the game. This led to multiple years that there were co-national champions or two undefeated teams would play sacrificial lambs while the game that everybody wanted to see would go unplayed. Furthermore, there only has been one instance of co-national champs since the BCS has been used. For everyone who thinks that the BCS is "BS" remember that at the very least it guarantees a 1-2 match-up every year something that was not necessarily possible in the old system.

What, I don’t think it is fair is that every major conference does not have a championship game at the end of the year. The winning team of the Big 12, ACC, or SEC has to win a championship game every year. The Pac-10, Big East, and Big 10 (11 teams) do not. Essentially making the road to a national championship easier than that of the conferences that do indeed play a championship game to determine their winner. It is really unfair when you realize that the weaker conferences in the BCS, by basic popular opinion, have an easier road to the championship game. This is why Ohio State has seemingly played in the last "twenty" BCS championship games losing SEC teams all "twenty years". Morever, this is a huge factor as to why USC has had the run they have been on in the last few years. They are at home while the bigger conferences are having one more war, which in college football is the safest way to mak ke the championship game, and USC has benefited from that in recent years.

My argument is that the governing bodies of college football should mandate that all BCS conferences have a football championship game at the end of the year. The kicker here is that to have a football championship a conference must have 12 football playing institutions. Given the need for a small conference re-alignment to make this possible I will spell it out for you.

Conference

Pacific 10

Current Members

USC, UCLA, Stanford, California, Arizona, Arizona State, Washington, Washington State, Oregon, and Oregon St.

Four schools come to mind as far as likely candidates for entrance into the Pac-10. These schools are, Utah, BYU, Fresno State, and Boise State. I just think it feels more natural for BYU and Utah to be the candidates to join the Conference. First of all, it keeps with the trend in the Pac-10 have two schools per state minus California of course. Furthermore, BYU and Utah are rivals so you automatically bring some tradition to the table when you add these schools instead of forcing totally odd relationships like Boise State and Fresno would illicit. I also would split the Pac-10 into two divisions Northwest and Southwest Divisions would make up the conference.

Northwest Division

Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, BYU and California

Southwest Division

USC, UCLA, Utah, Stanford, Arizona and Arizona State.

This I think is an applicable solution for the Pac-10 with the Championship game being played every year in Phoenix, L.A. or the Bay Area.

BIG 10 Conference

Current Members

Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan State, Northwestern, Illinois, and Purdue.

The Big Ten is a little easier as it really has 11 teams. If you ever take time to look at the official Big Ten Logo it has a hidden 11 in it. You ever notice that? Notre Dame is always the popular choice to add to the big ten to make it a twelve-team conference. The great thing about this is that Notre Dame is affiliated with the Big East for every other sport but football so it would only have to switch football to make the change possible while not interrupting any other sports in the conference as it stands now. The only hitch in this, is the lucrative television contract with NBC that Notre Dame has. This formal pitch is being made in the name of fluidity in college football so why not give ND television rights until the end of their current contract with NBC and work with them on the next contract whether it be with NBC or not. Meaning, that ND would receive a bigger cut of TV revenues after joining the Big-10 in order for continuity to prevail in the whole college football landscape. ND would, in the year 2017 receive double payout from the BIG-10 for TV revenues if they left NBC at the end of their current contract. For fair measure, let's give ND theses allocations for a full ten years after joining the conference afterward they would be considered a normal member and fall in line like a regular member. The great benefit of having ND in the Big Ten is all the great match-ups it would offer for the BIG-10. ND currently plays Michigan, Michigan, Purdue, and Indiana on an annual basis. Other great match-ups would include ND-Wisconsin, ND-Iowa, ND-Ohio State, and I would love to see a love rekindled which is ND-Penn State. This used to be one of the best rivalries in the country, but really lost its luster when Penn State left the ranks of the Independent and joined the Big-10 in the mid 1990’s.

The BIG 10 would now have 12 teams with the addition of ND but would keep its namesake. Furthermore, the conference would be split into Eastern and Western Divisions that would look like this:

Eastern Division

Penn State, Ohio State, Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame, Northwestern

Western Division

Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota

I think that this alignment would be great as long as you could keep the season ending rivalries intact. Moreover, Notre Dame could play Penn State for the Nittany/Irish Trophy (http://www.theultimatefootballchallenge.com/blog/26) instead of the stupid and forced game with Michigan State for the Land Grand Trophy. The Big 10 championship could be played in Chicago every year, which I think would be a great tradition for the new conference similar to the SEC being played in Atlanta every year.

Big East

Current Members

West Virginia, Louisville, South Florida, UConn, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and Cinncinnatti.

The Big East may well be the toughest to re-align because it only has 8 active football members and 16 in basketball. The current members of the conference are Cincinnati, UConn, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, South Florida, and Syracuse. The need for four teams here is a tough one to fill. First of all, let's switch Boston College in the ACC for South Florida so the we leave a lighter carbon footprint with all the traveling involved as these two schools are outliers as far as distance is concerned and it also provides more sensible regional match-ups for both schools. Therefore the new Big East would look like this: Boston College, Louisville, UConn, Cincy, Rutgers, Syracuse, Pitsburgh, and West Virginia. There are not a plethora of eligible teams left to put this scenario together so here we go, the new members of the Big East would be Temple, Buffalo, Army and Navy. There would again be two divisions, the New England and Ohio Valley. Here is how they would Look:

New England:

Buffalo, Temple, BC, Syracuse, UConn, Pittsburgh

Ohio Valley:

Cincy, Rutgers, West Virginia, Army, Navy, Louisville

There would be several teams that would have to step up their game in order to be respected as a member of a legit BCS conference but Buffalo, Temple, and Army could after a few years with the backing of a new and strong conference make the progress necessary to compete with other conferences.

P.S. I know this is a long and drawn out theory that will never come to fruition but in the sick world here at 6………………… in the words of Kevin Garnett “ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE”

CIAO,


Quick Claude

Top High School WIdeout?

Random Rant from Ricky Writer the 1st

My question is this, why has it taken Texas Tech so long to get top notch talent, especially quarterbacks and wide receivers?

I will not argue the quarterbacks because Mike Leach has not really had one do much damage in the NFL, although I think Graham Harrell will be fine. I want to talk about wideouts. Sure you can "system quarterback" this and that, but I've never heard the term "system wide receiver". I mean you run good routes, create separation, catch the ball, and make plays once it's in your hands. There is no system for it, maybe against it if you play in a Wing T, or Option offense, but those days are virtually long gone with GA Tech, Navy, and Air Force trying to keep it alive.

Michael Crabtree is the most decorated Texas Tech receiver of all-time and quite possibly all of college football. He was a diamond in the rough coming out of Carter High School in Dallas, Texas. He was ranked by Rivals.com as the 16th best athlete nationally, primarily playing quarterback in high school. He was offered scholarships at Tech, OU, Baylor, A&M, Illinois, Kansas, Iowa, and Kansas State. I find it weird that Oklahoma was the only top tier school that offered Crabtree. Nevertheless, Leach knew what he was doing and sat him on the bench for a year, and he has blazed the college football scene since then.

But this isn't a rant about Crabtree, although he is well deserving of one. (Maybe well get an interview with him soon). This rant is to high school cats you are highly recruited by everyone in the nation. If Texas Tech isn't recruiting it is probably because they do not want to waste their time in fear that you ditch them for a "bigger" name program. Please don't let the OU stomp down or the Baylor scare fool you. This is the best Red Raider team in years. If I was a top wide receiver why would you not want to go to Tech? They are throwing the ball 40+ times a game and are in a BCS conference.

You have to be a completely overrated waste of athleticism to be a top wide out in high school and not be able to blossom at Texas Tech. Just think outside the box like former Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Childress, and maximize your opportunities by going against the grain. Three years and done baby.

Ya boy,

Ricky Writer

JIMMY Awards for Week 14 of Football

Here are the JIMMYS for this week

COLLEGE JIMMYS

James Casey, WR Rice

Casey got busy with 12 receptions for 172 yards and 5TDs in a victory of Houston this past weekend. Who needs Jarrett Dillard?

Jermaine Gresham, TE Oklahoma

Greshman balled out with 9 receptions and 2 TDs as OU defeated in state rival OSU.

Kerry Meier, WR Kansas

The former starting quarterback now turned star wideout hauled in 14 passes for 106 yards and 2 TDs including the game winner as KU defeated their rival Mizzou in the Border War (Showdown.... Yeah Right) last weekend.

Jeremiah Johnson, RB Oregon

Johnson helped spoiled or at least severly jeopardize Oregon State's Rose Bowl hopes with a monster game rushing for 219 yards and a TD.

Roddy Jones, RB Georgia Tech

Jones helped the Yellow Jackets pull off an upset of their in-state rival Georgia Dogs by rushing for 214 yards and 2TDs. If GA Tech can run the option what's taking Nebraska so long to bring it back?

Robert Francois, LB Boston College

Francois, D'd up this weekend against Maryland. He recorded 10 stops, 3 tackles for loss, and returned a pick to the house as the Eagles defeated the Terps.


NFL JIMMYS

Jared Allen, DE Minnesota Vikings

Allen recorded 8 stops and added 3 sacks for the love of the game as the Vikings defeated the Chicago Bears, 34-14, and took sole position of first place in the NFC North.

James Harrison, LB Pittsburgh Steelers

Harrison helped put a stop to Matt Cassell's 400 yard passing streak and lead the Steelers to victory 33-10. He had 9 stops, 2 sacks, and 2 forced fumbles.

Thomas Jones, RB New York Jets

Jones rushed 16 times for 138 yards and 2TDs in a losing effort to the Broncos this past Sunday.

Mark Clayton, WR Baltimore Ravens

My boy MC single handedly trounced the Bengals 34-3. Let me take that back, because he wasn't playing defense, but I'm sure he could have. He snagged 5 passes for 164 yards and a TD, not to mention two highlight reel grabs. He also threw 1/1 for 27 yards and a touchdown to Derrick Mason.


Truly, RiShard Bo'Dew

The BCS is (Blank)

What up, what up, what up,

We'll I'm smiling today. I was able to trout around the UT campus with a proud OU Sooner heart. I was busy so I wasn't able to gloat too much, but nevertheless, I was smiling all day long.

If you live under a rock or just don't like college football, you may not know that the Texas Longhorns got screwed, but not really. The problem is this, in the case of a 3 way tie in either of the Big 12 divisions results in a tiebreaker of whoever is the highest ranked BCS team. Texas, Texas Tech, and OU all tied in the Big 12 South. OU had the highest BCS ranking so they went, point blank. Texas beat OU head to head 45-35 back in October. If it were to come down to only Texas and OU then yes the obvious thing to do is allow the head to head winner to move on to the Big 12 championship. The tricky thing is the three way tie. Who is to say Texas should get in over Texas Tech? I don't have the answer to this problem, and I don't care, OU is moving on.

In this case the BCS is cool. It has done nothing wrong at all. I'd love nothing more than to see a playoff so we could end all of this nonsense. If you used the BCS to set up the playoff. I wouldn't use the 8 team format everyone suggest. I'd go with a NFL setup of only 6 teams that way the top two teams would be awarded with a bye week. You would have one less week of play. (This is for the people who pretend to care about the players by using academics as a guise) The bowl games could still be played with no problem. What you would do is have the regular non BCS bowl games played at their regular times. The BCS games would be played over the course of four weeks. The season would be shortened because it makes no sense for teams to get two weeks off, and that would be decreased to one bye week. There would be four games total played, and those four would be the Orange, Sugar, Rose, and Fiesta. The deciding championship bowl game would be rotated each year.

Yep, I'm pretty smart.


Peace out,


Ricky Writer

Turkey Bowl ’08: A look at Thanksgiving Football

There’s not a better time for football than Thanksgiving. Undoubtedly, we will stuff our faces as we visit with our families, but without the ability to resume our post as captain of the armchair, Thanksgiving would lose a lot of its appeal.

This Thanksgiving appears that it will stack up with the best of them. There are tons of headlines taking the field that are sure to entertain. Let’s take a look at the match ups.

NFL

Tennessee (10-1) at Detroit (0-11) (12:30 p.m. ET) – It’s a good thing this one’s getting played early in the day. There’s no doubt that this one could get ugly early. The Lions got rid of one of their key playmakers in Roy Williams for draft picks, but its going to take a lot of luck in those next two drafts to bring this team back from the basement. It also doesn’t help that they have one the best teams in the league (if not the best) coming into their house on this day of thanks. To be completely honest, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Titans build a cushion and let their starters rest most of the second half. What also makes this game a bit lackluster is that a loss wouldn’t kill Tennessee, and a win will have no affect on Detroit’s season.

Seattle (2-9) at Dallas (7-4) (4:15 p.m. ET) – Everybody remembers Romo’s botched hold on a field goal attempt in the last match-up between these two teams back in 2007, but this is a different year, and these are different teams. The Seahawks have been suffering through an abysmal year after being plagued by injuries at most major positions, especially to their receiving core. America’s team is on a two game streak since Romo has been back from a finger injury and, if you ask T.O., the ‘Boys have finally unleashed him. With the addition of Roy Williams running routes opposite Owens, it would appear the Cowboys have too much firepower for Seattle to keep up with. The bottom line is that Dallas can’t afford to be upset at home if they want to have a shot at locking up a wild card spot in the NFC.

Arizona (7-4) at Philly (5-5-1) (8:15 p.m. ET) – Eagles fans have given Donovan McNabb the business since the team drafted him in back in ’99. It’s a daunting task to be a QB in Philly, so it’s definitely going to be interesting to see how McNabb bounces back this week as he returns to the starting lineup after being benched this past Sunday. The Cards come to town looking to seal their first division title since 1975. The Eagles number six ranked D is going to have to step up to stop what looks like it could be an MVP campaign for Kurt Warner.

NCAA

Texas A&M (4-7) at Texas (10-1) (7:00 p.m.) – Everyone might be tired of the words ‘style points’, but that’s exactly what the ‘Horns need to gain in this game if they want to keep their chance of a BCS championship game bid alive. This one should go in their favor as the Aggies bring in the Big 12’s worst rushing attack against the Big 12’s best rushing D. A&M also brings in some controversy at the quarterback position along with a young receiving core who are getting their first look at UT, in Austin no less. All this without mentioning that the guy under center in burnt orange is putting together a Heisman campaign, and the ‘Horns running backs are finally starting to develop. None of this may matter too much in the end. If OU gives OK State the Texas Tech treatment in Stillwater on Saturday, they shouldn’t have a problem overtaking Texas in the BCS, and then it’ll be up to the boys in the SEC to see whether we’ll see the Red River Rivalry again…in Miami.