MySports Today

Talk about a sore loser.  After Boise State dominated Oregon in a 19-8 drubbing on Thursday night, LeGarrette Blount took offense to some Boise State trash-talking after the game, and sucker punched a Boise State player Byron Hout square in the face.  What a moron.  Fortunately, he has been suspended for the rest of the 2009 NCAA football season.

The defending National Champion Florida Gators are ranked #1 in the pre-season USA Today Coaches Poll.  Florida received 53 of 59 1st place votes.  The top 5 rounded out with the Texas Longhorns, Oklahoma Sooners, USC Trojans and the Alabama Crimson Tide.  Sixth to tenth went like this – Ohio State Buckeyes, Virginia Tech Hokies, Penn State Nittany Lions, LSU Tigers an Mississippi Rebels.  The University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish found themselves back in the Top 25 for the 1st time in a long time at #23.

The pre-season Top 25 from the Associate Press is scheduled to come out on Saturday, August 22, 2009.

ESPN’s Erin Andrews found herself on the wrong end of some illegal activity – - crazy to think that a hotel would allow something like this to happen.  Until we’re able to post a link to the nude video, here’s a link to the news article surrounding the occurrence.  The Florida Gators alum should definitely have a good lawyer to make somebody pay for this.  Oh yeah, here are some sweet shots of our favorite ESPN reporter – Princess Erin…

Former LSU receiver Demetrius Byrd is in the ICU at Miami hospital after a serious automobile accident on Sunday. Michael Bonnette, the LSU associate athletic director for sports information, confirmed the he spoke with Byrd;s rep on Monday morning. He is rated as the No. 13 wide receiver in the draft. He caught 37 passes for 513 yards and four TD’s last season for the Tigers. There was no other information available about his condition from LSU. His injuries are not believed to be life threatening.

The Florida Gators covered the 7-point spread with the 24-14 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners in the BCS National Championship Game in Miami on Thursday night. In a game expected to be a shootout between 2 electrifying offenses, including the Sooners best college offense of all-time, defenses ruled the day early in the game. The 2 teams traded touchdowns in the 2nd quarter, leaving critics and fans mystified at the 7-7 halftime score. After Florida scored the only points of the 3rd quarter on a Percy Harvin 2-yard rushing touchdown, things got interesting in the 4th quarter. Oklahoma tied the game at 14 on a Sam Bradford 11-yard touchdown pass to Jermaine Gresham – the 2nd time the two connected for a score in the game. But that would be the last time that Oklahoma would reach paydirt. Florida Quarterback Tim Tebow – AKA Superman – took over from there. Tebow led Florida on 2 scoring drives which iced the game and gave Urban Meyer and the Gators their 2nd national championship in 3 years. Jonathan Phillips kicked a 28-yard field goal to give the Gators a 17-14 lead, and Tebow connected with David Nelson on his “patented jump pass” to ice the game with a 4-yard touchdown pass with less than 4 minutes left in the game. The rest was history.

For 2 teams that were so dominant during the regular season, the game was more sloppy than expected. Tebow and Bradford each threw 2 interceptions. Bradford’s 1st half interception was extremely costly as it came right on the Gators goal line – the 2nd time that the Gators had thwarted a Sooners red zone possession (the Gators had earlier stopped the Sooners on downs in a goal line stand). Maybe Oklahoma never really recovered from those early setbacks as the offense seemed out-of-synch all night long. Bradford did complete 26 of 41 passes for 256 yards and 2 touchdowns, but he never seemed to have a good handle on what he wanted to do against the fast and aggressive Gators defense. Similarly, Tebow only completed 18 passes with 2 interceptions, but he did throw for 231 yards, pass for 2 touchdowns and chip in 109 yards on the ground with a lot of gritty gutsy runs. The injured Percy Harvin may have been the unsung hero of the game. It was unclear if, or how much, Harvin would be able to play for Florida after he missed the SEC Championship Game against Alabama with a severe ankle injury. Harvin managed to participate in 49 plays, accumulating 14 touches throughout the night. Harvin rushed 9 times for 122 yards and one score, and also caught 5 passes for 49 yards. Harvin is such an explosive player, just having him in the game forces the opposition to committ defenders to him just in case he touches th ball. Florida Head Coach Urban Meyer said that Harvin was only at 80% and that the staff monitored Harvin’s status throughout the contest. It looks like they did a spectacular job gauging his ability to manage the pain.

I was a little disappointed by the contest – I thought I would see more consistent offensive attacks and cleaner play. But at least this game wasn’t a blowout and kept me interested through most all of the 60 minutes. Kudos to the Gators and to you Sooners fans – hang in there – 3 BCS National Championship losses in 6 years isn’t fun, but at least you made it that far and had a chance to bring home the trophy.

Last week Boston College told coach Jeff Jagodzinski if he talks to the Jets he will be fired. Look like they stick by what they said, it is reported that Jagodzinski was told today that he is fired. BC will hold a news conference later today.

#7 Utah defeated #4 Alabama 31-17 in the Sugar Bowl on January 2nd. Utah Quarterback Brian Johnson played a spectacular game to lead the Utes to the upset victory. Johnson completed 27 of 41 passes for 336 yards. He also threw 3 touchdown passes and no interceptions. The Utes raced out to an early 21-0 lead in the 1st quarter and were only challenged once early in the 3rd quarter. Alabama scored 10 points in the 2nd quarter and held Utah scoreless, entering halftime trailing 21-10. After Alabama Quarterback John Parker Wilson hit Glen Coffee on a 4-yard touchdown pass in the 3rd quarter to cut the Utes lead to 4, the “tide” seemed to be turning in Alabama’s direction. But Johnson led the Utes on an efficient drive, capping it off with a 28-yard strike to David Reed to push the lead back to 11. Alabama did not score a single point the rest of the way and a Utah field goal by Louie Sakoda sealed the victory for the Utes – 31-17. John Parker Wilson struggled for the Crimson Tide – completing only 18 of 30 passes for 177 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 costly interceptions.

With the win, Utah became the first team from a non-BCS Conference to win 2 BCS Bowl games. Utah previously beat Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl in 2005. Utah’s coach then – Urban Meyer – shoots for a 2nd BCS national title when his Florida Gators take on the Oklahoma Sooners next Thursday in Miami. Although Utah was the only undefeated team left in college football this year, the BCS title game matched up 2 1-loss teams – the Gators and Sooners. With Utah’s great showing, this should add more fuel to the fire to have a college football playoff instead of the current BCS process. We’ll have to wait and see on that one.

Congrats to Utah – another great win for the underdog!

Alabama did not look like a 12-1 team that was once ranked No. 1 last night at the Sugar Bowl. Utah came out fighting from the started and dominated the game showing why they are undefeated. The stunning 31-17 win for Utah was a perfect finish to a perfect no loss season. Brian Johnson had a near flawless game taking the team to a 21-0 lead in their first three possessions. Utah’s defense put on a dazzling show shutting down Bamas running game and sacking Wilson eight times. Wilson also had two interceptions. Now all Utah wants to know is why are not in the national championship game? They are the only undefeated team in the US. I guess we will see next year how they get ranked, will it be in the top 15?

The USC Trojans defeated the Penn State Nittany Lions 38-24 in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2009. USC scored on 5 consecutive possessions in the 1st half to take a commanding 31-7 halftime. With the nation’s top-rated defense, that was more than enough for the Trojans, as USC Cruised to the 38-24 final. USC Quarterback Mark Sanchez threw for 413 yards and 4 touchdowns. USC is 9-0 in its last 9 games against Big Ten opponents. The Pac-10, deemed to be a “weak” conference in 2008 is 5-0 in 2008-9 NCAA bowl games. On the other hand, the Big Ten has had only 1 bowl winner from its conference – Iowa’s 31-10 drubbing of South Carolina in the Outback Bowl.