Their only problem seemed to be fumbling at the goal line

McClain was everywhere (again), and in a year where Tim Tebow has put together highlight reels full of his running over linebackers, McClain was his equal, and then some.McClain shadowed Tebow for a good portion of the game He disrupted passing lanes He made solo tackles. He was consistently in the correct position on any given play. The man is going to be a superstar in the NFL, and unfortunately for us, I think that starts next year.Terrence Cody affects every single down when he is on the field Florida abandoned any inside running game because of him. He may have the largest consistent effect on every single play as any defensive lineman to ever play at Alabama.

He severely limited what the Florida offense was able to do, or even to try to do.It's easy to overlook him (figuratively, obviously) because he will never have giant (no pun intended) statistics, but his presence on the field is almost like having an extra man lining up on defense.Javier Arenas has gone from a specialty return guy, to a nickel-package defensive back, to starting cornerback, to lockdown cornerback. I thought it was very fitting that, though Florida punted away from him all night and kept him from getting a significant return, Arenas made his mark from his corner position That's where he wanted to make his mark all along, anyway.6 P.J. Fitzgerald's tackle of Brandon James saved a huge potential momentum swing.Though punters are rarely appreciated anyway, Fitzgerald's career at Alabama has been somewhat nondescript, albeit very solid. He made one of his career's biggest plays though with his tackle of James. Trent Richardson is the best back-up running back in the nation.Continuing with the current theme, Richardson's statistics were not overly impressive on paper: 11 carries, 80 yards, no touchdowns. His method of racking up those yards was impressive indeed.In a play that has become symbolic of the game itself, Richardson was hemmed up behind the line for a two-yard loss Or so it seemed. Physically, he is ready to be an "every-down" back in the SEC right now.

In one of the few instances where I actually agreed with him, CBS color analyst Gary Danielson called Ingram and Richardson "the best one-two punch in college football."The list of teams that Richardson couldnt start for tomorrow is beginning to seriously dwindle.I apologize for the length of this post, but I could literally write 10,000 words about this game. This was simply the most dominant performance by an Alabama team that I have ever seen. It was like the 1992 national championship game against Miami, but with a vastly improved offense.So I imagine that this will be the last time that I ever write this sentence, but Lane Kiffin was absolutely right about almost everything Alabama was better coached and more disciplined He was wrong about one small item though. Unlike my earlier assessment , I don't think so little of Cincinnati to declare them David, and I don't think so much of Florida to declare them Goliath.Whether it was the loss of Percy Harvin to the pros, the loss of OC Dan Mullen to Mississippi State, or the dwindling magic of the "Tebow Child," Florida's offense had regressed so significantly from its 2008 iteration that Alabama's defensive manhandling in the conference championship was foreseeable from at least the middle of the season, when the Gators were struggling to put away lesser outfits from Arkansas and Mississippi State.Meyer's spread-option rushing attack wasn't producing consistently, and was coming up short against both the superior and the inferior defenses, leading to close games against teams far poorer in terms of talent and scheme.

This was something the 2008 Gators only allowed to happen once, in the Ole Miss game, and they still only lost because of a missed extra point.Still, it seemed like the Gators could lean on their defense in close games. Until recently, that defense led the nation in points and yards allowed, and had returned not only every significant starter, but many of the significant backups from the 2008 national championship squad.Alabama undid that myth, piling up just shy of 500 yards and 32 points on a Gator defense that was averaging half of that yardage total and a quarter of that point total through 12 games.There should be no more myths about the 2009 Florida Gators left intact They are beatable They are human. Tebow has been stripped of his immortality; he moves among us as a muttering, weeping mortal .But for the Cincinnati Bearcats to beat Florida in the Sugar Bowl, it will still not be easy.Not if the incarnation of the Bearcats that showed up at Heinz Field shows up again in New Orleans. Until that game, they were second in the Big East in turnover differential. Tony Pike had thrown three interceptions all yearprior to tossing three against the Panthers. Their only problem seemed to be fumbling at the goal line .What's more, Cincinnati wasat least for the first half of the yearbehaving like the 2008 Gators, compiling as many points as quickly as possible so as to mitigate the demands on its defense and capitalize on the ill-advised desperation plays of the other team.That ideology began to erode at around the UConn game, when the Huskies did not go gently into that good night, coming back from a 20-point deficit and keeping pace with Cincinnati possession for possession in the latter part of the game.