A new double standard

GLENDALE, ARIZ. — What got into Florida, besides the first-rate coaching, all that halfback speed at linebacker and the fact that next-to-nobody thought the Gators could win?

Did someone mix “flubber” into the Gatorade?

Was it spillover from Idaho?

Florida played Monday night as if it had found a Boise State playbook left behind from last week’s Fiesta Bowl, contested on the same University of Phoenix Stadium field, and turned all that trickery on shellshocked Ohio State.

Monday’s Bowl Championship Series national championship game was supposed to be about Ohio State.

Instead, it was a Gator chomp-romp.

Florida didn’t just win the game, it dominated, 41-14, before a crowd of 74,628, and now you can crown the Gators kings of college football and give Gainesville a new name: Titlesville.

Florida became the first team in NCAA history to simultaneously hold national titles in football and basketball, with a Gators baseball season still to be played.

“We’re national champs,” Florida quarterback Chris Leak said. “That’s what you strive for, that’s what you play for, ever since you were a kid, what you dream about. My legacy was to get the University of Florida back here.”

Ohio State was attempting to go wire-to-wire at No. 1 to win the national championship, but all it got was trip-wired.

Ohio State scored first, on Ted Ginn Jr.’s 93-yard return of the opening kickoff, but then went gentle into the Arizona night. Ginn got hurt (unspecified right leg injury), Ohio State got behind, and Gators history got made.

Florida backup quarterback Tim Tebow put the exclamation point on this run-on sentence with a tack-on, one-yard, take-that, fourth-down, fourth-quarter touchdown run.

Florida’s defense dominated, holding Ohio State to only 82 yards -- 11 fewer than Ginn covered on the kickoff return.

“You play defense like that, you don’t lose,” Gators Coach Urban Meyer said.

Some thought Florida didn’t belong in the game and, once they got in, wouldn’t win it.

“The motivation was very easy the last 30 days,” Meyer said.

Remember a month ago?

After USC lost to UCLA, the Gators jumped over Michigan into the No. 2 BCS spot -- causing consternation in Ann Arbor and elsewhere.

Florida proved it belonged, and the only team with a gripe now may be the only one that finished undefeated -- 13-0 Boise State.

“Let’s go play them next week,” Meyer said.

Florida scored 21 consecutive points after Ginn’s return, the Gators playing as if they had to be out of the stadium by halftime.

They knocked the shine off Troy Smith’s Heisman Trophy. Smith was held to 35 yards passing, completing only four of his 14 attempts.

“I have to take all the blame in the world for it,” said Smith, who was sacked five times.

Losing Ginn surely slowed the Buckeyes’ offense, but Smith said, “That’s not an excuse.

“For some reason, this was meant to happen today,” he said. “You’re not going to have a storybook ending all the time, that’s life. After this point I think your true character comes out. This really makes you grow up.”

The Gators played with, and without, their helmets.

Linebacker Earl Everett, in one of the game’s telling moments, lost his hard-hat during a play early in the third quarter but still chased down, and sacked, Smith.

Chris Leak didn’t win the Heisman this year but saved his best game for the last game of his collegiate career.

Criticized by many for not being the right fit for Meyer’s spread offense, Leak became only the second quarterback to win a national title in Florida’s 100-year football history.

Meyer joked that his and Leak’s legacies will be “joined at the hip” for the next 30 years.

In his final Gators act, Leak completed 25 of 36 passes for 213 yards and a touchdown.

Ohio State, which hadn’t played since Nov. 18, waited 51 days for this game and then watched its coach, down by 10 points in the second quarter, go for it (and fail) on fourth and one from his 29. Jim Tressel was supposed to be the better big-game coach -- he was 4-0 in BCS bowls -- but he didn’t play this one close to his sweater vest.

Freshman tailback Chris Wells was stopped cold on the play, sort of the way Ohio State was stopped cold all night.

“It ended up being the wrong call, obviously,” Tressel said.

Ohio State was supposed to be better.

It wasn’t.

Florida kicker Chris Hetland, who missed nine of 13 field-goal attempts this season with a long of only 33 yards, was supposed to be a weak link.

He ended up as one of the heroes, making his first two attempts from 42 and 40 yards.

It was that kind of night.

Florida was faster and played with ferocity, and without fear.

“They looked fast on film,” Ohio State center Doug Datish said, “and I guess they proved they were as fast as they looked.”

The Gators’ offense showed a variety of gadget plays to keep the Buckeyes defense off balance.

The only thing Florida didn’t win was the opening kickoff.

One key to the game was how quickly Florida responded to Ginn’s opening kickoff return.

Down an early touchdown, Florida took advantage of good field position after the ensuing kickoff and drove 46 yards to score the tying touchdown on a 14-yard pass from Leak to Dallas Baker. Leak completed all five of his passes on the drive.

Later in the quarter, thanks to an Ohio State personal foul, Florida got the ball back on a punt at the Buckeyes 34. The Gators needed only five plays to make it 14-7, when Percy Harvin ran in from four yards.

Ohio State cut the lead to seven on Antonio Pittman’s 18-yard run, but Hetland connected on a 42-yard field goal with six minutes left in the half.

It was after this that Tressel made his strategic gamble on fourth and one. Florida took over at the Ohio State 29 and added another Hetland field goal to make it 27-14.

On the first play of Ohio State’s next possession, Smith was stripped of the ball by Jarvis Moss, with Derrick Harvey recovering at the Ohio State five.

Three plays later, Tebow tossed a one-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Caldwell with 23 seconds left in the half.

It was Florida, 34-14.

It was all over.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

CHAMPIONS

*--* 2006 Florida 2005 Texas 2004 USC 2003 USC (AP), LSU (USA/ESPN) 2002 Ohio State 2001 Miami 2000 Oklahoma 1999 Florida State 1998 Tennessee 1997 Michigan (AP), Nebraska (USA/ESPN) 1996 Florida 1995 Nebraska 1994 Nebraska 1993 Florida State 1992 Alabama 1991 Miami (AP), Washington (USA/CNN) 1990 Colo. (AP, USA/CNN), Ga. Tech (UPI) 1989 Miami 1988 Notre Dame 1987 Miami 1986 Penn State 1985 Oklahoma 1984 Brigham Young 1983 Miami 1982 Penn State 1981 Clemson 1980 Georgia 1979 Alabama 1978 Alabama (AP), USC (UPI) 1977 Notre Dame 1976 Pittsburgh 1975 Oklahoma 1974 Oklahoma (AP), USC (UPI) 1973 Notre Dame (AP), Alabama (UPI) 1972 USC 1971 Nebraska 1970 Nebraska (AP), Texas (UPI) 1969 Texas 1968 Ohio State 1967 USC 1966 Notre Dame 1965 Alabama (AP), Michigan State (UPI) 1964 Alabama 1963 Texas 1962 USC 1961 Alabama 1960 Minnesota 1959 Syracuse 1958 LSU 1957 Auburn ( AP), Ohio State (UPI) 1956 Oklahoma 1955 Oklahoma 1954 Ohio State (AP), UCLA (UPI) 1953 Maryland 1952 Michigan State 1951 Tennessee 1950 Oklahoma 1949 Notre Dame 1948 Michigan 1947 Notre Dame 1946 Notre Dame 1945 Army 1944 Army 1943 Notre Dame 1942 Ohio State 1941 Minnesota 1940 Minnesota 1939 Texas A&M; 1938 Texas Christian 1937 Pittsburgh 1936 Minnesota

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The Associated Press first selected a national champion in 1936.

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Missing piece

Ohio State has never won a bowl game in a season in which it had the Heisman Trophy winner:

*--* Year Heisman winner Bowl result 1944 Les Horvath (QB) No bowl 1950 Vic Janowicz (RB) No bowl 1955 Howard Cassady (RB) No bowl 1974 Archie Griffin (RB) Lost to USC in Rose Bowl 1975 Archie Griffin (RB) Lost to UCLA in Rose Bowl 1995 Eddie George (RB) Lost to Tennessee in Citrus Bowl 2006 Troy Smith (QB) Lost to Florida in BCS title game

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Source: STATS LLC