10 greatest college football national championship games
By Zach Bigalke
5. Florida topples Oklahoma 24-14 for 2009 BCS national championship
The 2009 BCS national championship game between Florida and Oklahoma cracks the top five on the list of the 10 greatest No. 1 versus No. 2 postseason spectacles. Pitting a pair of Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks against one another, the duel ended in a 10-point Gators victory that gave Urban Meyer his second national championship in Gainesville and thwarted Bob Stoops in his quest for a second BCS crown.
Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford traded touchdown passes in the first half, with Tebow hitting Louis Murphy for a 20-yard score and Bradford connecting with Jermaine Gresham from six yards out. As a result, the two teams went into the locker room after the first two quarters level at 7-7 on the scoreboard.
Things opened up a bit more in the second half, as Percy Harvin ran in a short third-quarter touchdown and Bradford leveled things up early in the fourth quarter with another touchdown pass to Gresham.
The fourth quarter, though, belonged to Florida. Jonathan Phillips chipped a 27-yard field goal through the uprights with 10:45 remaining that ultimately proved to be the game winner. Tebow added a jump pass to David Nelson from four yards out to seal the deal for the Gators.
Florida outgained Oklahoma by 116 yards on the night, which went a long way to explaining the win by the Gators. Both teams coughed up a pair of touchdowns, but the Gators had a ground game while the Sooners struggled to crack 100 rushing yards. Both Harvin and Tebow passed Oklahoma’s total rushing output by themselves, as they pulled away late to win the title.