I thought I’d dig this up from the December archives over at The Blog for the Sports Gamer where my favorite Ohio State fan made the following prediction:
“As of now I am thinking 30-16 OSU in the title game, FWIW. I just don’t think there is any offense in the SEC that can match up with Ohio State’s and I think Florida’s defense is in for a rude awakening. We’ll see.”
We saw. To be fair, he didn’t update that prediction after Michigan was destroyed by USC, LSU crushed ND, Texas barely beat Iowa, and Texas A&M was humiliated by California. All of these results gave us clues about Ohio State’s demise. I live in the Big-12 conference now after multiple-years in the SEC. I’m also a graduate of a Big 10 school (Minnesota) so I am forced to live through the agony of watching the Gophers blow leads against their conference (not to mention in bowl games). I can see just how slow and different football is here when compared to the teams I saw come into Gainesville from the SEC.
So in this case I give the ESPN folks at “Around the Horn” and “PTI” a great deal of credit. Many of them saw what all of us saw during the bowl games leading up to the title-game. The Big 10 is slow. Tough, but slow. And speed kills.
Nice. Yes, speed kills. I do not think anyone thought FL would run away with it like they did; now I hear Ohio St. fans talking about the long layoff. Someone on ESPN Radio said that Tressel has a good record (maybe 4-0) in games with long layoffs. I have not checked my facts (yes, I always take talk radio at face value), but I do not think the layoff did Ohio St. in. I think it is just time to say that FL was better and that Ohio St. got the snott knocked out of them.
I also think it is fair to say that very few teams can make it through the SEC undefeated … year after year we (SEC fans) make this case, but I think it is very true. Maybe Texas last year and USC the year before, and of course Auburn the year before that (they got screwed).