Florida Gators at Ohio State Buckeyes BLOWOUT [Archive]

gobucks1013

01-11-2007, 09:26 AM

Okay, I have hung my head in shame long enough. I'm officially done mourning the clusterf*ck that was Monday night.

As a very passionate Buckeye fan yet also a Buckeye fan that doesn't think this team quite deserved the deification they recieved most of the year, I'm gonna weigh in on Mike's "How did that happen?" question.

First, let me just say that OSU had a great team this year. However, until the M*ch*g*n game, they were NEVER truly tested. In their "big" games they beat a HIGHLY overrated Texas team and a VERY highly overrated Iowa team. M*ch*g*n exposed our defense royally, and we in turn exposed them. (As did USC in the Rose Bowl) Just so happens their defense sucked a bit more than ours that day and we skated with the 3 point win.

Now comes 51 days off, which isn't an excuse but it certainly isn't the ideal scenario either. And in that 51 days, all the Buckeyes heard is how they're so great and they're gonna destroy the Gators. All they have to do is show up.

In the mean time, Troy wins the Heisman, and proceeds to patronize Scores, the famous titty bar in NY, while he's there for the award ceremony and tells all the strippers how good he's gonna be in the pros despite criticism of his size. Classy, Troy. What that tells me is that his mind was not on the National Championship game, that he acheived all he set out to acheive by beating UM 3 times and becoming a Heisman trophy winner. He was looking past this little "blip" on the radar to his next great achievement at the pro level. That mindset was evidenced by his behavior during Monday night's game. He was laughing and joking around on the sidelines while we were thoroughly getting our asses handed to us. Then he proceeds to say in the post-game interview, "If this is the worst thing that happens to me in my life, them I'm cool with that." Now, in the grand scheme of life, that may be very true, but is that really what a feirce competitor says after a gut-wrenching loss???

It was very clear to me that this team felt the game was theirs. Like I said, all they had to do is show up. Buckeye fans out-numbered Gator fans something like 10 to 1 out in AZ. The Sunday paper had an ad for Macys that said, "Come to Macy's after we win on Monday night and buy all your Nat'l Champs stuff! The store will open at 11pm" I had a friend who told me Dicks put their Nat'l Champs stuff out during the day on Monday. Before the game!! The air was ripe for an upset and the fans and the team got what they deserved: an ego smashing.

As for this SEC supremacy BS, I will give you the fact that the SEC is definately the best college FB conference. However, the good SEC teams are not that much better that the good teams from other weaker conferences. Florida is a VERY BEATABLE team. We are talking about a team who barely squeaked by in several games this year against terrible opponents. Not to mention Arkansas and Tennessee lost to 2 middle of the road Big 10 teams in their bowl games.

Florida outplayed and outcoached the Buckeyes. Period. It had absolutley nothing to do with the SEC vs Big 10. They played great and we played like shit. That was not the same Florida team that barely beat South Carolina, and that was certainly not the same Buckeye team we saw all year.

I can deal with losing. I spent 5 years as a member of Ohio State's marching band during the John Cooper era. Believe me, I learned to deal with losing big games pretty well. What I cannot deal with is this "we're indestructable" entitlement attitude the Buckeyes and their fans took into Monday night's game. It came back and bit us in the ass. Rightfully so.

Congrats to Florida. They certainly looked like the true champs from where I was sitting. Hopefully this is a lesson learned for my Bucks.