First of all I would like to thank all our members, posters and viewers for their contributions to the RX. I have enjoyed spending the bowl season in the College Football Forum as it has brought back some of the memories of days gone past as this is where I began posting my thoughts. So I thought I would share a few of those thoughts on tonight's championship. They won't be as detailed as year's past but hopefully will provide food for thought. For those who have paid attention to my threads this last month, you already know that I made my play back on December 16th and have been posting it with my record on each new thread. Hopefully, those that agreed, took advantage of that line. So with that in mind, let's get started.
There are a number of factors in tonight's game that I believe will determine the outcome of the game. They are speed, defense, special teams and coaching. Florida possesses exceptional speed at the skilled positions with Demps and Rainey at tailback and Harvin at wide receiver. Oklahoma has not faced a multiple speed attack the likes they will see tonight and Tebow makes the Sooner defense have to choose which weapon to concentrate on due to his mutliple pass/run capability. That speed also shows up on the Gator defensive side of the ball. Bradford is going to find out that his receivers are not wide open as they were in Big 12 conference play plus he is going to find himself under a lot more pressure then he saw in the Big 12. On special teams, the Gators have a significant punting edge which should help them in field position and the Sooners are also one of the worst kick-off units in the nation allowing 4 returns for touchdowns. Finally, in coaching, you have old school versus new school. With a month to prepare, Urban Meyer will use every weapon at his disposal and every trick play in the Gator playbook. He holds nothing back while Bob Stoops remains in his old ways of preparing for bowl games with horrible results.
In the bowl season, the Big 12 has been exposed as a conference that had high scoring games but can't play defense. Texas Tech and Oklahoma State were scored on at will by Mississippi and Oregon respectively. Texas barely got the win over Ohio State with a late score and now we have Oklahoma. I had been waiting and hoping that the BCS Standings would match these two teams, as in my opinion, Texas would have been a tougher match for Florida. Since, Novemer 29th when Oklahoma travelled to Oklahoma State, and gave up 41 points to the Cowboys, I was convinced they had no defense to stop Florida should they meet. Fortunately, they are meeting tonight. The Sooners defense was carved up that day both on the ground and in the air by a mobile quarterback. The Cowboys, like other Big 12 teams just had no defense to stop the Sooners. That won't be the case tonight.
There is no subsititute for speed and defense and particularly defense wins championships because the better defensive team puts stops on their opponent and therein begins the score separation with the better defensive team getting more opportunites to move the ball on offense and control and dictate the game.
As for the line, the linesmaker put up one of the worst openers of a championship game that I have seen in all my years in this business. The opener of Florida -1.5 was ridiculous. I felt a proper line to get money on both sides was 4. Mind you, that is not my score projection but a line that would have gotten money on both sides. Now it reached 6 earlier today and will likely not go higher.
In the past years, I would breakdown player match-ups in more detail, but I'll leave my presentation at this point. Hence,
Year To Date Record: 44-31-2 (+38.21)
5* (3-2)(+4.00)
4* (12-6-2)(+22.12)
3* (29-21)(+12.09)
5* Florida -3 (-110) Pending
<!-- / message -->
Good Luck Everyone!
There are a number of factors in tonight's game that I believe will determine the outcome of the game. They are speed, defense, special teams and coaching. Florida possesses exceptional speed at the skilled positions with Demps and Rainey at tailback and Harvin at wide receiver. Oklahoma has not faced a multiple speed attack the likes they will see tonight and Tebow makes the Sooner defense have to choose which weapon to concentrate on due to his mutliple pass/run capability. That speed also shows up on the Gator defensive side of the ball. Bradford is going to find out that his receivers are not wide open as they were in Big 12 conference play plus he is going to find himself under a lot more pressure then he saw in the Big 12. On special teams, the Gators have a significant punting edge which should help them in field position and the Sooners are also one of the worst kick-off units in the nation allowing 4 returns for touchdowns. Finally, in coaching, you have old school versus new school. With a month to prepare, Urban Meyer will use every weapon at his disposal and every trick play in the Gator playbook. He holds nothing back while Bob Stoops remains in his old ways of preparing for bowl games with horrible results.
In the bowl season, the Big 12 has been exposed as a conference that had high scoring games but can't play defense. Texas Tech and Oklahoma State were scored on at will by Mississippi and Oregon respectively. Texas barely got the win over Ohio State with a late score and now we have Oklahoma. I had been waiting and hoping that the BCS Standings would match these two teams, as in my opinion, Texas would have been a tougher match for Florida. Since, Novemer 29th when Oklahoma travelled to Oklahoma State, and gave up 41 points to the Cowboys, I was convinced they had no defense to stop Florida should they meet. Fortunately, they are meeting tonight. The Sooners defense was carved up that day both on the ground and in the air by a mobile quarterback. The Cowboys, like other Big 12 teams just had no defense to stop the Sooners. That won't be the case tonight.
There is no subsititute for speed and defense and particularly defense wins championships because the better defensive team puts stops on their opponent and therein begins the score separation with the better defensive team getting more opportunites to move the ball on offense and control and dictate the game.
As for the line, the linesmaker put up one of the worst openers of a championship game that I have seen in all my years in this business. The opener of Florida -1.5 was ridiculous. I felt a proper line to get money on both sides was 4. Mind you, that is not my score projection but a line that would have gotten money on both sides. Now it reached 6 earlier today and will likely not go higher.
In the past years, I would breakdown player match-ups in more detail, but I'll leave my presentation at this point. Hence,
Year To Date Record: 44-31-2 (+38.21)
5* (3-2)(+4.00)
4* (12-6-2)(+22.12)
3* (29-21)(+12.09)
5* Florida -3 (-110) Pending
<!-- / message -->
Good Luck Everyone!
