CJ Stroud clowns Florida alums Fred Taylor, Channing Crowder when challenged about national titles
CJ Stroud, like any Ohio State football alum or fan, knows the Buckeyes have fallen short of national championship expectations in recent years, especially when the quarterback was on campus. But he doesn’t want to hear about it from a couple of Florida football alums.
Appearing on an episode of The Pivot podcast with Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder, who both played for the Gators, Stroud bristled when Taylor pressed him about the Buckeyes falling short.
“It’s tough to look back and be like, ‘Man, we should’ve won it all.’ Like, yeah, no duh, but sometimes it just doesn’t shake like that, you know?” Stroud said, before asking Taylor his alma mater as the host was about to push back. “Where did you go?”
Taylor told Stroud he went to Florida, at which point the quarterback responded with some righteous indignation.
“Come on man, what is we talking about?” Stroud said as Crowder burst out laughing.
On personal terms, Taylor did win a national championship with the Gators in 1996. But in the guise of comparing the respective programs, Stroud rejected the notion that Ohio State has fallen short more than any other team in recent years.
Florida has three national championships, all won outright: 1996, 2006 and 2008.
Ohio State has eight, with four won outright: 1942, 1954, 1957, 1961, 1968, 1970, 2002 and 2014.
In terms of modern success in winning national championships — since adoption of the BCS — the Buckeyes and Gators are on relatively equal terms, as both have a pair of titles. Since the shift to the College Football Playoff, Ohio State has been a notable step above, winning a title more recently and appearing in the College Football Playoff a handful of times while Florida has yet to appear.
Perhaps ironically, one man is responsible for coaching the three most recent national championships won by the two schools: Urban Meyer. He was the head coach at Florida for the 2006 and 2008 titles and at Ohio State in 2014.
And given that Alabama won a notable plurality of national championships during Nick Saban’s tenure as head coach, it’s been harder for all the other schools to break through for a championship.
Thus, when Taylor brought up recent times — he picked the last eight years as a time frame — Stroud did not back down. Plus, the records tend to back him up; Florida is 59-41 in that stretch while Ohio State is 89-13.
“What have y’all done? Nothing, so damn,” Stroud said. “LSU is maybe one of the only teams, they only did one good year.”
Crowder acknowledged he didn’t have much of a leg to stand on, as did Taylor.
“I’m going to lay down when I have to. I can’t win this battle,” Taylor said.
“Yeah come on, I’m thinking you went to ‘Bama or something,” Stroud said, “like what are we talking about?”