No feel yet for Big Bowl
I’ve been in Fort Lauderdale for more than 24 hours now, and talked to a dozen participants in the Big Bowl, and still I’ve got no feel for the Big Bowl. OU blowout? Florida blowout? Classic?
I have no idea. I don’t know how this game will go. I picked the Gators 35-34, for no other reason than fool me twice. The Sooners’ Fiesta Bowl performances the last two seasons have been so shoddy, maybe there is something to the bowl slump.
Or maybe not. Maybe it’s just that weird things happen in bowls. And in title games. The truth is, the BCS title game has replaced the Super Bowl as America’s great blowout.
LSU-Ohio State? Florida-Ohio State? USC-Oklahoma? Miami-Nebraska? Four of the last seven championship games have been over by halftime.
Could this one? You always doubt it, but you never know.
But several things puzzle me. I just can’t accept the notion that Florida is faster than Oklahoma. Maybe it’s true. But decades of watching the Sooners match any speed in America makes me hesitant to buy it. Then I think back to West Virginia, which in the Fiesta obviously outran Oklahoma, and here we go again.
Let me say this about Florida. All the talk about defensive arrogance appeared to be empty. Six Gator defenders met with the media Saturday, and none talked smack. All were confident, but none were dismissive of OU. In fact, I thought they were very complimentary of the Sooner offense. There was none of that “SEC defense” stuff. Truth is, the quotes that Oklahomans clung to as a sign that Florida claimed superiority were mostly empty.
Sunday morning, we meet with the OU defense and the Florida offense, which means the Tim Tebow show. I’m anxious to see if the Florida media is as reverential to Tebow as has been proclaimed. Wouldn’t surprise me if that has been overstated, too.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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I am a Sooner fan, living in Atlanta, Georgia. There are actually a lot of us Sooner Fans in Atlanta!
I enjoy your blog! Keep up the great work!
I am like a lot of Sooners and wishing for a Sooner win….!