Hey,wait, what? Qualifying a column?Really?
Since when I have ever qualified anything, particularly when it comes to Sports….?
But…since we here at the Global HQ consider ourselves somewhat of a College Football based group, we feel an obligation to put our 2-cents worth in about who is going to win the final BCS Championship game of all-time.
And I'll add this: Brother Jon went to Florida State. His lovely bride--an Auburn Grad. Brother Wilkie---part of his world includes covering FSU on a regular basis.
Me--yeah, sure, I grew up in Florida, but that is my only tie to either program. Yes, that's right, I got no dog in the hunt.
Sorry about that, hopefully you are still reading….
So, you've got undefeated FSU, 13-0, not really pushed by anyone this season versus 12-1 Auburn who made it this far basically on two lucky bounces late in 2 different games.
Yet, the game is going to be close. You know it will be.
And high scoring.
Florida State does a little bit of everything. They run. They pass. They block and they don't make a lot of mistakes. They were the highest scoring team in all the land, averaging 53 points per game. Their leader (and he really leads) Jameis Winston, won the Heisman Trophy. He threw for 38 TD's and ran for 4 more.
Their leading runner, Davonta Freeman, ran for nearly 1,000 yards and scored 13 times. And 3 different receivers had over 50 catches, including 6-5 Kelvin Benjamin who caught 14 TD passes.
The Defense, well they were #1 too, giving up only 10 points a game.
As for Auburn, their offense ain't bad. The #1 rushing team in College Football at 335 yards a game, 9th in scoring at 40 points a game. While Nick Marshall doesn't have Winston's numbers, he's pretty good. Nearly 1800 yards passing and over 1000 yards running. Running back Tre Mason, all he did was run for over 1600 yards on the year.No, the offense here isn't the issue. It's the "D".
They gave up 24 points a game and very nearly gave back a couple of games. The Tigers were way ahead of Georgia in November before allowing the Bulldogs to score 21 4th quarter points. Of course that's when the Nick Marshall/Corey Louis miracle pass happened.
Predictions: So…you are probably saying "All the numbers are great, who's going to win?" The short answer, Florida State.
But it won't be easy.
I'm quite sure this game will resemble a track meet. There will be points, lots of points scored. The game will take a long time, it won't end until after midnight (note--I won't be awake to see the end--gotta work).
The defense that stops one of the offenses, that team will win.
While Auburn has been a fantastic story, going from worst to first, catching all kinds of lucky breaks, we have to remember, luck will only get you so far. At some point reality sets in.
Would we be shocked in Auburn wins? No. Not at all. Do we expect them to? No.
Our (my) prediction may very well be wrong, but to be totally honest, the numbers don't lie. Look for The Seminoles to get the win in what could be the best BCS game ever played.
Final Score: FSU 47, Auburn 43
Our partners at the ACC Network give us their game preview:
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