College Football Capsules: Texas rallies past Ohio State 24-21 in Fiesta

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Left out of the national title game, Colt McCoy and Texas made the most of their trip to the Fiesta Bowl.

They just hope they did enough to impress poll voters.

McCoy hit Quan Cosby for a 26-yard touchdown with 16 seconds to play, lifting the third-ranked Longhorns to a 24-21 victory over No. 10 Ohio State on Monday night. The dramatic strike capped an 11-play, 78-yard drive that took only 1:42.

"It doesn't feel any better than to come from behind and win," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "It was just a classic, really, between Texas and Ohio State, the way it should be."

When it ended, Texas players rushed onto the field, then gathered in front of the band and sang "The Eyes of Texas" with jubilant fans.

As exhilarating as the victory was, it may not have been dominant enough to persuade voters that the Longhorns (12-1) deserve a share of the national championship. Because they were locked out of the Bowl Championship Series title game, Texas' only chance is The Associated Press Top 25.

McCoy had a message for the pollsters: "I don't think there's anybody in the country who can beat us at this point."

The Buckeyes (10-3) nearly did.

They flirted with the upset behind quarterbacks Terrelle Pryor and Todd Boeckman but instead went down to a third straight BCS bowl loss - a defeat that left the Big Ten 1-6 in this postseason.

It didn't help that Buckeyes tailback Chris "Beanie" Wells, who rushed for 106 yards on 16 carries, missed much of the second half with a concussion.

"That's the problem in tight ballgames like this," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. "Two outstanding teams, sometimes you finish it (and) the game ends when you are the one ahead, and sometimes the game ends when you're not."

The Longhorns rebounded after Ohio State had taken a 21-17 lead on a 15-yard run by Dan Herron with 2:05 to go.

That score came five minutes after Boeckman hit Pryor for a 5-yard score to cut Texas' lead to 17-15. Pryor's pass on the 2-point conversion was incomplete.

Boeckman completed five of 11 passes for 110 yards and a touchdown. Pryor was 5-for-14 for 66 yards, and also ran for 78 yards on 15 carries.

Brown, who once coached Vince Young to a national title, was impressed by Pryor, a rangy freshman.

"He will be a guy that's in a Heisman race, and it may be sooner than we think because he is a leader," Brown said.

But this night belonged to McCoy, himself a Heisman Trophy runner-up. He completed a school-record 41 of 59 passes for 414 yards and two touchdowns, ran for a score and was picked off once.

McCoy may have launched his candidacy for the 2009 award with a memorable march through the din of sold-out University of Phoenix Stadium, which was split between fans wearing burnt orange and others decked out in scarlet and gray.

Down 21-17 with 2:05 to play, McCoy calmly led the Longhorns down the field. He said he never doubted they would score.

"I can't think of a better place to be at that point," McCoy said.

On the touchdown, Cosby caught a short pass, slipped a tackle and sprinted toward the goal line before diving into the end zone.

"He made a play. I gave him a good ball," McCoy said. "I can't explain the feeling that we have right now. To have the faith and confidence in each other that we do, man, that was awesome."

McCoy completed seven of 10 passes for 76 yards on the final march and ran for the other 2 yards.

Before the touchdown, the biggest completion came on fourth-and-3 to James Kirkendoll at the Ohio State 40. The Buckeyes demanded a review, but the spot was upheld, setting the stage for the winning touchdown.

"The (official) closest to the ball spotted it one place and the guy from the other side said he had a better vantage point," Tressel said.

For most of the night, the Buckeyes stifled the high-powered Longhorns, who averaged 43.9 points this season but mustered only a field goal in the first half. They didn't lead until a nifty third-quarter touchdown run by McCoy.

The Longhorns finished in a three-way tie atop the rugged Big 12 South and thought their 10-point victory over Oklahoma should have put them in the conference title game. But Oklahoma was declared the division winner on a BCS standings tiebreaker, and the Sooners ripped Missouri in the Big 12 playoff to earn a trip to the national championship.

"This team started this way and finished this way, and they're obviously one of the best teams in the country if not the best," Brown said.

The Longhorns didn't look like it early on. Texas brought Bevo, its steer mascot, but left its offense back in Austin, at least in a sluggish first half.

The Longhorns failed to score in the first quarter. Texas was shut out in only four quarters all season - and only once in the first quarter, in a 39-33 loss at Texas Tech on Nov. 1.

Ryan Pretorius' 30-yard field goal with 5:39 left in the second quarter sent Ohio State to a 6-3 halftime lead.

Texas' best chance came late in the second, when McCoy smartly marched the Longhorns from their own 9 to the Ohio State 16 in 47 seconds.

But on third-and-2 at the Buckeyes 16 and 9 seconds to go, McCoy threw perhaps his worst pass of the season. McCoy lobbed the ball toward Cosby at the goal line, but safety Anderson Russell picked it off to kill the threat.

Had McCoy thrown the ball into the seats, the Longhorns would have had time for a chip-shot field goal. But they went into the dressing room still down by three.

It didn't take McCoy long to atone for the miscue.

On Texas' first possession of the second half, he scored on a terrific 14-yard run to give the Longhorns their first lead. Taking a shotgun snap, McCoy bolted through the right side of the line, broke to the sideline and then spun past charging cornerback Malcolm Jenkins, who came up with nothing.

Seven minutes later, McCoy found Cosby in the back of the end zone to put the Longhorns up 17-6.

"He is strong-willed and he is a guy that's very confident, and he never thinks he is going to lose," Brown said.

Texas' McCoy gets back at Buckeyes

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Colt McCoy got the best of Ohio State this time.

The Texas quarterback was just a wide-eyed freshman playing his second college game in 2006 when No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Texas met in Austin and the Buckeyes waltzed out of town with a 24-7 victory that was a baptism of big hits.

That was then.

The savvy McCoy of 2009, the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy, is no comparison to the player of three years ago.

Dusting off the dirt after several big hits - and two illegal blows to the head - McCoy passed for 414 yards and two touchdowns, the second to Quan Cosby with 16 seconds to play, to carry third-ranked Texas to a 24-21 win over No. 10 Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl on Monday night.

McCoy finished with a school-record 41 completions and ran for Texas' first touchdown in the Longhorns' fifth straight bowl win.

"We are going to fight to the end," McCoy said. "We proved that tonight."

Three years ago, McCoy gnashed his teeth as he walked off the field and the Buckeyes celebrated in his home stadium. This time, he was high-fiving teammates and fans and hugging his coaches as a broad smile beamed across his face.

His gritty performance could make him the clear favorite to win the Heisman next season if 2008 winner Sam Bradford of Oklahoma decides to leave for the NFL.

"He played as well as any quarterback can possibly play, especially the last drive," Texas coach Mack Brown. "I mean, to me, that's a Heisman-type drive."

McCoy was at his best in the third quarter and on the final drive.

With Texas (12-1) trailing 6-3, he scored the Longhorns' first touchdown on a 14-yard run when he spun around Buckeyes cornerback Malcolm Jenkins. The defender had ducked his head and must have been surprised when McCoy easily danced around him to get into the end zone.

Texas' second TD came when McCoy rolled to his right, spotted Jordan Shipley in the end zone and fired just as Cosby, who was running the other way, stepped in for the grab and the score.

McCoy, pumping his fist, danced all the way back to the bench.

None of it came easy.

The Buckeyes battered McCoy all game, sacking him twice and knocking him down numerous other times. Twice in the first half he took shots to the head by defensive lineman Thaddeus Gibson. On one sack, Gibson wrapped up McCoy with both arms, picked him up and slammed him down like a wet fish.

"He was very angry with me or something," McCoy said. "That was the biggest, best defense we've played this year. They were coming after me all night long. I'll be sore tomorrow."

By the second half, McCoy had found his rhythm and Texas was on a roll.

After Ohio State (10-3) took a 21-17 lead on Terrelle Pryor's touchdown catch late in the fourth, McCoy coolly drove the Longhorns to the winning touchdown.

Taking over at the Texas 22 with 1:58 to play, the Longhorns marched down the field in 11 plays with McCoy completing seven passes. None was bigger than a fourth-down toss to James Kirkendoll who got the first down by inches. The margin was so close that Ohio State challenged the spot of the ball because the Buckeyes believed they had stopped him short and won the game.

"We got a good spot," McCoy said.

After one more completion, Texas had 16 seconds left and maybe time for three more plays when McCoy fired a dart to Cosby across the middle. The receiver slipped a tackle and dived into the end zone without a Buckeye defender within 10 yards.

"That dive was ‘No one is going to stop me from getting in this end zone,"' Cosby said.

"I know he is a go-to guy," McCoy said. "We have done that all year long. I gave him a good ball and he made the play."

-- Jim Vertuno

Late TD ruins Ohio State's upset bid in Fiesta

GLENDALE, Ariz. - An early lead, missed opportunities, a heartbreaking finish.

Ohio State lost its third consecutive BCS bowl game Monday night. The previous two were numbing blowouts for the national championship. This 24-21 loss to No. 3 Texas in the Fiesta Bowl meant less but might have hurt more.

The 10th-ranked Buckeyes scored 15 straight points to take a 21-17 lead with 2:20 to play. A stunning victory and vindication for a limping Big Ten was in sight. Then, Texas quarterback Colt McCoy put together the winning drive, capped by a 26-yard touchdown pass to Quan Cosby with 16 seconds to play.

Ohio State's Anderson Russell lay face-down on the turf after missing the tackle that allowed Cosby to break free.

"Of course it hurts to come this close and lose," defensive tackle Nadar Abdalla said, "because we tried so hard and gave it everything we had. This is my last game and it meant a lot to me. It would have been a lot worse if I didn't know that everybody gave it their all."

Chris "Beanie" Wells, in what might be his last Ohio State game, rushed for 106 yards on 16 carries, but just 15 yards on four attempts before leaving the game with a concussion in the third quarter.

"My guys fought out there and I'm proud of them for that," Wells said. "Unfortunately, I couldn't be out there to help my team when they needed me most."

Asked when he'd make a decision on whether to go forego his senior season to go to the NFL, Wells said, "I haven't even thought about that."

In so many ways it was a tremendous effort by the Buckeyes, who held Texas to its lowest point total of the season. But that was hardly consolation for a defeat that left the Big Ten 1-6 in bowl games this season.

"It's tough," wide receiver Brian Hartline said. "You grab the wins, you grab the Big Ten titles, but I'm sure the bowl losses will haunt me for years from now."

Ohio State rolled up a big advantage in yards in the first half but managed just two field goals for a 6-3 lead.

Texas kicked in gear in the third quarter, with a 14-0 advantage in first downs and two touchdowns that put the Longhorns up 17-6.

The Buckeyes (10-3) weren't finished, though, proving that they belonged in a game many thought they didn't deserve.

Terrelle Pryor, Ohio State's slippery-quick freshman quarterback, caught the first TD pass of his college career, a 5-yarder from Todd Boeckman to cut it to 17-15. The senior Boeckman had several plays at quarterback, often with Pryor as a wideout, a plan that eventually paid off.

"Todd is a special guy," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. "Every one of us wanted to do all we could to make him a part of the plan. ... And I thought Terrelle in a big game as a true freshman did some very good things."

Pryor's 2-point conversion pass failed, but Ohio State held the Longhorns to three-and-out, then came back and took the lead on Daniel Herron's 15-yard touchdown run with 2:20 to go.

That was too much time to prevent the Buckeyes from another loss in a big bowl game. Pryor said coming close was not at all satisfying.

"It's not good enough to say at least we hung on," he said.

Senior All-America linebacker James Laurinaitis said it was a tough way to go out.

"You wish the defense to be put in a chance to win it and we didn't make plays," he said. "They made the plays. That's all there is to it. There is no perfect call for anything. We had a chance to make a tackle. We have a chance to get to the quarterback or do this or do that. We've got to do it."

In the 2007 national title game, Ohio State led Florida 7-0 and lost 41-14. In last season's national championship game, the Buckeyes led LSU 10-0 and lost 38-24. And this year against USC, Ohio State led 3-0 and lost 35-3, then led Penn State 6-3 before losing 13-6.

-- Bob Baum

Souped-up Sooners have no time to celebrate

MIAMI - No time to celebrate. The high-fives can wait. Oklahoma's incomparable no-huddle offense is always in a rush. Not until the high-scoring Sooners reach the end zone do they take time to admire their work.

Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford and the Sooners scored an NCAA-record 702 points this season, often striking so fast, moving so quickly between plays, opponents were left wondering what hit them.

Oklahoma had 18 scoring drives of less than 60 seconds. There were moments when even Bradford had a tough time staying with his souped-up Sooners.

"Sometimes we'd be going and all of a sudden it's third down-and-10 and I wouldn't realize that because the first two plays have gone so quick," he said.

Slowing down Oklahoma is almost impossible. Florida's job in the BCS national championship game Thursday night is to simply keep pace with the Sooners.

"They really don't give you a chance to get lined up," Florida All-American linebacker Brandon Spikes said during media day Monday at Dolphins Stadium. "They'll get a big play just because a guy was out of his gap or he wasn't ready to play."

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops developed the Sooners' need for speed shortly after they were handed a 48-28 loss in the Fiesta Bowl by a West Virginia team that was drilled by then-coach Rich Rodriguez not to dilly-dally between snaps.

Rodriguez, now with Michigan, has been using the hurry-up since his days coaching at NAIA Glenville State in West Virginia.

"You ever watch a team go up and down (the field) in a 2-minute drill and say, ‘Why don't they do that the whole game?' You've got to be in great shape and it takes a commitment to it," Rodriguez said in a phone interview.

"It is an adjustment. You grow up from Pop Warner days, running a play, then getting in the huddle, calling a play, then jogging to the line and running a play. Then repeating it. And here you run a play, then run another play. It goes against the grain of what you grow up on."

And it can really catch an opponent off-guard, as anyone can tell who watched Utah jump on Alabama with the no-huddle in the Utes' surprising 28-17 Sugar Bowl victory.

Rodriguez has a kindred spirit on the Oklahoma staff in offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson. Both devotees of the spread offense, they've often shared ideas and philosophies.

Wilson had used the no-huddle while working under the late Randy Walker at Northwestern and Miami of Ohio.

So when Stoops came to Wilson and said he'd like to the Sooners to pick up the pace, Wilson had a plan ready to go. The tools were in place, too.

Rodriguez said the speed at which a team can run the no-huddle is directly tied to the experience and smarts of the quarterback and the offensive line.

In Bradford, Oklahoma had a quarterback who set NCAA records in 2007 as a redshirt freshman. Up front, the Sooners had four seniors and a junior in the starting lineup.

The next step for Wilson was teaching his players and getting them to commit.

"It really took a long time," Oklahoma center Jon Cooper said. "We were in two-a-days and we thought we were going as fast as we can and coach Wilson completely stopped what we were doing and started yelling at us and saying, ‘This isn't going to work, this isn't fast enough.'

"We were kind of like, ‘I don't know how we're going to go any faster."'

The change of pace was especially tough on the huge offensive linemen.

"When we first started back in the spring, I think the whole O-line was a little skeptical," said tackle Phil Loadholt, who dropped from 350 to about 335 pounds to be better suited to run the no-huddle. "We used to look forward to maybe after a play, go back get in the huddle and maybe take a couple of deep breathes."

By the end of preseason, Wilson had seen enough progress to go with the no-huddle.

The Sooners scored 109 points in their first two games, but still they weren't going fast enough for Wilson.

"We had to teach our guys, you don't have time to celebrate," he said. "Give the ball to the referee. The faster the ball's in play, the faster we can play."

As if having a lineup filled with NFL prospects wasn't enough for defenses to worry about when facing Oklahoma, now they had to stress about simply getting set.

TCU, which had the No. 2 defense in the country before the bowls, allowed 35 points in the first half to Oklahoma.

Horned Frogs coach Gary Patterson said he's never seen a team play that fast early in a game. The Frogs drew two penalties for having too many men on the field, and gave up a couple of easy touchdowns because they were not prepared for the snap.

"That was my fault because I tried to put in a call late as they were coming to the line of scrimmage and it just wouldn't work," Patterson said in a phone interview. "When I finally let my kids play, they played at lot better."

Having scored at least 60 points in each of their last five games, the Sooners seem to have mastered the no-huddle, right? Not according to Loadholt.

"It's still not perfect yet."

-- Ralph D. Russo

Lewis endures loss to star for No. 2 Sooners

MIAMI - This is the best way Travis Lewis can think of to heal.

Lewis' jump from the bottom of the depth chart into a leadership role for No. 2 Oklahoma was accompanied by the most painful of losses.

Right in the middle of his breakout redshirt-freshman season, Lewis' infant daughter succumbed in a fight for life that began when she was born prematurely. The linebacker has kept working through his grief, helping lead the Sooners into Thursday night's BCS championship game against top-ranked Florida.

The death is still so painful for Lewis that he declines to talk about specifics, except to say that football has helped get him through.

"It's been a blessing in more ways than one. You have your things and you learn from them. You grow from it," the 20-year-old Lewis said Monday. "You just can't sit back and blame a lot because you're going to have things in life that don't go your way, that you're confused about because you don't think should have happened to you. But you grow from it.

"I'm on the biggest stage in the nation right now."

Word crept out after the Sooners' Nov. 1 win against Nebraska that Lewis had been playing with a heavy heart following the death of his daughter earlier in the week. His teammates let Lewis know he could lean on them, visiting his house and sending a flood of text messages.

"Everybody was behind him 100 percent and let him know that whatever he needed to talk about, whatever he needed, just holler at us and we'll get it done for him," fellow linebacker Keenan Clayton said.

Led by veteran Ryan Reynolds, the linebackers had become a close-knit group over the summer with cookouts and sessions of video games, and they bonded even more after being singled out as the weakness of Oklahoma's defense at the start of the season.

Lewis was among the primary question marks. He had no experience when he emerged as a starter on the weak side for the season opener. Even then, he was thought to be only a temporary replacement until Austin Box, another redshirt freshman, recovered from knee surgery in time for the second game of the season.

Instead, Lewis became a playmaker for the Sooners and was thrust into a leadership role after Reynolds suffered a season-ending knee injury against Texas. He became responsible for getting the linebackers lined up correctly before each snap, taking over duties he'd only watched when Reynolds was playing.

So when tragedy struck, Lewis simply couldn't turn his back on his teammates.

"They've been here for me all season, so I felt like I couldn't let them down. Whatever I was going through, I wanted to be here for them," he said.

His teammates are proud of him.

"It was hard for me because I love Travis like he's my brother, like we came from the same momma," Clayton said. "It was hard on me when it happened, so just imagine how hard it was on him. And look how strong he stood. You could never tell that anything like that happened."

Lewis credits his season of watching eventual first-round NFL draft pick Curtis Lofton with helping get him prepared for a year in which he snapped Brian Bosworth's school record for tackles by a freshman with 133. He also was named the Big 12 defensive newcomer of the year. In the Sooners' win against Texas Tech, he forced a fumble and grabbed one of his four interceptions this season.

"It's awful to have to go through something like that, especially at that young of an age. I can't even imagine losing a daughter like that," Box said. "We felt for him. We hurt for him as well.

"It's just an unbelievable story and he's just a tremendous guy, very strong, to be able to accomplish what he's done."

-- Jeff Latzke

Tebow laughs off Oklahoma DB's negative critique

MIAMI - Oklahoma cornerback Dominique Franks walked into Dolphin Stadium alongside teammates Monday, took a seat in the stands and politely declined every interview request.

Franks probably wished he would have been as quiet the day before.

Franks stirred things up at the Bowl Championship Series title game Sunday by calling Florida's Tim Tebow the fourth-best quarterback in the Big 12.

Tebow and top-ranked Florida responded Monday during media day for the championship game. The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner laughed it off and hinted it could motivate him in the title game Thursday night. His teammates weren't nearly as diplomatic.

"How could you say something like that when he won the Heisman as a sophomore?" linebacker Brandon Spikes said. "We really didn't think too much of it. When you talk about Tim, he's going try to come out and make you pay. It's kind of like deja vu all over again. Last time a guy talked about him, he came out and put 50 on him."

Spikes was referring to LSU defensive tackle Ricky Jean-Francois, who said the Tigers were going to try to knock Tebow out of their matchup earlier this season. Tebow brushed aside those comments, too, then accounted for three touchdowns in a 51-21 romp.

He had similar success last season after Florida State linebacker Geno Hayes said Tebow was "going down" in their annual rivalry. Tebow responded by throwing for 262 yards, running for 89 more and accounting for five scores in a 45-12 drubbing. Hayes, meanwhile, had a meaningless tackle in the fourth quarter.

"I like it. It's fun," Tebow said of pregame banter. "It makes it more competitive, and I'll enjoy it. You can say whatever you want. That's fine. We still get to go play. That's what I like I do."

Franks raised eyebrows Sunday when he said Tebow ranks behind Oklahoma teammate and Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford, Texas' Colt McCoy and Texas Tech's Graham Harrell.

"I think our quarterbacks are better," Franks said. "Just the way they conduct themselves and how they play on the field. I just think, playing against those guys, it's a lot harder to prepare for those guys than it is for Tebow."

Tebow first heard about the comments during a quarterbacks meeting. He chuckled at the time, then spent the better part of an hour doing the same Monday when asked repeatedly about the critique.

"Who knows? Maybe," Tebow said. "That might have been a compliment. We'll see."

When the subject came up again, Tebow responded, "I'm thankful for being fourth. There's a lot of good quarterbacks in the Big 12."

Florida receiver Percy Harvin had a much different take.

"What people don't realize is you never want to wake up a sleeping giant," Harvin said. "Tebow, you kind of want to leave him alone because now you have to deal with him running even harder than he would have before. So good luck.

"With any great player, you want to just let him play. You don't want to give him extra ammunition to want to play even harder. And for people to say they want to hit Tebow harder, he just laughs at that and just runs harder."

Cornerback Joe Haden also was trying to figure out what would prompt someone to say something like that just days before the biggest game of the season. Haden said he just shook his head side to side when he heard what Franks told reporters.

"I didn't know what to say," Haden said. "I was like, ‘Is he joking?"'

Apparently not.

Franks was given several opportunities to clarify his words Sunday, but he stood by them.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops downplayed the whole thing Monday, saying his comments were the result of a third-year sophomore not having a lot of experience in an interview setting.

"In the end, we all - Dom and the whole team - we have great respect for Tim Tebow and a bunch of their players," Stoops said. "It gets down to experience as a young guy handling questions that lead him into something that he really didn't intend to say."

Sooners linebacker Travis Lewis disagreed with Franks' assessment, saying "I wouldn't have said that because you've got to respect that he's won the Heisman.

"He was the best player in the nation last year," Lewis said. You can't say that about somebody like that. I just think he got caught up in all this and sort of let something slip."

-- Mark Long

Florida's Harvin says ankle 90 percent healed

MIAMI - Percy Harvin says his sprained ankle is "90 percent" healed - the result of spending nearly 100 percent of his time in the training room over the holidays.

The Gators' speedy playmaker stayed in Gainesville, Fla., every day but Christmas and New Year's Day during the Gators' winter break. He estimated he was in the training room 15 hours each day with trainer Kyle Johnston - which would put him in there from about the time he wakes up until he goes to bed.

"Our team made jokes about it. They said me and one of the trainers, we're dating each other because of the time we spent with each other," Harvin said Monday.

All that work, though, got Harvin to the point that he's feeling about 90 percent, and that's plenty good enough for him to play against No. 2 Oklahoma (2-1) on Thursday night in the BCS national championship game. Harvin said he was able to make cuts in practice and that No. 1 Florida even implemented some top-secret special plays for him in practice Sunday aimed at exploiting matchups.

"The problem I have now is slowing down, so I just won't slow down. I'll just keep running," Harvin said. "Cutting is not the problem. Just slowing down sometimes, it kind of locks up a little bit."

Harvin missed the SEC championship game after severely spraining his right ankle against Florida State on Nov. 29, and said it felt like a funeral to him because he wasn't able to play - even though the Gators (12-1) won.

Harvin ranked second on the team with 1,133 all-purpose yards, with more than 500 yards rushing and receiving, and a team-high seven touchdown catches.

"He's a playmaker. He's one of those guys that can take over a game," Oklahoma linebacker Travis Lewis said. "With his speed, with his quickness and he plays multiple positions at wide receiver and running back, he can hurt you in so many ways. They're going to be a much better team with him."

Harvin said about his only question remaining is how he'll fare against contact, since he hasn't been hit in practice. He figures the adrenaline of the championship game should make him feel like he's 100 percent.

"He's done above and beyond what we've asked," Florida coach Urban Meyer said. "I can only go by what he tells me and what our trainers tell me, and he'll be ready to play in this game."

NO SOUTH BEACH

Florida coach Urban Meyer eliminated any chance of trouble on South Beach this week, deeming the famed nightspot off limits to his players.

The top-ranked Gators welcomed the restriction.

"We have the rest of our lives to go to South Beach," tight end Tate Casey said. "We don't need anyone getting in trouble down there. We really want to make this as much of a business trip as possible, and I'm not sure being down on South Beach would allow that.

"We want to stay focused. It's the national championship game. This is no time to be fooling around. Coach knows that and we understand that."

So what did the Gators get instead of a chance to hit trendy bars and clubs, ogle topless sunbathers on the beach and maybe hobnob with models, professional athletes and celebrities?

"They gave us a shuttle bus to the mall (Sunday)," offensive tackle Phil Trautwein said.

BOX UPDATE

Middle linebacker Austin Box has returned to practice after spraining his left knee in Oklahoma's regular-season finale and is trying to get ready for Thursday night's game.

"I feel good. I'm working my way back into playing shape," Box said.

Box, who became the Sooners' starter after Ryan Reynolds tore a ligament in his right knee, missed the Big 12 championship game last month while recuperating and was replaced by former third-stringer Mike Balogun.

"Both those guys are equally smart. They both have that drive that they want to play that position," said linebacker Travis Lewis, the Sooners' leading tackler. "They both have it that, ‘This position is mine.' It's great to have two guys that stay hungry like that."

GUEST REPORTERS

Media day typically offers players an opportunity to pose as reporters. On Monday, Oklahoma receiver Quentin Chaney got his turn.

Chaney grabbed a microphone and spent half an hour interviewing coaches and teammates. He asked offensive linemen Jon Cooper how much he loved the Sooners, then grilled him about what he has been at night.

"I've been in bed," Cooper said. "But I've heard stories about your late-night strolls on the beach."

Chaney abruptly ended that interview. He moved on to coach Bob Stoops, asking him why he was sweating through his long-sleeved shirt even after he took off his suit jacket.

"It's ‘cause these guys are grilling me," Stoops said. "I should have made you guys wear one."

Chaney's best line, though, was to Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford. He asked Bradford how he would fare as the fourth member of the Jonas Brothers.

"Well, if you see my hair, I think that's one thing," said Bradford, whose curly locks would fit right in alongside Kevin, Joe and Nick. "But I can't sing, so I really don't think I could fit in with them."

Chaney then asked Bradford to sign a few turns.

"Only if you'll start dancing for everyone," Bradford said.

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Dan Mullen carries a cell phone in each pocket, one for each job.

The Florida quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator has already started working on his new gig as Mississippi State head coach.

He's already started recruiting for the Bulldogs, and he'll call plays for the Gators in the BCS national championship game against Oklahoma on Thursday night.

On Friday, he'll have his first team meeting in Starkville, Miss.

"It just takes a lot of organizational skills right now," said Mullen, who at 36 will be the fourth youngest coach in major college football.

"When I've been involved doing my stuff there, you have to be 100 percent focused on that job. When I come back and I start working on the game plan and practice and film, you have to be 100 percent focused on this job."

It doesn't allow for much time for luxuries such as sleep.

"It's pretty tough," he said at media day in Dolphins Stadium on Friday. "A lot of the adrenaline keeps you going."

COMEBACK

Oklahoma center Jon Cooper was told by doctors he might not ever play football again when he dislocated and broke his right ankle in 2005 against Texas Tech.

"They were very positive with me, but they were blunt," he said.

Cooper went through what he called a "brutal" rehab and three surgeries to fix the injury.

"Everyone was really helpful. All my teammates, my parents my family, everybody was supportive of me. That's why I was successful," he said.

"If it didn't workout, I probably would have gotten into a student coaching," he said.

Despite it all, he was back playing in 2006 has started all but one game for the Sooners since, anchoring a line that has been one of the best in the country.

The Sooners have allowed only 11 sacks this season.

As for the pain of what was a gruesome injury, he said it was indescribable.

"After something like that happens, you can't even remember what it felt like," he said.

-- Jeff Latzke