The Other National Championship Game

The Fiesta Bowl pits the No. 3 ranked Texas Longhorns vs. the No. 10 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.

We all know Texas got screwed by the Big 12 conference tiebreaker rules. Although the Horns will not be in BCS championship game, they can still win the AP title. Currently Florida has 50 first place votes, OU 9, and UT 6. If OU beats Florida, those 50 votes are up in the air and depending on how both games go Texas still has a chance for a split national championship. The last time a split title happened was the 2003 season when OU slid in the back door to play in the BCS title game against LSU in the Sugar Bowl while USC was on the outside looking in and took their frustrations out on an under match Michigan Wolverine squad in a 28-14 USC victory.

Texas boasts Hesiman trophy runner up, Colt Mccoy, to lead their offense. Mccoy has completed 78 percent of his passed for 3,445 yards and 32 tds with only 7 picks. Mccoy also moonlights as a running back leading the team with 576 yards rushing and 10 tds.

The UT defense is led by Bronko Nagurski award winner Brian Orakpo. Orakpo had 35 tackles, 9 sacks, 15 tackles for loss, 23 QB pressures, and 3 forced fumbles.

The OSU offense is led by Junior tailback Beanie Wells who rushed for 1,091 yards and 8tds. Freshman QB Terrelle Pryor and Senior WR Brian Robiskie also put up points for the Buckeye offense. Pryor has only showed his age very few times this season as he plays with great poise throwing 12Tds to only 4 picks with a 152 QB rating. Robiskie did himself a service by staying in school for another year and is giving Pryor a reliable deep threat target by catching 37 balls with 8 of them being touchdown grabs.

The Buckeye defense is lead by Senior LB James Laurinaitis, who was voted consensus All-American for the third straight season with 121 tackles and 4 sacks. Thorpe award winner Malcolm Jenkins leads the Buckeye secondary. Jenkins opted to stay in school this past season rather than to hit the league the extra year experienced has certainly helped. He has only picked off 3 passes this year, but teams do not throw his way often.

Who's gonna win?

The spread is for the Longhorns -8. However the Longhorns have not faced this Buckeye defense or any other defense this good for that matter. While the Buckeyes have faced an offense as prolific as the Longhorns, when they faced USC in the 2nd week of the season this year and lost bad to the Trojans. I think Texas hasn't quite gotten over being screwed by its own conference and look for them to take this as a concellation game and not a great opporutinty to play in a BCB bowl game. Look for OSU to beat Texas 21 to 17.

Peace,

Ricky Writer