MIAMI – This is not a clash of titans. This is a clash of angry titans.
We’ve had titanic BCS Championship Game showdowns. Oklahoma vs. USC in the 2005 Orange Bowl was supposed to be the game to end all title games. Instead, all we got was the Trojans ending the Sooners’ hopes early, 55-19.
Now we have Madoff vs. Investors acrimony in the form of the Florida Gators (12-1) vs. the Oklahoma Sooners (12-1) in tonight’s title game for the 2008 season.
The “In-Your-Face” disdain is fast approaching the level of utter hatred that engulfed the 1987 Fiesta Bowl between Penn State and Miami. It began the instant the Hurricanes strutted off the team plane in camouflage and the teams nearly came to blows at a pre-bowl cookout.
Forget BCS, welcome to the UFC National Championship Game in Dolphins Stadium, where officials were hastily scrambling to encircle the venue in chain-link fencing. Well, almost.
“It’s easier to coach an angry team,” Florida coach Urban Meyer said at least half a dozen times this week.
Billy Joel just played South Florida. He left and a bunch of angry young men, half dressed in orange and blue, the other half in crimson and white, moved in.
The Sooners insulted Gators’ star Tim Tebow.
“They talk a lot,” Florida safety Will Hill told The Post. “Let’s see who’s talking after the game.”
The Gators insulted the flag-football defense played in the Sooners’ conference.
“Have they played a Big 12 team?” asked Oklahoma’s injured defensive tackle DeMarcus Granger. “I’m just asking.”
Just asking, of course.
The Gators of the SEC, 41⁄2-point favorites over the Sooners of the Big 12, have shared the tiniest sliver of common ground. Like the alarm clock perpetually going off in the adjoining hotel room, Florida and Oklahoma have been pestered by 13-0 Utah’s claim to the national title.
“There is only one undefeated team in the United States of America right now in Division I football, and it’s these guys right here,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said after his Utes upset Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
Pry under the anger and this could be a title game for the ages. Tebow won the Heisman in 2007. Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford won it this year.
The Sooners’ no-huddle, G2-network-speed offense scored a record 702 points. Florida has used two teams of scout players to try to simulate the Sooners’ system speed.
“There’s probably about a 10-second break between plays,” Florida defensive back Joe Haden said.
The Gators have 12 players who run sub-4.4 40s. Seven speedsters play on offense, five are on defense, and as many as half of those 12 play on special teams.
“The first time I watched tape of them, I thought it was on fast-forward,” Oklahoma’s Rashad Hutchins, who’s been playing the role of Florida’s Percy Harvin in practice, told The Post.
Either Meyer or Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops will become the first coach to win two BCS titles. They have their teams superbly coached. Oklahoma is first in the nation in turnover margin. Florida is second. It might come down to which team plays angrier.
“I have to watch what I say,” Meyer said, almost too late. “Coach [Lou] Holtz gave me one of the greatest pieces of advice, he said it about three times, he said, ‘Play the game Jan. 8 . . . Do not play it early January, do not play it on Thursday before the game. Play it on Jan. 8.’ “
The eighth has arrived. It’s time for mouths to close and chin straps to be buckled. There’s a clash of angry titans to be played.