NCAA Football

Oklahoma Sooners Win Race to Deliver First Bulletin Board Material, Target Tim Tebow

Posted Jan 04, 2009 7:06PM By Brian Grummell (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Florida, Oklahoma, Big 12, SEC, Bowl Games

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FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.

Death, taxes and pregame smack talk -- they're all inevitable. Oklahoma cornerback Dominique Franks delivered a doozy today ahead of Thursday night's BCS championship game, challenging Gators quarterback Tim Tebow and ripping the offensive talent in the SEC for good measure.

Exhibit A:
"With us being in Florida and playing against Florida, everybody's going to think Tebow should have won the Heisman," Franks said. "But the right person won the Heisman, and we're going to go out there and show everybody the reason why he won it."
Exhibit B:
"If you look at the three best quarterbacks in the country, they came from the Big 12,"
Exhibit C:
"The three best receivers in the country came from the Big 12. The three best tight ends came from the Big 12. So we've faced some great offenses, and a lot of people don't understand that other conferences don't have what we face."
And with that, ESPN now has more than enough filler for the next few days of idle chatter before the big game. This is nothing new for Oklahoma before a BCS Championship game -- more on that in a moment -- and frankly, Franks wasn't finished talking.

Clearly not satisfied leaving all his secondary mates out to dry, Franks barbed Tebow for not throwing enough.

"Going into a game and knowing a quarterback's going to throw the ball 40 times a game versus coming into a game and knowing he's probably only going to throw it about 15 or 20. ... It makes it a lot harder to prepare for those [Big 12] guys,"

So basically, the Big 12 is awesome, has the country's best skill players and by extension better than Florida's, Tim Tebow is easier to play against than other, superior Big 12 quarterbacks because he doesn't throw as much, and Oklahoma's defense won't have any problems Thursday night.

Got it.

Needless to say this is incredibly stupid, particularly when Oklahoma is considered an underdog and may otherwise have caught Florida napping. Given the Sooners' anemic big-game performances, now was not the time to bring back memories of 2004 when Oklahoma defensive end Larry Birdine had too much to say before the BCS championship game against USC. It's eerie how parallel the commentary is. Said Birdine:

Leinart was a ''good quarterback, but he's not a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback.''
And ...
''I want to respect them just because I have to play them, but then I watch them on tape and everything, and I realize that they're an average team.''
And ...
''The Pac-10 has no speed. Our receivers are bigger than their receivers. Our D-line is faster than their D-line.''

Good one big guy. Final score: USC 55 Oklahoma 19, oops upside your head. Bob Stoops must be in a cold sweat right about now after those comments.

Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables, the same guy probably telling these players how good they are, humorously tried to put out the flames by cracking on Franks.

"I don't know, maybe it's just a young guy who doesn't know any better," Venables said. "He doesn't watch enough tape. I really mean that. But I think he's going to bat for a lot of guys who he has a lot of respect for."

Yeah this issue isn't going to be put to bed anytime soon, good times.

All that said, Florida isn't immune from its own questionable comments. Gator linebacker Brandon Spikes said something that slipped under the radar but apparently swiftly made its way to the Sooners' locker room.

Spikes said on Saturday it seemed they put most of the best athletes in the Big 12 on offense and that the defenses looked a step slow.

As a college football observer I tend to agree with him, but I can also see how that can be taken the wrong way by a good defensive athlete in the Big 12. Fortunately this will all be settled on Saturday Thursday.

Tags: BCS, BCS+Championship+Game, BcsChampionshipGame, BowlSeason08, Larry+Birdine, LarryBirdine, Matt+Leinart, MattLeinart, smack+talk, SmackTalk, Tim+Tebow, TimTebow

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