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CFE Home What's Included in the CFE? Conferences and Schools Included Introduction: A Brief History of College Football
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 2008 Season SummaryThe only unbeaten team in the NCAA's Football Bowl Series division watched from the sidelines as two once-beaten teams met in the 2008 national title game. Utah, behind Brian Johnson's 336 yards and 3 TDs passing, upset Alabama 31-17 in the Sugar Bowl to finish 13-0. That earned the Utes a No. 2 national ranking in the final AP standings and No. 4 in the coaches' poll. Alabama, unbeaten until losing to Florida 31-20 in the SEC title game, finished 6th nationally with a 12-2 record. Florida went on to win its second national championship in three years and its third since 1996 by defeating Oklahoma 24-14 in the title game in Miami to finish 13-1 (the loss was to Mississippi 31-30 in early season). Tim Tebow passed for 231 yards and 2 TDs and ran for 109 yards more for the Gators while Percy Harvin ran for 122 yards and a TD. Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford, who edged Tebow for the 2008 Heisman Trophy, passed for 256 yards and 2 TDs for the Sooners, who finished No. 5 nationally with a 12-2 record. Texas, which had lost only a last-second 39-33 game at Texas Tech, was left out of both the Big 12 and national title games and had to settle for the Fiesta Bowl, There, the Longhorns took awhile to get going but scored with 16 seconds left on a 26-yard pass from Colt McCoy to Quan Cosby to overcome Ohio State 24-21. McCoy passed for 414 yards and 2 TDs and Cosby caught 14 for 171 yards and 2 TDs in the game. The Longhorns finished third and fourth in the national polls with their 12-1 record. The other team that felt left out when it came to the national title game was Southern California, which finished 12-1 in regular season (losing to Oregon State 27-21 early in the season). The Trojans jumped to a 31-7 halftime lead and rolled to a 38-24 win over Penn State in the Rose Bowl as Mark Sanchez passed for 413 yards and 4 TDs and ran for another TD. The Trojans finished No. 2 in the Coaches' poll and No. 3 in the AP poll, while Penn State (11-2) finished 8th. Texas Christian edged unbeaten Boise State 17-16 in the Poinsettia Bowl to finish 11-2 with a national ranking of No. 7. In other noteworthy bowl games, Virginia Tech beat Cincinnati 20-7 in the Orange Bowl for the ACC's first BCS bowl win since 1999. Darren Evans led the Hokies with 153 yards and a TD rushing. West Virginia QB Patrick White became the first starting quarterback ever to win four bowl games when he led the Mounaineers to a 31-30 win over North Carolina before a record Meineke Car Care Bowl crowd of 73,712. White passed for 332 yards and 3 TDs and ran for 55 yards. Vanderbilt upset Boston College 16-14 in the Music City Bowl in its first bowl appearance since 1982 and its first bowl victory since 1955. Bryant Hahnfeldt kicked the winning field goal, a 45-yarder, with 3:26 left in the game. He earlier kicked field goals of 42 and 26 yards as well as the extra point after the Commodores' TD. 2008 was a big year for awards for quarterbacks. Florida's Tim Tebow almost won his second straight Heisman Trophy but finished a close second behind Sam Bradford of Oklahoma. However, Tebow won the Maxwell Award while Bradford won the Davey O'Brien Award. The other top quarterback award went to Graham Harrell of Texas Tech (Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award). Texas QB Colt McCoy was named winner of the Walter Camp Award as Player of the Year. Brian Orakpo of Texas won three major awards on defense -- the Vince Lombardi/Rotary Award as outstanding lineman, the Bronko Nagurski Award as defensive player of the year and the Ted Hendricks Award as top defensive end. Other major player awards went to:
The major national Coach of the Year awards went to Nick Saban of Alabama. 
College Football FansThe history of college football bowl games, including records, facts and anecdotes, can be found in Bowl Games: College Football's Greatest Tradition by Robert M. Ours, noted on this page with links to Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and publisher Westholme Publishing. The College Football Encyclopedia published in hardback and paperback in 1994 with CD-ROM updates through 2002, is no longer available except through used copies and second-hand bookstore outlets. The Encyclopedia, compiled by Dr. Ours, includes records through the 2001 season, with year-by-year scores of every game played by the 93 teams listed, star players yearly, conference titles won, bowl records, coaching records, top 25 national rankings, highest scores for and against, consensus All-Americans, Academic All-Americans, and much more. Also included are introductions to each of 9 major conferences, plus independents, including information on when the conference was formed, national championship teams and major individual award winners from that conference, plus anecdotal material involving members of the conference. More than 1,000 photos of past stars, representing each school listed, are included in the Encyclopedia. A special Appendix lists annual major individual award winners since 1935, team national champions since 1936, top coaching records, and team and individual single-season leaders in more than 20 categories. Copyright 2007. Robert M. Ours, author. Web site by Augusta Computer Services. CFE logo design by J.A.R. Enterprises. Cartoons used by permission of artists at AAA Internet Publishing and The Wizard of Draws [Return To Top] |
History of College Football Bowl Games now available!  For more information, see: Westholme Publishing Amazon.com Barnes & Noble "In Bowl Games: College Football's Greatest Tradition, author and historian Robert M. Ours provides a complete history of bowl games . . . . included are game highlights, scores, attendance figures and rationale for the birth and demise of new bowl games throughout the years. . . . the book serves as an outstanding reference for collegiate football collectors, . . . (and) is resplendent with period photographs."
"Bowl Games is the first work to focus solely and comprehensively on the history of college bowl games . . . Organized chronologically, the book presents information in both chapter and tabular format . . . The author writes well . . . The tabular data is easy to follow and contains the teams, records, results, and attendance for each bowl contest from 1902 to 2004. Also included are lists of overall team bowl records, bowl game performance records, and other useful data. This is a book for comprehensive sports reference collections." (Choice, April 2005) |