Bradford named 2008 Heisman Trophy winner

Sam Bradford claims Heisman fame after leading Oklahoma to an NCAA record 702 points and leading the nation in TD passes. Bradford becomes the 5th OU player to win the Heisman after edging out Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow.

BCS Title game teams decided

There were seven teams with one loss at the top of the rankings. Two more were undefeated.
Another big BCS mess? Not this time.
Nobody dominated the last two months of college football like Oklahoma and Florida, and the Gators and Sooners were easy picks to play in the national title game despite having one loss each. The power programs with Heisman-worthy quarterbacks and 12-1 records meet Jan. 8 in Miami. Oklahoma was ranked first and Florida second in the final BCS standings released Sunday. They were flip-flopped in the Associated Press poll, which is not used in determining the BCS, but was used by BCS chairman John Swofford as another way of validating the matchup.
“One of the interesting aspects of where we are, looking at the standings, is that Florida and Oklahoma are one or two in the Harris poll, coaches’ poll and even the AP poll, which is not used in the BCS standings,” Swofford said.

“You have a consistency there with the human polls on those same two teams,” he said.
Including Texas, Southern California, Texas Tech, Penn State and Alabama, there were seven teams with one loss in the BCS’ final top 10. Two more—Utah and Boise State—finished undefeated. But only two had resumes like Florida and Oklahoma. Led by Tim Tebow, the Gators rebounded from their only loss to dominate the next nine games, scoring more than 49 points a game in wins that culminated with a 31-20 victory over Alabama on Saturday for the SEC title. Sam Bradford was the same kind of force for Oklahoma. The Sooners lost 45-35 to Texas in October, but still ended up with an NCAA-record 702 points this season. They ended the season by becoming the first team since 1919 to score 60-plus in five straight games.
“We beat five ranked teams and three ranked teams as the last three games of the year,” Sooners coach Bob Stoops said. “That decided it.”

This will be the first meeting between these two power programs, each seeking their second title this decade. Florida was an up-and-coming power and Oklahoma was a declining one back in 1998, when Stoops decided to leave his post as Gators defensive coordinator and take his first head-coaching job with the Sooners. In 2000, he helped Oklahoma to its seventh national title. Still, when Steve Spurrier left Florida a year later, many Gators thought Stoops’ return was only a matter of logistics. Stoops declined, though, saying he had everything a coach could ever ask for at Oklahoma—nice campus, good boosters, fantastic resources and, yes, even more tradition than they had at Florida. “I had great memories of my time there and great experiences,” Stoops said. “But I had also been making my own here at Oklahoma. I felt so strongly about what we were doing and positive about what we were doing, I wanted to see it through.”

He has won six conference championships and this will be the fourth time he’s played for the national title. “He had a wonderful situation there,” said Spurrier. “No reason to get out of there.” Spurrier coaches South Carolina now, and was the only SEC coach to vote the Sooners No. 1 in the coaches’ poll. Who is the former Gators quarterback and ‘ball coach’ rooting for in the title game? “I guess you naturally pull for your alma mater,” he said. “But I pull for Stoopsie all the time. It’ll be a little bit of both. Should be a good game.” After Stoops turned down the Gators, they hired Ron Zook, then after three years, they turned to Urban Meyer. He’s trying for Florida’s second title in three seasons. Tebow has a chance to become only the second player to win back-to-back Heismans.

Two years ago, Meyer took some heat for lobbying to get his team into the title game. This time, he didn’t have to work so hard. It was fairly clear-cut that if Florida defeated a top-ranked Alabama team in the SEC title game that the Gators would be going. “When I hear coaches sticking up for their team, they’re simply doing their job,” Meyer said. “But after a while, enough is enough. The rules are in place. Until it changes, that’s the way it is.” A reality most everyone can accept, save for third-ranked Texas—which actually finished ahead of Oklahoma in the computer rankings component of the BCS. The Longhorns finished in a three-way tie in the nation’s toughest division — the Big 12 South—but were denied a spot in the title game because of the tiebreaker, which looks to the BCS standings. Oklahoma won the tiebreaker. Texas protested. Coach Mack Brown said UT’s 45-35 win over OU should be a deciding factor, but even he was moving on, having accepted a bid to the Fiesta Bowl to play Ohio State. “The BCS doesn’t satisfy everybody,” Brown said. “We’ve been on the positive side of it a few times. We’ve been on the negative side a few times.”

Auburn coach resigns

AUBURN, Ala. (AP)—For most of Tommy Tuberville’s 10 seasons as Auburn coach, the Tigers were the best college football team in a state where that title is almost as important as the national championship. In 2008, Nick Saban and Alabama took the state back as Tuberville’s Tigers faltered, and that was enough to make Auburn want a change in leadership.
Tuberville stepped down Wednesday, ending a tenure that included a perfect season and a string of teams that contended for Southeastern Conference championships.

He was 85-40 in his decade with Auburn, including a 13-0 season in 2004 when the Tigers finished No. 2 in the nation and won the SEC title for the first time in 15 years. But Auburn went 5-7 this year and was routed 36-0 at the end by rival Alabama, currently ranked No. 1.
“The last 10 years have been a great time in my life, both professionally and personally,” Tuberville said in a statement. “It’s been a great place to coach and live, and we’ve had a lot of success along the way. I’m going to remain in Auburn and help the Auburn family however I can. I’m very appreciative of the coaches, players, staff and Auburn fans over the last decade.”
Tuberville informed the players in a team meeting at the football complex after three days of meetings with Auburn officials. The players were not allowed to speak to the media as they walked out or lingered in the parking lot afterward.

“Tommy and I have had the opportunity to discuss the direction of the program,” athletic director Jay Jacobs said in a statement. “Through those discussions, Tommy felt it would be in his and the program’s best interest to step aside as Auburn’s head football coach.”
The Tigers lost six of their last seven games this season after a failed move to the spread offense that was abandoned—along with first-year offensive coordinator Tony Franklin—at midseason. Their first five SEC losses came by a combined 23 points, falling just short of the end zone on final drives against Arkansas and Georgia and twice losing by one point after missed PATs.
The season also included an ugly 3-2 win over Mississippi State.

Tuberville did not immediately return a call to his cell phone Wednesday. His contract was extended through 2013 after the previous season and was worth $3.3 million annually. It also included a $6 million buyout if he was fired after this season Auburn’s statement said the buyout will be paid but no state or university funds will be used. Jacobs is scheduled to hold a news conference Thursday morning to discuss the coaching change.
Tuberville had led the Tigers to 42 wins over the previous four seasons, the fifth-most in the country.

That included a six-year winning streak in the Iron Bowl to give the Tigers in-state bragging rights for longer than ever before. He went 7-3 against the Crimson Tide but the Tigers were handed their worst beating in the series in 42 years last weekend.
It didn’t help that while they were struggling Alabama was going 12-0 in its second season under Saban, winning the SEC West and rising to the top of the polls.
Tuberville met with university president Jay Gogue on Monday and followed that up with two days of meetings Jacobs.

Auburn’s offense sputtered badly the past two seasons. Tuberville gambled with the hire of Franklin and a departure from the team’s more traditional, run-oriented attack, going to the no-huddle, spread at a school noted for turning out NFL-caliber tailbacks.
The Tigers finished 11th in the Southeastern Conference and 110th of 119 teams in scoring offense, and a midstream switch back to the smashmouth style didn’t help.
The biggest problems all were evident in the season finale against Alabama. The Tigers had three turnovers and never got clicking behind sophomore quarterback Kodi Burns while a talented defense that kept getting put back out on the field sputtered.

Auburn finished with its worst record since going 5-6 in 1999, Tuberville’s debut season. The team went on to win the SEC West the following year and captured at least a share of the division title four other times. The Tigers often overachieved but struggled in two seasons when much was expected of them, including this one. The 2003 Auburn team opened with a No. 6 ranking but finished 8-5. His perfect ‘04 squad opened at No. 17. Tuberville joins Mississippi State’s Sylvester Croom and Tennessee’s Phillip Fulmer as SEC coaches stepping down this season after both teams also failed to live up to expectations.

Records through Mon Dec 1, 2008

Bowl Champ. Series Ranking

			Harris			USAToday			Computer		BCS
Rank	Team	Record	Rank	Pts	%	Rank	Pts	%	Rank	Avg	Avg	Last Week
1.	Alabama	12-0	1	2815	0.9877	1	1521	0.9974	-	-	0.9700	1
2.	Oklahoma	11-1	4	2569	0.9014	2	1397	0.9161	-	-	0.9400	3
3.	Texas	11-1	3	2575	0.9035	3	1396	0.9154	-	-	0.9200	2
4.	Florida	11-1	2	2619	0.9189	4	1385	0.9082	-	-	0.8900	4
5.	USC	10-1	5	2378	0.8344	5	1298	0.8511	-	-	0.8100	5
6.	Utah	12-0	7	2111	0.7407	7	1153	0.7561	-	-	0.7800	6
7.	Texas Tech	11-1	8	2090	0.7333	8	1116	0.7318	-	-	0.7800	7
8.	Penn St.	11-1	6	2177	0.7639	6	1176	0.7711	-	-	0.7400	8
9.	Boise St.	12-0	9	1937	0.6796	9	1044	0.6846	-	-	0.7000	9
10.	Ohio St.	10-2	10	1856	0.6512	10	999	0.6551	-	-	0.6300	10
11.	TCU	10-2	12	1502	0.5270	11	836	0.5482	-	-	0.5600	14
12.	Ball St.	12-0	11	1526	0.5354	13	765	0.5016	-	-	0.5300	15
13.	Cincinnati	10-2	13	1425	0.5000	12	770	0.5049	-	-	0.4800	16
14.	Oklahoma St.	9-3	14	1217	0.4270	15	613	0.4020	-	-	0.4300	12
15.	Georgia Tech	9-3	16	1065	0.3737	16	590	0.3869	-	-	0.4000	22
16.	Georgia	9-3	20	833	0.2923	19	440	0.2885	-	-	0.3300	11
17.	Boston Coll.	9-3	19	834	0.2926	20	435	0.2852	-	-	0.3200	21
18.	BYU	10-2	17	990	0.3474	18	461	0.3023	-	-	0.3100	18
19.	Oregon	9-3	15	1076	0.3775	14	658	0.4315	-	-	0.3000	23
20.	Missouri	9-3	18	896	0.3144	17	470	0.3082	-	-	0.2800	13
21.	Michigan St.	9-3	21	688	0.2414	21	414	0.2715	-	-	0.2600	19
22.	Northwestern	9-3	22	414	0.1453	22	333	0.2184	-	-	0.1200	24
23.	Pittsburgh	8-3	23	346	0.1214	23	154	0.1010	-	-	0.1000	25
24.	Florida St.	8-4	NR	-	-	NR	-	-	-	-	0.0800	20
25.	Virginia Tech	8-4	NR	-	-	NR	-	-	-	-	0.0600	NR