College Football Capsules: UT could have used time-killing drive in Lubbock

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Time was winding down as Colt McCoy was firing passes and Texas was marching down the field.

Quan Cosby hauled one in, broke a tackle and dived into the end zone for the go-head touchdown with only 16 seconds left to give Texas a 24-21 Fiesta Bowl win over No. 10 Ohio State.

It was just the kind of drive Texas needed two months ago against Texas Tech: One that left the Buckeyes no time to recover.

Had Texas done that on a chilly night in Lubbock in November, the Longhorns probably would be playing this week for a shot at the national title.

Instead, McCoy's go-ahead drive that night left the Red Raiders with more than a minute to rally make the play of the season: Michael Crabtree's touchdown catch with one second left that jumbled the Bowl Championship Series title chase and ultimately knocked Texas out it.

Despite slim hopes of finishing No. 1 in The Associated Press rankings, the No. 3 Longhorns probably will have to settle for a thrilling 12-1 season led by a junior quarterback who has etched his name into the school record books and the hearts of Texas fans.

Splattered with dirt and sweat and smeared with grass stains after beating Ohio State in his 10th career second-half comeback win, McCoy still thought his team was the best in the country.

"We're No. 1," McCoy said after passing for 414 yards against the Buckeyes in Texas' fifth straight bowl victory. "I don't think there's anybody who can beat us. No one expected us to be this good."

No one expected McCoy to be this good. The heir to the Texas offense after Vince Young led the Longhorns to the 2005 national championship, McCoy was solid in 2006 and 2007 before maturing into one of the best players in college football.

When Texas reported to training camp, McCoy laid out a goal for the team to win more than 10 games. His brash confidence that Texas could challenge for the Big 12 and national titles played out on his slender shoulders and legs as he passed for a school record 3,859 yards and 34 touchdowns and led the team with 579 rushing and 11 more TDs.

At midseason, when Texas was rolling through wins over Oklahoma, Missouri and Oklahoma State, McCoy was the favorite for the Heisman Trophy. That too, was dashed by the loss in Lubbock and he eventually finished second to Sooners quarterback Sam Bradford.

The loss dropped the Longhorns into a three-way tie that ultimately sent the Sooners to the Big 12 title game and on to the BCS title game against Florida. It frustrated Brown enough that he's considering dropping out of the USA Today coaches poll that makes up part of the BCS standings.

On the field after beating Ohio State, Brown said he would vote Texas No. 1, even though the BCS title automatically goes to the winner of Thursday's title game.

If nothing else, the Longhorns may have set themselves up as the favorites for a title run in 2009.

It will start with McCoy, who has pledged to return for his senior season.

"He never thinks he is going to lose," Brown said. "The last drive, I mean, to me, that's a Heisman-type drive."

The Longhorns lose eight senior starters, three on the defensive line, including All-American defensive end Brian Orakpo. Other seniors who won't be there in 2009 include Cosby, Texas' leading receiver who caught 14 passes against Ohio State and team leaders defensive tackle Roy Miller and tailback Chris Ogbonnaya.

Brown acknowledged on Sunday that leaves the Longhorns with some unknowns.

"A lot of people say this team will be great next year. That's not necessarily true. When you lose some ingredients like a Brian Orakpo and his leadership or Roy Miller and you don't have those guys, my experience is you just don't waive the wand and say we've got a lot of good players coming back and it works again."

After the Fiesta Bowl, several Longhorns sounded confident they can win the Big 12 and national titles in 2009.

"I think we have a lot of talent coming back and if work had like the team this year did then I think it (the national championship) is ours next year," linebacker Sergio Kindle said.

Kindle himself is a question mark. The junior linebacker-defensive end was one of Texas' top pass rushers and must decide if he will return for next season or head to the NFL.

"I'm going to talk the coaches and do what's best for my family," Kindle said.

There will be some speculation about Brown's future as well. In November, Brown and Texas officials announced that defensive coordinator Will Muschamp will take over the program when Brown retires.

Brown insists he's not ready to quit and noted he still has eight years left on his contract. Muschamp says there's "no timetable" for him to take over that he's willing to wait.

But the Muschamp deal was about getting Texas set for the future, one that could look very bright for McCoy and Co. in 2009.

Who's No. 1? Title game may not tell

MIAMI - It used to be so simple.

Two polls, a few bowls and - in the end - a national champion, maybe two.

Now there already are three teams claiming to be the best in the land, and none of them is playing Thursday night in what's supposed to be the national championship game between No. 2 Oklahoma and top-ranked Florida. Utah's legal eagle is so mad he's trying to figure out a way to blow up the Bowl Championship Series once and for all.

With Utah having completed another perfect season - its second in four years - that wasn't good enough to even get the Utes into the BCS title game. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff announced Tuesday he is investigating the BCS for a possible violation of federal antitrust laws.

He contends the agreement unfairly puts schools such as Utah, Boise State and others in conferences without an automatic bid to the most lucrative bowl games at a competitive and financial disadvantage.

Maybe the AGs in California and Texas can cook up something up to try to help Southern California and Texas?

Pete Carroll has already proclaimed his USC team the best in the country. Texas coach Mack Brown is proud to say his Texas team is tops. And, of course, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham will be giving the unbeaten Utes his vote for No. 1.

Wait a minute: What about the Gators and Sooners?

"This is the national championship game," Oklahoma defensive end Auston English said. "There's a reason they call this the national championship game and all the other ones bowl games."

The winner at Dolphin Stadium will get a crystal trophy and the No. 1 ranking in at least one of the major polls, probably both.

This, however, is certain: There will be no undisputed national champion this season. The debate will rage on long after the confetti flies.

Neither the Florida or Oklahoma athletic directors would comment on Shurtleff's plan to investigate the BCS, and BCS officials also declined to talk about it.

This is not the first time a team that didn't play in the title game made a good case to be No. 1. But never have so many so boldly stated they deserve the national crown.

Considering the top six teams in the final regular-season AP Top 25 entered the bowl season with one loss, maybe it's no surprise.

First, No. 5 USC jumped all over No. 6 Penn State in the Rose Bowl. Only some garbage-time touchdowns made the score, 38-24, look as if it was a competitive game.

As if that wasn't enough to convince the football world just who's the best, Carroll had this parting shot before he left the field: "With all due respect, those are two great programs (Florida and Oklahoma), I don't think anybody can beat the Trojans."

Carroll, a staunch and vocal supporter of a major college playoff system, does not have a vote in the USA Today coaches' poll.

The American Football Coaches Association has agreed to have its poll voters make the winner of the BCS title game No. 1 on their final ballots.

Nonetheless, that apparently won't stop Brown and Whittingham from casting votes for their teams.

"Someone would have to convince me otherwise and that hasn't happened," Whittingham said Tuesday.

While their votes would still be tabulated, Brown and Whittingham also might get a stern talking to from Grant Teaff, executive director of the AFCA. Teaff said earlier this week he planned to send out a memo reminding his members of that agreement.

Only after the 2003 season, when LSU beat Oklahoma in the BCS national title game, but Southern California was voted No. 1 in the AP Top 25, have coaches broken that agreement.

Three coaches, including Carroll, voted for USC that year.

No. 7 Utah stunned No. 4 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl last week, with a convincing 31-17 victory and finished the season as major college football's only unbeaten team at 13-0. Playing in the Mountain West Conference hurts the Utes' case, even though the league finished 6-2 against the Pac-10.

The Longhorns have felt all along they should be playing in the BCS title game instead of Oklahoma. Texas beat the Sooners 45-35 in October. But the Big 12's divisional tiebreaker and BCS standings prevented them from making it to Miami.

There was some hope in Austin that an impressive victory against Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, combined with an Oklahoma victory in Miami, would lead to AP voters making the Longhorns their national champion.

As exciting as Texas' 24-21 victory on Monday was, it didn't seem to help their cause.

In an informal survey of AP pollsters taken Tuesday, 12 of 30 voters to respond said they either were likely or definitely planning to vote the winner of Florida-Oklahoma game No. 1.

"In my mind there is no debate," Barker Davis from The Washington Times said in an e-mail. "This isn't like USC/LSU a few years back. The two teams who were the most impressive from the nation's two most impressive conferences actually made it to the title game, and my vote is a lock to the Florida/Oklahoma winner."

Most of the 18 other voters who said they were undecided had USC, Utah and the winner of the national championship game in the running. There was mild support for Texas, and only if Oklahoma won an ugly game against Florida.

"It's not a lock that I'll vote the winner of the BCS title game as national champ," John Heuser of The Ann Arbor News said in an e-mail. "If neither team looks especially good, I'll have no problem voting for a different team."

Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald said he has made up his mind and the Utes are going to be No. 1 on his ballot.

"Would I have Utah favored in a game against Florida or Oklahoma? Probably not," he said in an e-mail. "But it doesn't matter. Utah won every game in the regular season - which is the playoffs in the current, flawed system - and then went to the deep South and whacked a good Alabama team."

-- Ralph D. Russo

Gridiron grandeur: SEC makes its case for No. 1

Let the rest of the country brag about its ivy-covered traditions and its cultural superiority. Down in Dixie, it's all about trotting out the nation's top college football teams on any given Saturday.

We're talking Southeastern Conference, which long ago proclaimed itself the best in the land. End of discussion.

It's a glory road of the gridiron that starts in Florida, winds its way up through Georgia and Tennessee, then curves back into Alabama and Mississippi and Louisiana, an unrivaled path of pigskin prestige.

Since the powers that run college football created the Bowl Championship Series a decade ago, SEC teams have won the national title four times. No other conference has won more than twice.

Florida could make it five national titles - and three in a row - when the Gators meet the Big 12's Oklahoma in the BCS championship game Thursday night.

Given its long-standing success, it's easy to see why the SEC has become the league everyone else loves to hate. These guys don't mind tooting their own horn, either, which only adds to the hard feelings emanating from the rest of the country.

"They have a golden spoon in their mouth," said Glenn Rhea, a 33-year-old fan and graduate of Big 12 school Texas Tech. "They always think they're better than everybody else."

And why not?

The last conference to take three straight Associated Press titles? That would be the SEC, which did it some three decades ago with Alabama (1978-79) and Georgia (1980).

In this updated version of the Civil War, the Big 12 is just an annoyance (granted, they did have four pretty good teams this year), the Big Ten is a bunch of slow-footed, three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dusters, the Pac-10 is nothing more than USC and the Nine Dwarfs. What about the Atlantic Coast Conference? C'mon, that's a basketball league. The Big East? Puh-lease.

"When you do it three years in a row," said Florida tight end Tate Casey, "some people are going to start resenting you. I think that's what we're seeing."

But this dynamic runs a bit deeper.

College football is the undisputed king of Southern sports, unencumbered by the loyalties reserved for pro teams (latecomers to the region) and a source of pride to those who still remember the struggles of integration and the civil rights movement.

The first major league franchise to settle in the Deep South was baseball's Atlanta Braves, which arrived from Milwaukee in 1966. The New York Yankees already had won 20 World Series titles before the South got a crack at its first.

While plenty of pro teams have arrived on the scene since the Braves, they've mainly concentrated in Atlanta and around fast-growing Florida. Five of the nine states represented in the SEC - Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and South Carolina - have no major professional teams to divert attention from the two main seasons in this neck of the woods, football and spring football practice.

In another interesting twist, black athletes once barred from the SEC by Jim Crow have become a dominant force on the football field, providing a rich source of homegrown talent and an enticing way out for those growing up on poverty-plagued backroads.

It's been said that Bear Bryant, the legendary Alabama coach, did more to integrate the South than any troops or judges or protesters when he scheduled a game against Southern Cal in 1970. The Trojans' star running back, Sam Cunningham, was black. After he ran all over the Crimson Tide in a 42-21 victory, the recalcitrant segregationists in the Heart of Dixie decided it might be a good idea to have some African-Americans on their team.

Now, it's impossible to envision Southern football without stars such as Percy Harvin or Knowshon Moreno. Heck, they're leading the cheers for schools that once shunned them.

Michael Oher, an African-American lineman at Mississippi, played the Cotton Bowl with "SEC" written in the blackened shade under his eyes. The Rebels backed up his bravado with a resounding 47-34 victory over Texas Tech.

"We had to represent," Oher explained afterward. "There was a lot of talk of the Big 12 being better. It's not true. We had to show ‘em."

Even those natives who don't consider themselves SEC fans have to give the conference its due. Just listen to David Franklin, a civil engineering student at Georgia Tech (an ACC member) who's got family ties to the Big 12.

"Depth-wise, the SEC is the best football conference in the country - and my brother plays for the University of Oklahoma," the 20-year-old junior said. "Even though the Big 12 is strong this year, I still think you have to go with the SEC top to bottom."

And Franklin spoke before his school was wiped out 38-3 in the Chick-fil-A Bowl by LSU, an SEC powerhouse that won the national championship a year ago but was a bit down this season.

The truth be told, there's probably not that much difference between the SEC and the other top conferences, national titles notwithstanding.

During the regular season, SEC teams went 37-11 in non-conference games, but only 6-9 in games against opponents from other BCS conferences. The Big 12, by comparison, went 8-8 against other elite-level leagues and 38-10 overall outside the conference.

In the still-to-be-completed bowl season, the SEC holds an impressive 5-2 mark with that one big game remaining, but the Big 12 (4-2) is right on its heels and the Pac-10 bested them both with a perfect 5-0 mark.

Still, not a week goes by without some player or coach from the SEC talking about how demanding it is to win consistently in a league where half the members have at least one AP national championship in their trophy case. Just ask Phillip Fulmer, who guided Tennessee to No. 1 a decade ago. Or Tommy Tuberville, who led Auburn to a perfect season just five years ago. Both were forced out after disappointing seasons.

"If you look at the statistics and the toughness of the schedules and bowl results, there's a lot of difference. That's reality," said Casey, the Gators' tight end. "There aren't any gimmes in the SEC. There are some in other conferences."

So, let the rest of the country call them rubes. Just be prepared to pay the price on the football field.

-- Paul Newberry

Oklahoma quarterbacks fighting own postseason jinx

MIAMI - Sam Bradford is well aware of the problems Heisman Trophy winners have had in the postseason. Same goes for Oklahoma quarterbacks.

He just happens to be both.

"You don't need to think about negative things," he said. "I think I'm just going to prepare like a normal game."

Some of the most prolific quarterbacks in the Sooners' storied history have fallen flat on college football's biggest stage in the past few years, resulting in a streak of four straight BCS losses for Oklahoma.

It's a pattern that has stained the "Big Game Bob" reputation that coach Bob Stoops earned as he led Oklahoma to the 2000 national championship, and it'll be up to reigning Heisman-winner Bradford to stop it when the second-ranked Sooners (12-1) face No. 1 Florida (12-1) in the BCS championship game Thursday night.

"Definitely, I think that's a major factor in this game is the quarterback play," Stoops said. "But you know as well that it's what's surrounding him, too. If he's not protected, it's really not the quarterback's fault. If guys can't separate and get open or are falling down on their routes, he can only do so much."

Bradford became the latest quarterback to fall victim to Oklahoma's postseason woes last year in a 48-28 loss to West Virginia. And, really, his performance - 21-for-33 for 242 yards and two touchdowns - looks pretty solid when compared to the Sooners' three prior BCS games.

It all started with Jason White's meltdown after he won the Heisman Trophy in 2003. In his worst game of the season, White completed only 13 of 37 passes for 102 yards with two interceptions against LSU in the Sugar Bowl. He followed that up with a three-interception outing against Southern Cal in the Orange Bowl the following year, and Paul Thompson matched White's three picks in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State.

Combined, the three quarterbacks have combined for nine interceptions and just six touchdowns during Oklahoma's BCS slump.

So naturally, the pressure is on Bradford to break through and outperform 2007 Heisman winner Tim Tebow, who just happens to be on the other sideline for Florida. Right?

"It's not going to come down to one player and who plays better," Bradford said. "It's going to come down to who plays better as a team."

Still, Bradford learned a tough lesson in the Fiesta Bowl. He ended up with respectable numbers, but had a brutal start that put the Sooners in a hole they could never climb out of.

He started out 2-for-6, getting sacked twice on Oklahoma's opening drive and then throwing an interception in the end zone to snuff out the Sooners' best drive of the first half. After the game, he talked about how he was forcing throws and not going through his reads.

At least now he has that experience under his belt.

Heading into this postseason, Bradford sought advice from White on dealing with the aftermath of the Heisman and the national championship atmosphere, and Josh Heupel - who guided Oklahoma to the 2000 championship - is his quarterbacks coach.

Heupel said he thinks it's important on a bowl trip to make sure a player has a chance to enjoy himself early in the week but then is able to refocus as the game approaches.

"What should be (on your mind) is controlling your preparation, not paying attention to all the outside distractions, focusing in this last 72 hours on what you can control," Heupel said. "Sam's been very focused all week. He is certainly zeroing in, as is our football team, and he'll be ready to go."

Oklahoma's two BCS wins came without any huge quarterback stats, but also without key mistakes. Heupel was 25-for-39 for 214 yards with one interception in the Orange Bowl win, and Nate Hybl was a modest 10-for-29 for 240 yards with no picks and two scores in the 2003 Rose Bowl.

Perhaps the way for Bradford to overcome Oklahoma's recent struggles is to keep it simple - even if he does lead the nation in quarterback rating and touchdown passes after completing 68 percent of his throws for 4,464 yards and a school-record 48 TDs.

A victory Thursday night would make Bradford only the fourth Heisman-winning quarterback since 1947 to win the national title in the same season. The others were Florida State's Charlie Ward (1993), Florida's Danny Wuerffel (1996) and USC's Matt Leinart (2004).

Among those who've struggled in bowl games after winning the Heisman recently are Florida State's Chris Weinke (2000), Nebraska's Eric Crouch (2001), White, and Ohio State's Troy Smith (2006).

"It's really hard for me to talk about previous winners and the difficulties they've had in their bowl games because I wasn't there when they were on their trip, so I don't know what they got caught up doing and how they got prepared for the game," Bradford said.

"I know as soon as I got back from New York I forgot about that experience, got back to business, getting ready to prepare for this game and help my team win."

-- Jeff Latzke

Florida's defense finds solid ground with Spikes

MIAMI - When linebacker Brandon Spikes was trying to narrow down his college choices, a fellow recruit made it easy.

Spikes met Tim Tebow on an official visit to Alabama in fall 2005 - then-coach Mike Shula actually introduced them outside his office - and was so impressed with the highly-touted quarterback that he vowed to play wherever Tebow went.

Keeping his word, Spikes committed to Florida shortly after Tebow did, signing with the school in February 2006.

He has followed Tebow's lead since. Spikes became a team captain, an emotional leader and a big reason the top-ranked Gators advanced to the Bowl Championship Series national title game Thursday night against No. 2 Oklahoma.

"As Spikes goes, this defense goes," cornerback Joe Haden said. "Without a doubt, Spikes is definitely the leader on defense like Tebow is on offense."

Spikes, a 6-foot-3, 245-pound junior from Shelby, N.C., has a team-leading 87 tackles, eight tackles for loss, four interceptions and two sacks. He also was a finalist for the Bronco Nagurski Trophy, given annually to the nation's top linebacker.

But what the Gators point to more than anything else are his immeasurable talents. The ones they see every day in practice. The ones that make him more productive than his 40-yard-dash time or bench press would suggest. And the ones those BCS computers would find impossible to rank.

"He gets guys around him to play hard because he plays so hard," defensive coordinator Charlie Strong said. "When your best player plays hard, other guys will follow. And that's what he does. He plays hard."

His teammates feed off that, too.

"He plays with such passion that he makes you do the same," Haden said. "If you don't love the game like Spikes, you shouldn't be on the field with him. He tries to keep everyone's level up to his. If you can play up to Brandon Spikes' level, it makes the defense a whole lot better."

Spikes didn't have the same impact last season.

Thrust into a starting role after all those standout players moved on from the 2006 national championship team, Spikes struggled as the centerpiece of the rebuilding project. Sure, he had 131 tackles in 2007, but many of them came down the field after missed assignments. He also was hesitant to be the outspoken leader Florida desperately needed on defense.

The Gators finished 9-4 and got embarrassed by Michigan in the Capital One Bowl. A couple of months later, coach Urban Meyer and Spikes had a heart-to-heart meeting that focused on the defense's poor demeanor and lack of effort. They talked for an hour and a half in The Swamp.

"It kind of shocked me because I didn't know he was expecting so much from me," said Spikes, who cried during the conversation. "I guess he noticed my leadership skills weren't what they needed to be as far as how I approached the game with my passion, intensity and energy. He saw me as the core of the defense.

"He let me know it was on me. It touched me, but I kind of wanted it all on me."

Spikes welcomed the added pressure, not surprising since he was raised by a single mother who worked 12-hour days at a fiberglass plant in Shelby. He also spent the last five years visiting his older brother in prison.

Spikes has experienced hard labor and hard time, and knows he doesn't want either lifestyle.

"For years, it keeps you motivated," Spikes said. "My mother did a great job of raising us the right way. With him just steering off the road, it kind of hurt me and I know it hurt my mom. I kind of felt pressure to ... I don't have to be perfect, but I've got to make all the right decisions and make sure I stay out of trouble."

His mom, Sherry Allen, moved to Gainesville after getting laid off after 23 years at the plant. She now has a janitorial job at a local school, but Spikes wants to make it in the NFL to give her a better life. He hopes to help out his brother, too.

Breyon Middlebrooks was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2003, the result of a drug deal in 2001. He tries to keep up with his little brother's college career from his cell at Scotland Correctional Institute in Laurinburg, N.C.

"There's not a day goes by that I don't think of my brother," Spikes said. "It's motivation for me to try to take care of my family."

Much like he has Florida's defense.

A week after Tebow gave a passionate speech following a loss to Mississippi, Spikes offered a similar one following what he deemed a poor performance during a win over Arkansas. He promised to play better and raise the level of everyone around him.

He started holding his own position meetings, gathering the linebackers to study video on their day off. He started watching DVDs of upcoming opponents - not only at school, but at home and on the team plane. And he started seeing it pay off.

The Gators went from allowing 25.5 points a game last season to giving up 12.3 this season - the nation's largest improvement in scoring defense. Maybe Spikes was just following Tebow's lead again, wanting to give his defense a gaudy statistic.

"I just took it into my own hands and took over the defense and let guys know this was how it was going to be," Spikes said. "If you play defense, this is what happens."

-- Mark Long

What's in a nickname? At Florida, it's speed

MIAMI - Speed is such a valued commodity at Florida that nicknames are bestowed on the fastest Gators - gazelles, jackrabbits or cheetahs.

Running backs Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps are called gazelles. Cornerback Janoris Jenkins goes by jackrabbit, partly because of his speed and partly because he grew up chasing down rabbits in cane fields in nearby Pahokee, Fla. And receiver Percy Harvin gets the fastest moniker of them all: cheetah.

"You can go down our line and we've got five or six dudes who can run under 4.2," Harvin said. "We've got seven or eight dudes that can go 4.3, and it just goes on down the list. ... I think it's ridiculous."

Florida's speed was a big reason it thumped Ohio State in the Bowl Championship Series national title game two years ago. Defensive ends Jarvis Moss and Derrick Harvey were too much for the Buckeyes to handle. So was Harvin and a few of his teammates.

The Gators might be even faster this time around.

Coach Urban Meyer wants to have the "fastest team in America," and anyone who has watched the Gators play this season probably would agree that he's accomplished his goal.

With Harvin, Rainey, Demps, Jenkins, cornerback Joe Haden and receivers Louis Murphy and Deonte Thompson leading the way, Florida has 12 players who have clocked a 40-yard-dash time of 4.4 seconds or less.

Rainey and Demps raced several times in August in hopes of settling a debate about who was faster. Earlier in the year, Meyer held an open race for students to see if anyone was faster than his guys. If any of the contestants beat his speedsters, the coach guaranteed a scholarship.

"It's just all fun and games," Murphy said. "We have some pretty fast players. We can line up with anybody. If you show me a team with a fast guy, I think we can match it."

SOONERS NEXT GAME

Oklahoma now knows for sure who it will play in its next game after the BCS championship.

The Sooners and BYU finalized an agreement Tuesday to open next season on Sept. 5 at the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium in Arlington, Texas.

"We are excited to host such strong traditional college football programs as those at the University of Oklahoma and Brigham Young University in our first-ever college football game at our new stadium," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in a statement. "I don't think there is a better place than Texas to celebrate the kickoff of the 2009 college football season, and I don't think you will find a better stadium for watching that football action than our new home in Arlington."

The game will be televised on ESPN or ABC as part of a five-year agreement to bring a college football game to the Cowboys' new stadium.

No. 17 BYU finished this season 10-3 after a loss to Arizona - which is coached by Mike Stoops, the brother of Oklahoma's Bob Stoops - in the Las Vegas Bowl.

"It will be a great challenge. I know they've got a great history and tradition. They're always in contention in their conference," Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. "Thank goodness we at least have some familiarity. They played Arizona in their bowl game."

FLORIDA HIRE

If Tim Tebow returns to Florida for his senior season, his new position coach will have experience getting quarterbacks ready for the NFL.

Florida hired former Detroit Lions quarterbacks coach Scot Loeffler on Tuesday, filling the position left vacant when offensive coordinator Dan Mullen took the head coaching job at Mississippi State.

Loeffler spent six seasons (2002-07) as Michigan's quarterbacks coach, helping develop Brian Griese, Tom Brady, Chad Henne and others.

"He understands the philosophy of our offense and our football program and has great relationships with his players," coach Urban Meyer said. "He obviously has been around some great quarterbacks and is very much a quick study. It won't take him any time to get acclimated here."

ANOTHER OPTION

Oklahoma's defense has faced many potent offenses in the Big 12 this season, but the Sooners have had to defend the option much.

That'll be a new challenge in the BCS championship against Florida.

The Gators use a fair amount of the zone-read option in their spread offense, with hard-running quarterback either keeping the ball or pitching to one of Florida's many super-fast backs.

"They make you play real disciplined defense," Oklahoma defensive end Jeremy Beal said. "We saw it a couple of times this year. That kind of prepared us for it. Florida runs it a little bit differently. They put little tweaks in it."

Even when Florida is not running the option, the Gators rely heavily on misdirection plays that make it tough for defenses to figure out which way the ball is headed.

"It comes down to playing our keys and trying not to do to much," Oklahoma defensive end Auston English said.

CLOSE TIES

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, a former defensive coordinator at Florida, remains close friends with former Gators coach Steve Spurrier, athletic director Jeremy Foley and basketball coach Billy Donovan.

Stoops still has a condo in Crescent Beach in the same complex as Spurrier and not far from Donovan's place.

Stoops said this week that the Gators will always hold a place in his heart.

"It is a special place for me, always will be," said Stoops, who left Gainesville in 1998, two years after Florida won its first national title. "In fact, I remember when I did the first press conference (for the title game in December in Hollywood) they were chomping at me and giving me some Gator bait (cheers). I said, ‘I still have a little Gator in me, but a whole lot more Sooner.'

"You win a national championship with somebody, that's pretty special. That doesn't go away."

-- Mark Long

Tulsa rolls over Ball State in wet GMAC Bowl

MOBILE, Ala. - Tulsa raced to another GMAC Bowl win and a couple more records, too.

Tarrion Adams rushed for 207 yards and three touchdowns in the 45-13 win over No. 23 Ball State on a soggy Tuesday night. The Golden Hurricane (11-3) finished with a school-record 11 victories.

Adams passed Micheal Gunter to become Tulsa's career rushing leader. Tulsa had 439 yards rushing and 632 overall - hardly slowing down a bit by rain that first formed puddles and then covered nearly the entire field during a second-half deluge.

David Johnson passed for 193 yards and three touchdowns, most of that to freshman Damaris Johnson. Tulsa kicker Jarod Tracy became the school's career scoring leader.