Hidden agendas make the best conspiracies. That’s where things get dirty. College football is no exception. The good news is the first College Football Playoff Championship looked as clean as big time college football will ever get.
There’s still plenty of suspicion.
How did Ohio coach Urban Meyer hide third string quarterback Cardale Jones, who came out playing like an all-American? Add a running back carrying his team for nearly 250 yards and the questions pile up.
Watching Ezekiel Elliot go Old Testament on the Oregon Ducks dredged up memories of O.J. and Marcus Allen and Reggie Bush at USC, Herschel Walker and Bo Jackson from the SEC.
Unstoppable.
Zeke cleared the line, got to the second level where people bounced off him, then ran away from Oregon’s speed guys.
Not supposed to happen like that.
He was supposed to get trapped in the backfield, get knocked down in the secondary. Not score four touchdowns and win the Offensive Player MVP.
The Ducks might have suspected something when Zeke showed up for the coin flip in a half jersey. He had abs of steel to go along with his balance, power, and speed. He was the entire package behind a line that pounded mighty Alabama.
With the Ohio state motto listed as, “With God, all things are possible,” and a coach named for a Pope in Urban Meyer, why wouldn’t a player with a name from an Old Testament book fly around the field?
You can’t scout that stuff. Can’t watch tape on divine intervention, not that Zeke needed it.
All he did was make time and space for Cardale Jones to operate. While Elliot tore up the field, Jones did his part on the ground and in the air.
Announcers didn’t miss a chance to remind the audience that Jones was 6’5″, 250 lbs whenever he touched the ball.
Like Zeke, he left Oregon defenders in his wake. Future experiments in physics labs will include Cardale explaining how he trucked players much bigger than him. How did he blow up Alex Balducci who comes in a 6’4″ and 310 lbs?
This wasn’t former Texas Longhorn Vince Young running wild. More like an express train on an inside track blowing through a local stop. You see it, you hear it, you just can’t get on board.
The book on Ezekiel and Cardale wasn’t supposed to have a happy ending. Not against the Ducks. They had a happy ending with Alabama. Oregon was supposed to wear these big Buckeyes down then take them out with a second half burst.
That how it works for the PAC-12 champs. Just ask Florida State. The turnovers, one that looked just like a Jameis Winston moment, were supposed to take Oregon to the podium. Didn’t happen.
Duck coach Mark Helfrich met his match in Urban Meyer. You could say that of almost any coach who lines their squad up against a Meyer coached team.
Let’s hope they’re still friends.
Players like Zeke and Cardale make any coach look good, but getting them ready to roll on the biggest stage in college football history is a job for coaching masters. Urban Meyer is that coach.
How big was the stage?
The Sporting News and other outlets report that the Oregon vs Ohio State game carried the biggest audience in cable history. Biggest ever.
If this is the sort of exposure to teach people how to pronounce Oregon then it’s an even bigger win.
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