Counting Down the Champions, #2: 2008 Florida

Date	TFG	RBA	Away Team			TFG	RBA	Home Team		Plays	Odds TFG / RBA
2008/08/30	43	/  59	Hawaii	10	at	7	/   2	Florida	56	148	77.8%	/  68.3%
2008/09/06	74	/  76	Miami-FL	3	at	4	/   1	Florida	26	148	95.3%	/  85.3%
2008/09/20	3	/   2	Florida	30	at	19	/  36	Tennessee	6	135	66.7%	/  72.5%
2008/09/27	56	/  59	Mississippi	31	at	2	/   1	Florida	30	162	93.8%	/  89.4%
2008/10/04	4	/   2	Florida	38	at	54	/  66	Arkansas	7	157	82.0%	/  90.6%
2008/10/11	6	/  11	LSU	21	at	3	/   3	Florida	51	155	66.0%	/  55.6%
2008/10/25	34	/  40	Kentucky	5	at	3	/   2	Florida	63	153	88.4%	/  72.7%
2008/11/01	9	/  12	Georgia	10	vs	2	/   1	Florida	49	148	68.5%	/  55.9%
2008/11/08	2	/   1	Florida	42	at	50	/  50	Vanderbilt	14	144	90.6%	/  85.4%
2008/11/15	24	/  26	South Carolina	6	at	2	/   1	Florida	56	159	87.0%	/  76.7%
2008/11/29	2	/   1	Florida	45	at	23	/  25	Florida St.	15	160	87.3%	/  84.5%
2008/12/06	2	/   1	Florida	31	vs	8	/   5	Alabama	20	145	69.8%	/  60.7%
2009/01/08	4	/   3	Oklahoma	14	vs	2	/   1	Florida	24	165	67.2%	/  55.2%

Florida Gators
Year	WinPct		SoS		Off.		Def.		Pace
2008	0.947	2	0.640	5	38.5	1	12.2	6	159.0	111

Justin

Let's just get this out of the way: From the Tebow-Tebow Tebow Tebow the Tebow-Tebow Tebow, the Tebow Tebow Tebow is Tebow PPH. The Tebow 10 Tebow Tebow a Tebow Tebow than Tebow PPH. Tebow one Tebow Tebow Tebow had an Tebow Tebow than Tebow PPH: the Tebow-Tebow Tebow Gators Tebow by Tim Tebow. In all seriousness, what this team did to even quality opposition was scary. They hung 21.4 PPH on an Alabama squad whose previous worst was 20.4 PPH on the road against (5) Georgia. They put up

• 22.2 PPH against (19) Tennessee;
• 28.1 PPH against (23) Florida State;
• 32.9 PPH against (6) LSU;
• 33.1 PPH against (9) Georgia; and
• 35.2 PPH against (24) South Carolina.

And keep in mind that these are raw efficiencies, not adjusted for strength of opponent. I'm not a Tebow fanboy by any stretch of the imagination, and you can argue that it was because of the receivers or the offensive scheme or that Urban Meyer ran up the score (Eddie will address that) but our numbers predict that the 2008 Gators would put up 39 points on this year's LSU squad. The only reason they didn't finish the year at the top of the TFG rankings was because their defensive efficiency wasn't quite up to par -- USC had an other-worldly 7.2 PPH -- but when you've got the top-rated offense over the last 10 years ... well, maybe you don't need to worry as much about your defense.

Florida Gators
Year	WinPct		SoS		Off.		Def.		Pace
2008	1.000	1	0.559	7	26.4	3	9.1	8	163.4	102

Eddie

Say what you will about Tim Tebow in the NFL, but he really was an astounding collegiate quarterback. (1) Florida was challenged exactly one time during the regular season: a 31-30 loss to (60) Ole Miss where Tebow was stopped at the one yard line on the go ahead score. In contrast, Florida beat (37) Tennessee by 24, (11) LSU by 30, (13) Georgia by 39, (27) South Carolina by 50, (27) Florida State by 30, and a very good (5) Alabama by 11. They even beat (3) Oklahoma by 10 in the national championship game. Much like this year's Southern Miss, the Gators played up to their competition offensively, sporting a ridiculous 21.7 -/+ 8.7 PPH efficiency (note the sign change). The Gators didn't play exceptional defense at 7.3 +/- 3.5 PPH, but they didn't have to with an offense like that. One can only wonder how they could have performed if they hadn't put the scrubs in so early in the ball game after building huge leads.

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