By Nick Newman
This was supposed to be the crowning achievement for an ?unstoppable? Ohio State football team. Then the game started.
With a laughable performance in Monday?s national championship game (except for the stunning kickoff return by Ted Ginn, Jr. to start the game), the Buckeyes finally proved to the nation what I had known the entire season: SEC speed, skill and strength is superior to that in any other conference in the nation, and Big Ten football is now an overrated farce living in its past glory days.
Before I say anything more, I?d like to point out that I”m not a Gator fan, and I am definitely not hopping on the bandwagon anytime soon?as a true blue Cougar I refuse to root for Urban Meyer, and I happen to have allegiances to another SEC team, Kentucky. I just hate sports fans who think just because a team like Ohio State is undefeated and boasts the Heisman Trophy winner they will walk all over their opponent. Fans need to look a little deeper into things before they start declaring a winner. Here are some reasons why Ohio State failed miserably and why the majority of you should have picked up on it.
Despite the lack of total dominance in conference play, Florida?s conference wins were more impressive than Ohio State?s. Florida beat four ranked opponents on their way to the title game. Try playing Georgia, Tennessee and Auburn and see if the Buckeyes could have came away unscathed.
All OSU had was a win over a pretty good Texas squad playing in the post-Vince Young era, and they eked out a win over Michigan while allowing 37 points at home. That same Michigan team embarrassed themselves at the Rose Bowl. The rest of the Big Ten is a mass of mediocrity.
By winning nearly half of its games by seven points or less, Florida knew how to win and close out close games. OSU?s win over Michigan was not as close as the score indicated and the rest of the schedule was one blowout after another, which doesn?t necessarily strengthen a football team for a title game.
The Gators had to play at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Between the Hedges at Georgia and at Auburn. Going through that and winning two out of three should have made Buckeye Nation think a little more seriously of their opponent.
The Heisman rarely goes to the game?s best player; it merely goes to the most popular player on the nation?s best team. Just because Troy Smith was voted as the Heisman winner did not mean that his team would triumph. As we saw the other night, Smith wasn?t even the best player on his own team. Take away Ginn and Smith isn?t even in the top five in the balloting, and Arkansas running back Darren McFadden wins the trophy.
Although I usually hate to say, ?I told you so,? I really feel like I need to. Maybe with other sports, this can be a reminder ? look a little deeper at both teams before declaring one team to be heads and shoulders above the rest.
