Oklahoma Came Out Second Best Here, Too

Any of you watch last week’s Extra Bowl (oops…I mean BCS championship game) between Oklahoma and Florida?

I didn’t.

Me, I was too busy working out the 2008 NCAA Division 1-A football playoffs on this computer I’m using. And just as the Sooners came out second best in the Real Life game that Fox televised (Gators won it, 24-14), Bob Stoops’ ball club was the runnerup in what could’ve/should’ve/would’ve been this past season’s NCAA 1-A playoff cycle.

Except Sam Bradford, Dominique Franks, and Co. couldn’t shove Boise State out of the way…and, as a result, the Broncos picked up their second playoff title in the last three seasons. What’s more, Chris Petersen’s players made it three straight campaigns in which these playoffs’ second seed got The Prize. (Oh, by the way…in Real Life, it would come with a huge plaque with one of the NCAA logos embossed on it. Not a crystal football!)

This was the fastest I’d been able to run a D-1-A playoff at the end of an actual regular season in that division yet…thanks to www.lhgames.com having a download for the 68 teams that got to extend their actual 2008 campaigns.

Well, here’s what went down:

FIRST ROUND (seeding in parentheses): Texas Tech (9) 42, Buffalo (24) 28; Pittsburgh (16) 17, Michigan State (17) 15; TCU (13) 42, Oklahoma State (20) 35; Virginia Tech (21) 7, Ohio State (12) 0; Oregon (19) 35, BYU (14) 30; Cincinnati (11) 34, East Carolina (22) 7; Tulsa (15) 22, Georgia (18) 17; Troy (23) 21, Penn State (10) 14 (3 OT).

SECOND ROUND: Texas Tech 17, Utah (1) 15; USC (8) 38, Pittsburgh 0; Alabama (5) 38, TCU 31 (1 OT); Oklahoma (4) 21, Virginia Tech 7; Ball State (6) 35, Oregon 28; Florida (3) 28, Cincinnati 7; Texas (7) 49, Tulsa 28; Boise State (2) 24, Troy 0.

QUARTERFINAL ROUND: USC 35, Texas Tech 9; Oklahoma 35, Alabama 21; Florida 35, Ball State 14; Boise State 43, Texas 42 (2 OT).

SEMIFINAL ROUND: Oklahoma 32, USC 29; Boise State 28, Florida 14.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Boise State 38, Oklahoma 14.

Man, what a playoff cycle this turned out to be! First of all, this was the first season in which campus sites were used for the lion’s share (okay, Lions’ share) of games- only the title game used a neutral site: Dolphin Stadium in Miami, FL…where they played the Extra Bowl.

Second, Boise State QB Kellen Moore did a great job. In grabbing the playoff MVP award, Moore completed 105 of 152 passes for 1381 yards and 10 TDs. (Only Florida LB Brandon Spikes was able to pick Moore’s pocket.)

How about some more playoff highlights!!??!!

After Texas Tech QB Graham Harrell fumbled almost three minutes into the Red Raiders’ tilt with Buffalo (and saw Bulls DE Anil Montanez run it back for the game’s first TD- an act that served notice), Harrell served notice, too, by going 43 for 51 for 460 yards and four scores. (You talk about dusting yourself right off!)

Pittsburgh K Conor Lee extended the Panthers’ season by booting a game-winning 45-yard field goal with 18 seconds to go in regulation.

TCU made up for its 2005 loss to Notre Dame; this time, the Horned Frogs advanced into the second round when RB Aaron Brown took a kickoff back 83 yards all the way to the house with 6:41 to play in the fourth quarter- in a game where Oklahoma State ended the first half ahead, 28-21, due to an 88-yard kickoff return TD by CB Perrish Cox and a 59-yard punt return TD by WR Dez Bryant.

Virginia Tech QB Tyrod Taylor threw a 22-yard TD pass to WR Jerome Boykin with 11:07 to go in the first half against Ohio State…and the Hokies’ defense (led by DEs Jason Worilds and Orion Martin, each with two sacks) made it stand up to stun an Ohio Stadium crowd of 102,059.

BYU wasted WR Austin Collie’s 12-catch, 121-yard effort by losing to Oregon.

Troy made it a sad, sad, sad first round for Big Ten fans when RB DuJuan Harris plunged in from a yard with 8:30 to go in the third overtime- in front of a playoff-record crowd of 107,281 at Beaver Stadium in State College, PA.

2008 was the second straight playoff cycle where the highest seed couldn’t win in the second round after enjoying a first-round bye. Even so, Utah could’ve at least sent this game into overtime if Utes QB Brian Johnson had been able to connect on a two-point conversion pass that would’ve tied the game at 17-17. (With 10:01 to go in the fourth, Johnson flicked a seven-yard air score to WR Brent Casteel to set up said two-point opportunity.)

In eliminating the Panthers, USC held RB LeSean McCoy to 38 yards in 19 tries.

The Frogs went down in another topsy-turvy tilt. They blew a 21-7 first-quarter lead against Alabama, rallied from a 31-21 halftime deficit by tying it up on a late (18 ticks left in regulation) 26-yard FG by Ross Evans…and got sent packing when Crimson Tide QB John Parker Wilson tossed the winning score (an 11-yarder to WR Julio Jones) with 11:44 left in OT.

The Hokies ended Oklahoma’s streak of consecutive 60-point games at five…but lost anyway when QB Sam Bradford tossed three TD passes to erase a 7-0 Virginia Tech lead.

Ball State performed a real Lazarus act: Oregon had the Cardinals down, 28-0, in the middle of the second period…when, with 6:57 to go in that period, QB Nate Davis drilled a 24-yard scoring strike to TE Darius Hill. Brady Hoke’s club got a real spark when CB B.J. Hill stunned the Ducks with two punt return TDs (a 56-yarder and a 57-yarder) in the third quarter. Then RB MiQuale Lewis took over with a pair of one-yard TD runs…and the second of those two drowned the Ducks.

Florida QB Tim Tebow recovered from a poor rushing performance against Cincinnati (the Bearcats limited him to 13 rushing yards in 18 attempts) to run for 125 yards in 13 trips and three touchdowns to kill Lazarus (oops, that’s Ball State).

In what turned out to be Boise State’s roughest outing of these ’08 playoffs, the Broncos avenged the 52-30 loss put on them a year earlier by Texas. The Broncos had a 28-7 lead by the time the first half had two minutes to go…but the Longhorns kept coming, getting the game tied at 35-35 on a 61-yard air score from QB Colt McCoy to WR Malcolm Williams  (followed, of course, by the extra point) with 13:52 left in regulation. But the WAC champs prevailed when, with 6:51 to play in the second extra period, Moore followed up his eight-yard scoring toss to RB Jeremy Avery with a winning two-point conversion toss to WR Julian Hawkins.

Four years after USC and Oklahoma got in a barnburner of a playoff championship game (the Trojans won it, 49-47), the Trojans and the Sooners hooked up again in the semifinals. The two squads each swapped the lead until OU went up, 29-21, on RB DeMarco Murray’s 31-yard scoring run and K Jimmy Stevens’ point after. (And that with 1:21 remaining in the fourth quarter.) Four ticks later, two of USC’s three top runners took over: RB C.J. Gable ran the ensuing kickoff back 97 yards to paydirt; right afterwards, fellow RB Stafon Johnson ran it in for two to bring the score to 29-29. Stevens made sure this game wouldn’t need an extra period when he knocked home the winning 35-yard FG ten ticks from the end of regulation.

The Broncos put the Gators out in the exact same round in which they got it done in 2006, when Tebow was a freshman. This time, the Boise State defense held him to 17 runs for -15 yards. Moore, meanwhile, flipped three touchdown tosses- two to WR Austin Pettis.

Kellen went on to put on a real clinic in the title game. Moore had a 31-for-39 outing for 364 yards and two more scores…while Bradford, who’d been named the 2008 Heisman Trophy winner, was left stumbling around with an 18-for-35 showing that was good for 232 yards, with two TDs and a pick (by Boise State CB Kyle Wilson).

By the way…the Sooners took a 7-0 lead, only to get hit with 38 unanswered Bronco points. (And Oklahoma’s lead lasted all of four minutes and one second.)

With all those thrills and chills this playoff cycle generated, it’s one of the best I’ve been able to get out of Lance Haffner Games’ 3-in-1 Football. (Thanks, Lance and Co. Great, great job!)

Looking forward to next season…and I’m looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks for reading this blog!