Florida Gators, 2008 National Champions

of

Rex Grossman

. Now that I’ve taken the time to return to earth, I can give my complete thoughts on the Gators’ latest national title.

Let’s get this out of the way right now because I’m most likely not going to bring it up again. Regardless of whether it works the way we want it to or not, there is a system in place the selects two teams to play for the title and crown the winner the season’s national champion. Few may like it. Many may hate it. It is what it is and it’s all we got right now. People can claim USC is the best team in the land. Texas can campaign for themselves. The media can point to Utah. In the end, Florida ended up at the top of both major polls. If you’re a fan of those schools then scream until your lungs hurt, but think of it this way: If your team was the one that beat Oklahoma and now sat at #1, would you be complaining? No you wouldn’t. And if you aren’t a fan of those schools, but just want to complain because you hate the Gators…hey, if you are so filled with hate that you feel the need to spend your time spewing venom about how much Florida doesn’t deserve the title because you don’t like them, then go for it. But don’t expect me or any other Gator fan to react with anything more than a hearty laugh. Oh and take a look in the mirror. EVERY school has bad fans. Every single one. And every school has good fans too. If you’re narrow-minded enough to base your opinion of an entire school on one drunk idiot you met in a bar once, I feel sorry for you.

Now that we’ve gotten through that, how ‘bout them Gators?!?

I was in the group that honestly thought it would be a good game. Based on the matchups, I believed both teams would be in it until the end and we wouldn’t see a blowout from either side. BUT, I was thinking more along the lines of a final score of 45-38, not 24-14. Although being a fan of the team that ended up on the winning side, I’m perfectly happy with any score.

The Florida defense deserves every bit of praise they get. For holding Oklahoma’s high-powered offense to 14 points and 363 yards. For intercepting Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford twice. For stopping the Sooners on 4th and goal from the 1-yard line. For bending, but not breaking. For making plays when they counted the most. In my mind, the Gator defense was the game’s MVP. Every starter. Every sub. Every coach. They all deserve it. And because they deserve it, I’ll start with them…

Major Wright, distributor of pain.

The biggest surprise of the Gators’ season had to be the play of sophomore safety Ahmad Black. Urban Meyer himself said they never expected this of Black. During spring and fall practice, he earned himself the starting job. In part due to Dorian Munroe’s season-ending injury. In part due to his improved play. But man did he perform. Black provided one of the most important plays of the game when he ripped the ball from Juaquin Iglesias’ hands in the fourth quarter for an interception.

While the rest of the secondary didn’t look great, you can’t put all of that on Joe Haden and Janoris Jenkins having bad games. Remember they were going up against a quarterback better at putting the ball right on the money than any they had ever faced. Bradford’s numbers don’t jump of the page, but he still made some great throws and for the most part, the Gators’ secondary did all it could. In the end, Bradford has his third lowest yardage total of the season and his second lowest completion percentage.

I’ll also give praise to the Florida pass rush. Facing arguably the nation’s top offensive line, the Gators were able to put pressure on Bradford and stop the Sooners in the backfield on a huge fourth down.

We also witnessed the tale of two Tebows. After throwing his second interception of the first half (he only threw two over the season’s first 13 games), I was scared Tim Tebow was gearing up to have one of his worst games at one of the worst times. But in the second half, Tebow again put the offense on his back and was the player we’ve come to love. In the fourth quarters of the SEC title game and the national championship, Tebow was 11-for-11 for 148 yards and 2 touchdowns while adding 45 yards on the ground. For good measure, he completed another jump pass for Florida’s final touchdown, connecting with TBG favorite (wink!) David Nelson.

If the title game was the last time we got to see Percy Harvin in a Gator uniform, it was a good one to go out on. Harvin may have only been 90%, but that still makes him better than nearly everyone on the field. Harvin finished with 171 yards and scored a touchdown for the fifteenth consecutive game. It’s going to be a long, long time before we see another player of his talent.

This could probably be an article all of its own, but how good is tight end Aaron Hernandez? Hernandez came to Florida as a high-rated recruit but initially disappointed as he caught the dropsies during practice. Whispers said he wasn’t nearly as good as advertised, but then came the real games. Watch Hernandez this year and you might be looking at the Gator with the best hands. He came up huge in the title game running over people and making an entire fan base learn to love the shovel pass.

Celebrate Florida fans. The Gators are the national champions. Don’t listen to the skeptics, but instead look at the rankings. Say it out loud. Florida Gators, 2008 National Champions.