Four main reasons why Florida won last night:
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Percy Harvin. When it comes to the NFL draft, I think there will still be a preference toward Jeremy Maclin because of how brittle Harvin seems to be, but holy crap is that dude fast. I'd obviously seen him play before, but I wanted to see how fast he was in comparison to an OU defense I've obviously seen a million times, and...while the team as a whole wasn't really any faster than OU's, Harvin was ridiculous.
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Tim Tebow's impressive 3rd-down passing. As much as I'm tired of hearing about how amazing he is, when the game was on the line, he made a couple of extremely accurate 3rd-down passes. He was not very impressive in that regard in the first half, but give him credit--when the chips were down, he took over in a major way.
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Juaquin Iglesias. I didn't really feel like Sam Bradford did anything wrong (other than probably not go to Jermaine Gresham enough), but Sam I Am needed to get something from the agile Iglesias, and Juaquin really played as poorly as I'd seen him play for the last couple of years. I mean, obviously if he hadn't bobbled that Q4 pass that got yanked away from him, the Sooners tie the game at the very least, and possibly take the lead, but even aside from that play he just didn't seem to have anything impressive to offer.
- Short-yardage downs. Of all the problems I thought OU would have, converting on 3rd- (and 4th-) and-short was not one of them. OU's O-line handled UF's D-line just fine--Bradford wasn't really pressured very much overall, and Chris Brown had some nice holes to run through, especially in the first half--but in short-yardage situations, UF just blew up the interior of the line, and OU had nowhere to run. OU doesn't get creative in those downs because they're so comfortable in the holes that will be created by that line...and those holes disappeared in key downs.
Really, this game came down to 2-3 plays, and Florida made them. Plain and simple. OU didn't embarrass themselves, and it will annoy me if the "Stoops can't coach the big game" meme continues--he had his team ready to roll, but Florida simply came through when it counted.
As for a split national title...no way. Even if Utah (or Texas) deserves a chunk, voters simply aren't going to deny Tebow. Let's just say that voters = the dude with the baby pictures and Tebow = the baby pictures.
(As I mentioned last night, it really does annoy me that they've made me incapable of liking him. He really is an impressive player.)
I couldn't resist visiting the Daily Oklahoman website this morning. The Oklahoman is the most pro-hometeam newspaper in the country, and I wanted to see the reactions to the loss. Nothing too over-reactive there, but I did find this "Could loss send Bob Stoops packing to the NFL?" column interesting. And of course you knew Barry Tramel would over-react a bit.
Anyhoo...since this post is called "Mizzou Links" and all...
Are you ready for some Big 12 basketball?? After you check out that Mizzou-Nebraska preview (and this one), check out this Missourian article on the supposedly "strong" Big 12 that is heading into league play. The P-D's Vahe Gregorian isn't necessarily on the "strong" bandwagon, but he does see an entertaining league that's up for grabs.
Don't look now, but Mizzou might (might) actually have some strong senior leadership this season...knock on wood...
I think we all know the announcement that Jeremy Maclin is going to make later today, and Bryan Burwell says "Thanks for the memories, J-Mac."
Need to figure out what's going on in football recruiting? Need to catch the latest rumors about hiring Dave Christensen's replacement? Visit...THE CHAMBER!!
Finally, to a sport not usually mentioned in the Links: the Trib has a pair of articles about Mizzou Gymnastics, and they're good enough that I felt I should pass them along.