The Title Game Trash Talk Has Begun

Well, it was inevitable, I guess: The trash talk has begun.

Ugh.

With the national championship game now just two days away—you'll be able to read my complete game preview here tomorrow, by the way—players from both Florida and Oklahoma are becoming increasingly, well, critical of each other.

The nonsense began over the weekend, when Oklahoma cornerback Dominique Franks, apparently insulted that Florida quarterback Tim Tebow said he was "looking forward" to taking on a Big 12 defense, declared that while Tebow might be the best quarterback in the SEC, he'd only be the fourth-best in the Big 12 (behind Texas' Colt McCoy, Texas Tech's Graham Harrell and, of course, the Sooners' own Sam Bradford).

Tebow, to his credit, laughed Franks' remarks off.

But his Florida teammate, linebacker Brandon Spikes, couldn't do the same.

On Monday, Spikes fired back, blasting the Big 12 for its weak defenses (he's got a point about that, by the way) and predicting that Bradford and the Sooners' ridiculously high-powered offense wouldn't have much success against Florida's mighty SEC defense (well, we shall see).

Said Spikes: "You keep hearing they’ve done this and scored all these points in the last five games. But I really feel like they haven’t faced a defense like ours, and Big 12 defenses are a joke. It’s always like a bunch of basketball scores when I watch SportsCenter."

Look, I understand these guys are probably bored. They've been waiting a long time to play this game. They're tired of talking and want to get on the field and hit somebody.

But that doesn't excuse the trash talk. I mean, why they would want to engage in this destructive back-and-forth—why they'd want to give their opponent any extra motivation—is really beyond me.

It doesn't do any good, guys. Really, it doesn't.

Photo: Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes doesn't think much of Big 12 defenses. (Scott Halleran/Getty Images)