• Wes Bloomquist •
• Originally published January 9, 2009 at 12:23 a.m., updated January 9, 2009 at 12:23 a.m.

MIAMI - Tim Tebow gave Florida the jolt it needed, and the Gators toughed out a second BCS title in three years.

Their 24-14 win over No. 2 Oklahoma in a choppy, sloppy affair Thursday night made them a national champion. But it did little to quiet fans of Southern California, Utah and Texas, all of whom already claimed the top spot.

The high-scoring shootout between Heisman Trophy winners never materialized. Oklahoma's Sam Bradford couldn't score from in close and Tebow threw two interceptions, as many as he had all season.

Tebow, however, shook off two miserable throws to rescue the top-ranked Gators (13-1). He drove them to the clinching score - a jump pass for a 4-yard touchdown to David Nelson with 3:07 to play that made it 24-14.

Tebow added to the title he helped the Gators win in 2006 with a rout of Ohio State and, one season after winning the Heisman, brought home another trophy.

National chomps, indeed!

The Associated Press will release its final poll early Friday morning.

Tebow was picked the game's most outstanding player, running for 109 yards.

AP-WS-01-08-09 2349EST Florida used a sturdy goal-line stand and goal-line interception that pinballed off at least four players to hold the highest-scoring offense in NCAA history to its lowest-scoring first half of the season.

• Print
• •
• Share
  • Share this item

    Send this to a friend

    Share on FaceBook

  • Grab the link

    Copy and paste the link:

  • Blog about it

    Blog about this page.

  • Close
• •
• Post a Comment
• •
• Favorite
• •
• Report error
  • Thank you for your submission.
    Error report or correction

    Contact name (optional) Contact phone/e-mail (optional)  

    
  • Close
• •