The first ever decider in the new play-off format looks like it will be a cracker
It is a dark, cold Monday in January. We expect you are not in great form and with no Monday Night Football on, you may be thinking that, aside from the snooker, you have no live sport to watch tonight.
But the highlight of the night, and possibly one of the best live events of the year, is on at 1.30am, on ESPN, from AT&T Stadium in Dallas; the final game of the college football season, the National Championship Game between Oregon and Ohio State.
Even if you haven’t watched a lick of college football all year, here’s a few reasons to load up on coffee, and possibly pull a sickie tomorrow.
What they are playing for, the brand new National Championship trophy
1 Marcus Mariota
You will be hearing this name a lot over the next decade in the NFL and in his final college game, the Oregon QB will be looking to go out on a high. Mariota (main pic) is one of the modern ‘running’ QBs but at 6’4” he is big enough to take the hits and also throw strikes down the field from the pocket.
His numbers this year have been incredible, throwing 40 TDs in 14 games so far and rushing for a further 15. He was the runaway winner of the Heisman Trophy for the best player in College Football and the Hawaiian is almost certain to be the first pick in the draft (that means he is looking at starting his career with Tampa Bay).
In the semi final against Florida State, Mariota drove his team to a 39-point beatdown of the reigning champions and while he surely won’t rack up a similar tally against Ohio State tonight, it will not be for want of trying.
2 Cardale Jones
If Mariota is the headline act, then his opposite number at Ohio State has to be the fairytale story of the year. Cardale Jones was the third choice QB of Ohio State but after Braxton Miller and J.T. Barrett went down to injury, Jones had to step up in the two biggest games of the year and he has excelled. In the Big Ten Championship game (think provincial final in GAA terms), he threw three TDs in a 59-0 shellacking of Wisconsin. In the shock semi-final win over Number 1 ranked Alabama, Jones was less spectacular but seriously solid as they racked up 537 yards, mainly via the rush game.
If Jones can lead his side to victory tonight it will be one of the great come-from-nowhere to hero status tales of all time.
3 Blue bloods v upstarts
Ohio State are College Football royalty. They have won seven national titles in their time, the last in 2002, and they have been at or near the top of the college game since the 1940s.
Oregon have only become a force in the last two decades, and only their second ever appearance in the final game of the season (the other being a narrow defeat by Alabama in 2010’s BCS Title game).
Oregon’s rise can be linked to the huge financial help given to them by Nike founder Phil Knight and their style of play, which seems to get faster and faster every season, confounding teams and allowing them almost no time to set up their defence. If you think the no-huddle hurry-up stuff in the NFL is fast, you ain’t seen nothing until you have seen Oregon.
4 Urban Meyer
Not just the possessor of one of the coolest names in world sport, Ohio State coach Meyer is also a man on a mission. Meyer made his name at the University of Florida, where he won two national titles, the second with Tim Tebow as his QB.
Meyer quit for health reasons at the end of 2010 but he was hired by Ohio State in 2011 to try and rebuild the programme after the Jim Tressel era ended in scandal, resulting in some NCAA sanctions, including lost scholarships.
Meyer has been a roaring success, despite the sanctions. He is 37-3 since he took over, and a win tonight would make him a title winner at two different schools, something only achieved by Alabama’s Nick Saban in the modern era. Victory for Ohio tonight would also probably crown Meyer as the best coach in the game over Saban, an extra treat for the hyper competitive Ohio native.
5 The non-football stuff
The game will be great and the stuff all around it isn’t half bad either. Oregon’s Duck mascot has to do push ups after each score by the team, a habit that requires an awful lot of work for the poor student inside the feathery costume.
Ohio State have the best, and most famous, marching band in the US and they will perform at half-time.
6 Excitement
The two semi-finals were among the best games of the year in any sport so far. From Oregon’s insanely fast-paced attack blowing Florida State away to the Buckeyes’ shock win over Alabama they were superb pieces of theatre.
Tonight’s showdown, in the enormous surroundings of the home of the Dallas Cowboys, is almost certain to be the most watched football game in the US bar the Super Bowl. Will Oregon’s hyper paced game unsettle the super solid defensive line of Ohio State? Can Marcus Mariota go out on a high? Will Meyer take the crown as the king of coaches?
These are just some of the questions answered tonight. We won’t know the answer until after 4.30am but we’re sure it’ll be worth it.
