By CHRISTOPHER RAMIREZ

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Through 12 years, 122 wins and one national title at the University of Florida, Steve Spurrier became a coaching legend.

Urban Meyer is rapidly transforming him into a forgotten relic.

In only his fourth season at Florida, Meyer has led the Gators to two national football titles. He joined an elite group of coaches when Florida defeated the Oklahoma Sooners, 24-14, on Thursday in the BCS National Championship Game.

“I’m not sure I enjoyed this last one enough,” Meyer said of the Gators’ 2006 national title. “I’m going to enjoy this one. You know why, because I’ve got a team I can trust.”

Yet it’s not only in his Gators that Meyer can take pride. His fingerprints are still found on his former team, Utah, which finished the season with a 13-0 record and No. 2 ranking after defeating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.

Meyer was at Utah for only two years but still managed to reverse the program’s fortune. In 2003, the Utes won 10 games, and a year later Meyer guided them to a 12-0 season and their first BCS bowl game, which resulted in a victory over Pittsburgh. His spread offense, which helped quarterback Alex Smith become the top pick in the 2005 NFL draft, was run this season by Brian Johnson, who was recruited by Meyer.

The current Utah head coach, Kyle Whittingham, was promoted from defensive coordinator after Meyer left for Florida at the end of the 2004 season.

Asked what he thought of both his previous team and current one leading in the season’s final Associated Press poll, Meyer said, “It’s unbelievable. What does it mean? It just means that it’s just fantastic people associated with those programs.”

He added coaches too often leave their programs in turmoil when taking a position elsewhere.

“Everybody is in a hurry to take a new job,” Meyer said. But a coach should, “just make sure the foundation behind you has some success.”

Meyer surely won’t be rushing to a new job anytime soon. He said he’s not finished molding the Gators’ program.

“I really have a dream of what Florida should look like, and it’s getting real close,” Meyer said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done. The minute you start worrying about other things, you miss a recruiting class, you miss this great recruit, and that’s not going to happen. I’m committed to Florida. I love Florida.”

His 2009 mission would be easier if he were to receive that same pledge from Florida’s two biggest contributors in the championship game, quarterback Tim Tebow and wide receiver Percy Harvin. Both are considering forgoing their senior year to turn pro.

Against the Sooners, Harvin broke a 7-7 halftime tie with a short touchdown run in the third quarter, and Tebow iced the game late in the fourth quarter when he connected with wide receiver David Nelson on a 4-yard touchdown pass.
In all, Tebow had 341 yards passing and running and threw for two touchdowns. Harvin, nursing an ankle injury that kept him out of Florida’s conference championship game in December, shredded the Sooner defense with 122 rushing yards and a touchdown on nine carries.

“That was one of the gutsiest performances I’ve been around,” Meyer said of Harvin. “The brighter the lights, the better he plays.”

Oklahoma, the highest-scoring team in college football history, finally met its match in the Gator defense.

The Sooners, who scored an NCAA-record 702 points during the regular season, were stopped just yards shy of the end zone twice in the first half. Tailback Chris Brown was stopped on a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line with six minutes left in the second quarter. Late in the first half, quarterback Sam Bradford was intercepted by safety Major Wright at the Florida 3-yard line after a 74-yard drive.

“I tried to force one in there,” Bradford said, “but I probably should have just thrown it in the back of the end zone and taken the three points.”

Bradford, the 2008 Heisman Trophy winner, played well below his season average, finishing the game 26-of-41 for 256 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Florida, ranked second in the BCS, was tough from the start. Linebacker Brandon Spikes stopped Brown for no gain on the game’s first play from scrimmage. Two snaps later, Wright crushed Oklahoma senior wide receiver Manuel Johnson, who was streaking down the sideline in search a deep pass from Bradford. The hit was met with an eruption of cheers from the Florida faithful, who easily accounted for three-fourths of the 78,468 in attendance.

Oklahoma dispelled worries about its 63rd-ranked defense when it intercepted Tebow twice in the first half. Florida’s initial offensive possession ended when Sooner safety Nic Harris collected his first interception of the season by stepping in front of a Tebow pass inside Oklahoma’s 40-yard line. Later, Gerald McCoy, who dropped into coverage from his defensive line possession, snatched a pass thrown directly at him by Tebow.

It was the first time in Tebow’s career that he had thrown two interceptions in a game. He was picked off only twice all season coming into the game and finished 18-of-30 for 231 yards.
Florida broke a scoreless tie less than a minute into the second quarter. On third and nine, Tebow rolled right and connected with wide receiver Louis Murphy, who stretched the ball across the goal line while being tackled by Sooner cornerback Dominique Franks.

Oklahoma soon answered. Bradford found tight end Jermaine Gresham in the back of the end zone for a 6-yard touchdown pass to cap a dizzying six-play, 65-yard drive that lasted barely more than two minutes. Brown carried three straight times for 46 yards on the drive, and finished with 110 yards on 22 carries.

But after McCoy’s interception, Brown was kept out of the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line when he was brought down for a two-yard loss by Florida defensive tackle Torrey Davis.

“We stalled in the red zone,” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. “It doesn’t take much to lose a tight game like it was.”
Florida broke a 7-7 halftime tie in the third quarter largely because of Tebow. The junior quarterback carried six times for 48 yards to motor the Florida offense down the field on a 75-yard drive.

“I was trying to get us some momentum,” said Tebow, who hopped up after one run pumping his fists and yelling. “We needed to get the crowd excited and into the game. At that point, I just kept fighting to make plays.”
From the Oklahoma 2-yard line, Harvin took a direct snap, sprinted right and easily barreled into the end zone to give the Gators a 14-7 lead.

Another swift drive by the Sooners in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, with Brown accounting for 42 of the 77 yards, tied the game, 14-14. From the 11-yard line, Bradford tossed a short pass over the middle to Gresham, who had enough room to walk over the goal line for his second touchdown.

A 27-yard field goal from kicker Jonathan Philips shortly thereafter gave Florida a lead it did not relinquish on its way to securing its second title in three seasons.

Despite their regular-season success, Stoops and the Sooners have been defeated in five of their past six bowl games, though Stoops brushed aside the losing streak.

“In the end, I’ll be glad to try again next year,” he said. “If that’s the biggest burden I have to bear in my life, I’ll be a pretty lucky guy.”

Stoops might be better off, however, if he were Meyer.