Florida knocks off No. 1 Alabama, heading to national championship game

Florida-AlabamaPerhaps no team in college football has played better over past two months than Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators. And thanks to their impressive 31-20 victory over No. 1 Alabama in the SEC Championship Game on Saturday, Tebow and the Gators will head to Miami to play in college football’s national title game on January 8.

In the end, the Crimson Tide didn’t have enough offensive firepower to knock off Urban Meyer’s Gators, who just had too many players to control. The started to wear down the Gator defense in the third quarter, but couldn’t muster any points in the fourth and it wound up being their pitfall. The stout ‘Bama defense couldn’t contain Tebow, either, who threw for 216 yards and three touchdowns, including a five-yard scoring pass to Riley Cooper with 2:50 remaining in the game, which turned out to be the nail in the coffin.

It’s hard to place blame on running back Glen Coffee, who rushed for 112 yards on 21 carries and a touchdown, but QB John Parker Wilson couldn’t come up with enough big plays throughout the course of the game. He threw for just 177 yards and outside of a 64-yard pass to Julio Jones in the first quarter, Wilson struggled throwing vertically against an extremely fast Florida defense.

What’s amazing is that Florida scored 31 points against a fantastic Alabama defense and did so without Percy Harvin, who is their most explosive playmaker. The Gators’ win is truly a testament to how good this team is to knock off a previously undefeated Tide program, which had stifled their opponent’s offenses all season.

And does Tim Tebow get thrown back into the Heisman discussion after this game? The Big 12 quartbacks – Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford and Graham Harrell – have been impressive, but Tebow has been on an absolute tear and in the biggest game of the season, he produced. His leadership, determination and heart have also been unrivaled this year.This is why college football should wait until after the championship game is played to crown the Heisman winner, because what if Tebow outshines Bradford or McCoy yet one of those two Big 12 QBs win the award? It’s kind of ridiculous not to wait until the BCS bowl games are played to crown a Heisman winner.

So Florida is in (assuming of course that the BCS doesn’t screw things up, which of course is still a major possibility), and will await the result of the Big 12 Championship Game. If Oklahoma beats Missouri, it’ll be the Gators and the Sooners in the national title game. If MIZZOU produces a massive upset, than all hell breaks loose and college football fans will pray all of the BCS’ computers explode and mass chaos ensues.

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