Two drives directed by senior quarterback Brian Johnson shaped Utah's undefeated regular season and run to the BCS in the best year for both a 'mid-major' conference and team in the existence of the BCS.
- With hope slipping away for a BCS berth early in the season, the Utes trailed Oregon State 28-20 in the fourth quarter in Rice-Eccles Stadium. After a third quarter with 3 punts, 2 fumbles and 41 offensive yards on 19 plays the Utes took the field with 2:11 left in the game at their own 40. Senior Brian Johnson went 4-4 through the air for all 60 yards, a touchdown, and capped it with a 2 point conversion run to tie the game with 1:29 left in the contest. Utah quickly got the ball back, and Johnson led Utah to a game winning field goal as time expired, going 7-8 for 91 yards in the last 2 minutes of the game.
- The second series of plays was perhaps more unlikely. This time with 2:48 left and trailing Texas Christian 10-6, Utah had to drive 80 yards for the game winning touchdown against a defense that ended the year 1st in the country in yards allowed per game. Utah had under 200 yards of total offense going in to that final drive and hadn't driven the ball longer than 49 yards the entire game. Again, Johnson caught fire late and connected on 8-11 passes for 65 yards and the score.
Of course, Utah's success can't solely be contributed to the clutch play of Johnson. The defense only held one team to single digits but never allowed any to score more than 28 points, either. Defensive end Paul Kruger was strangely not involved in the sack party (8 total) against Alabama but was a first team Mountain West selection and the best player on a defensive line that was the strength of the Utah defense. He led the team with 7 sacks and 15 tackles for loss on the year - both totals more than double any other defender on Utah had. The Utes also intercepted 19 passes which was good for 11th nationally and they intercepted 11 passes in their last four games, which was more than 53 teams achieved all season.
Utah wasn't a flashy team all year, and despite the hurry-up offense that shocked Alabama in the BCS game was largely a ball control offense (9th nationally in time of possession), almost equally dependent on rushing and passing.
It's probably safe to say this was the best season in Utah football history, and with wins over traditional powers Michigan (I know) and Alabama both along with 3 other wins against teams ranked in season-ending major polls, it's hard to deny the lone undefeated in college football a #1 ranking.
2. Florida Gators - [Southeastern] - (13-1 / 8-1)
Let me add a line to a portion of my summer preview of the Gators.
2008: Percy Harvin - 660 Yds (AND) Chris Rainey - 652 Yds (AND) Jeffrey Demps - 605 Yds2007: Kestahn Moore - 580 Yds - 6 TD
2006: DeShawn Wynn - 699 Yds - 6 TD
2005: DeShawn Wynn - 621 Yds - 7 TD
2004 (Utah): Marty Johnson - 802 Yds - 14 TD (AND) Quinton Ganther - 654 Yds - 2 TD
2003 (Utah): Brandon Warfield - 976 Yds - 11 TD
2002 (Bowling Green): Joe Alls - 801 Yds - 4 TD (AND) PJ Pope - 577 Yds - 4 TD
2001 (Bowling Green): Joe Alls - 553 Yds - 3 TD (AND) John Gibson - 444 Yds - 3 TD
I'm pretty sure everyone is aware of how good Tim Tebow is. Throwing 67 touchdowns to only 11 interceptions, having a big impact on two national championship teams, and having an attractive personality will get you that attention. But Urban Meyer's best rushing attack in all his years of coaching was the biggest factor in getting Florida back to the national championship game. No one spreads it around in the rushing game and has as much success doing so as Meyer and Mullen's offensive attacks have.
Official NCAA rushing statistics: Link
Up until Mississippi Loss: 139 Carries - 615 Yards - 4.42 YPC - 35.5 PPG
After Mississippi Loss: 406 Carries - 2621 Yards - 6.45 YPC - 46.9 PPG
So maybe all of this winning had just as much to do with Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey emerging in the running game as the post-Ole Miss loss Tebow speech. Demps only had 5 carries coming in to the Arkansas game and Rainey got 10+ carries in the two contests following the Ole Miss disaster. Harvin (why wasn't he in New York, again?), Demps and Rainey ALL finished in the top 6 nationally in yards per carry by the end of the year.
The special teams were arguably the best in the country with Brandon James returning kicks and kick blocks aplenty, but the improvement of the defense was pretty drastic. The Florida secondary was arguably the most improved unit in the country from last year, grabbing 24 interceptions which was good for 2nd nationally after only stealing 11 balls last year. That, along with Tim Tebow's incredible efficiency boosted the Gators to the nation's best turnover margin. They jumped from 98th in passing yards allowed last year to 20th with Ahmad Black, Major Wright and Joe Haden all having very solid sophomore seasons.
The defense is scary young, and with the talent the offense has coming back Florida will again be national title contenders in 2009.
Oops...Tebow, Tebow, Tebow.
3. Southern California Trojans - [Pacific-10] - (12-1 / 8-1)
The Trojan defense was the story all year but the offense trumped them in the Rose Bowl. It seemed like a misunderstood group all year. USC wasn't on national television as much as they usually seem to be and their most prominent appearance happened to be their only loss of the season on a Thursday night against Oregon State. They scored 17 and 20 points each in wins against California and Arizona, and while Big XII teams were piling up 40+ points per game regularly and having marquee games every week in the middle of the season it's easy to understand if people thought Mark Sanchez was having a rough go of it in his first season as the starting quarterback.
The emergence of more vertically effective receivers, Ronald Johnson (570 yards, 8 TDs) and Damian Williams (869 yards, 9 TDs), combined with solid play by senior Patrick Turner (741 yards, 10 TDs) to give the Trojans options outside that they simply didn't have last year. USC finished 8th nationally in yards per pass attempt after finishing 68th in 2007 with lumbering wide receivers David Ausberry and Vidal Hazelton. The passing offense went from 50th nationally to 22nd and as a result the offense scored 5 more points per game and improved from 29th to 11th in yards per game.
Of all the accolades the defense garnered, the most impressive thing to me was holding Cal and Oregon's rushing attacks to a combined 87 yards on 65 carries. The least Oregon rushed for outside of that game was 207 yards against Cal and Jahvid Best was held to his lowest output of the Pac-10 season against the Trojan defense. The Pac-10 wasn't the offense power the Big XII was, but holding 8 opponents to a touchdown or less is nothing to snuff at.
4. Texas Longhorns - [Big XII] - (12-1 / 7-1)
The Longhorn defense quickly shed the 'soft' label attributed to them the moment Will Muschamp was hired as the new defensive coordinator. Meanwhile, Colt McCoy led the team in rushing by almost 200 yards and the senior combo of wide receivers, Quan Cosby and Jordan Shipley, went for 2183 receiving yards on 181 catches and 21 touchdowns. Chris Ogbonnaya was the unsung hero as he touched the ball 120 times for 913 all purpose yards and had 7 touchdowns as a consistent contributor.
Besides the obvious improvement in play by McCoy, who was perhaps as indispensible as any player in America, the difference was the defense making plays behind the line of scrimmage. With Brain Orakpo and Sergio Kindle leading the way, the Longhorns finished tops nationally in sacks and in the top 20 in tackles for loss after substandard play in those categories just a year before. That helped to overcome the secondary's inability to snag interceptions as they only pulled down 6 which was less than everyone in the country but Fresno State and Miami.
5. Oklahoma Sooners - [Big XII] - (12-2 / 8-1)
It's really hard to image this program having 5 BCS losses in a row, but in my opinion this was the best group of the bunch, if that means anything. There were just too many missed opportunities in the first half of that Florida game. Everyone knew the offense wouldn't put up 60+ points like they had been doing all season, but it had to be frustrating for Sooner fans to watch their offense be so effective between the 20s, especially in the second quarter, only to come away with seven.
Bottom line, this is still the team to beat in the Big XII every year, having won the league 3 straight seasons and 6 of the 10 Stoops has been in Norman. Say what you want about Stoops in the big games out of conference, but he already has a national championship to his name and they'll be right back in the BCS picture very soon.
