Few people outside Columbus thought the Ohio State Buckeyes could hang with mighty Miami.
Well, hang on, Sloopy.
On a cool night in the desert, the second-ranked Buckeyes stunned No. 1 Miami 31-24 in a two-overtime thriller Friday night to claim their fifth national title, and their first since 1968.
“We’ve always had the best band in the land,” hoarse Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel said during the trophy presentation. “Now we’ve got the best team in the land!”
Cheered on by a heavily pro-Buckeyes crowd of 77,502 at Sun Devil Stadium, the 14-0 Buckeyes capped a perfect season, ended Miami’s 34-game winning streak and denied the Hurricanes’ bid for back-to-back championships.
It will go down as one of the memorable games in college football history.
Miami sent the game into overtime when kicker Todd Sievers, a senior from Ankeny, Iowa, drilled a game-tying 40-yard field goal as regulation time expired.
Ohio State sent the game into a second overtime after a fourth-down interference penalty kept its drive alive.
All season, OSU has found a way. This was its second overtime win in the last three games and its seventh by a touchdown or less.
“We’ve been there, so we didn’t panic,” Buckeyes safety Donnie Nickey said. “We never panic, never give up, no surrender all season.”
The Buckeyes followed a script they’d written many times this season, hewing to fundamentals while their opponent imploded.
Before the game, some analysts said the only team that could beat Miami was Miami. And that’s precisely what happened.
The Hurricanes turned the ball over five times, reprising their 1986 Fiesta Bowl loss to Penn State, when Vinny Testaverde had five interceptions and the Hurricanes lost two fumbles. The Buckeyes’ first 17 points came off turnovers.
“They didn’t beat us,” Miami tight end Kellen Winslow said. “We beat ourselves.”
While Miami bumbled, OSU stuck to basics. Quarterback Craig Krenzel completed three passes in the first three quarters, and OSU ran the ball 52 times. Somewhere, Woody Hayes is smiling.
The Buckeyes have displayed their grit throughout this wondrous season. But they summoned an extra measure in the first overtime, after the Hurricanes jumped to a 24-17 lead on Winslow’s leaping touchdown catch. OSU converted on two fourth-down plays. The first came on fourth-and-14 from the 29, when Krenzel threaded a 17-yard pass to Michael Jenkins on the right sideline.
On fourth-and-3 from the Miami 5, Krenzel lofted a pass into the end zone for Chris Gamble. The ball fell incomplete, but Miami freshman defensive back Glenn Sharpe was called for pass interference. As Miami fans ran onto the field to celebrate, officials marked off the penalty.
“I saw the guy holding the guy prior to the ball being put in the air,” field judge Terry Porter said. “He was still holding him, pulling him down while the ball was in the air.”
Three plays later, Krenzel bulled in from a yard out for his second touchdown. Krenzel, who’s never been mistaken for Michael Vick, led all rushers with 81 yards on 19 carries.
“He led the team, he fought like crazy, and he made plays most especially when they needed to be made,” Tressel said.
The teams moved to the north end zone, where Maurice Clarett’s 5-yard touchdown run gave OSU a 31-24 lead.
On its turn, Miami marched to a first down at the OSU 2, with quarterback Ken Dorsey converting on a fourth-and-3 after being knocked out of the game for one play.
On first down, Jarrett Payton, the son of late Bears great Walter Payton, gained nothing; Payton had come in to replace the injured Willis McGahee in the fourth quarter. An incomplete pass and another fruitless line smash left the Hurricanes with fourth-and-goal from the 2.
Buckeyes linebacker Cie Grant harried Dorsey into throwing a weak pass that was batted down at the goal line.
“That’s what the national championship game should look like–double OT,” said Tressel, who won four Division I-AA titles. The stunned Hurricanes, who hadn’t lost in 16 months, walked off the field as fireworks popped in the sky.
“We gave ourselves a chance to win,” said Miami coach Larry Coker, who lost for the first time in 25 games. “It just wasn’t meant to be tonight.”
It’s never meant to be when Miami visits the Valley of the Sun. The Hurricanes are 0-4 in the Fiesta Bowl. Thirty minutes after it ended, the Buckeyes gathered in the northwest corner of the stadium to sing “Carmen Ohio” with the band and thousands of scarlet-clad fans. They had gone from 13th in the preseason AP poll to No. 1–unbeaten, untied, undisputed.
“We all believed in each other,” Nickey said. “We knew we had the heart to take this thing home, and we did it.”
