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Hocus, focus While OU falters, Miami plays Fiesta-worthy footballPosted: Saturday November 30, 2002 6:34 PMUpdated: Monday December 02, 2002 2:06 AM
What an absolute butt-kicking. Just sheer domination. And then there was the Oklahoma game. Was it surprising to see the third-ranked Sooners get absolutely destroyed by supposedly inferior rival Oklahoma State? Yeah, just a little bit. But pardon OU if they were a tad bit deflated before they even took the field Saturday. Their game kicked off just late enough for them to have flipped on a TV in the locker room and seen their already slim Fiesta Bowl hopes get shredded into a million tiny little pieces. After nearly an entire season of the Miami Hurricanes basically toying with the rest of the country, the rest of the country saw what happens when the Miami Hurricanes play focused football. No sleepwalking through the first half this week. No 5-for-15 starts for Ken Dorsey, no letting the other team’s running back have a free ride for a half. Just pummeling undermanned Syracuse like a defending national champion in the midst of a 33-game win streak should, with Dorsey completing his first 10 throws en route to a 16-of-25, 345-yard, two-touchdown day, Willis McGahee bursting for 61- and 51-yard scores. This was the Miami team we’ve been waiting for all season. And with just one game remaining between the ‘Canes and a trip to Tempe, they couldn’t have picked a better time to click. Now before we go any further, let me stop and address the deluge of e-mails I already can see coming, all along the lines of … It was Syracuse, you moron. My grandmother could throw for 345 yards against Syracuse. Miami never plays anybody. They’re the worst team ever to win 33 straight games. Ah, but the thing is this. They won. They’ve won all of them. They took care of business, as usual. And this is why the BCS, much to the chagrin of nearly everyone, is headed to a silky-smooth finish. Barring the upset to end all upsets next week against Virginia Tech, Miami will join Ohio State in what should, but won’t be a controversy-free Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 3. The Georgia fans will bemoan Sugar Bowl foe Florida State for not hitting that dang field goal against the ‘Canes. The Iowa fans will bemoan their own conference for not giving them a crack at the Buckeyes. But at the end of the day, why should any of them get a chance to win the championship when they can’t win all their games? If and when college football gets a playoff, though, that’s exactly what will happen. Oklahoma will be able to lose to Oklahoma State and find that all it affects is their seeding, while Ohio State goes 13-0 only to find it’s earned the same thing as a 9-2 team. The Sooners are a particularly puzzling bunch. Their coaching staff is near-universally recognized as the best in the business. They win all the big games. And yet three times over the past two seasons, they’ve gotten their butts handed to them by far-inferior opponents. This is not intended as a slight at Bob Stoops. A 41-9 record, a national title and a chance at a second conference title next week are nothing to sneeze at. It’s just that perhaps some of the credit isn’t being properly dispersed. There’s only one head coach in America who can say his teams have taken care of business every week of his career. No, they don’t always play on an even keel. But they find a way to win every single game, which is more than anyone but Ohio State can say. He’s easy to overlook through his ego-free interviews and low-key demeanor, but Larry Coker deserves every bit as much credit for his 23-0 record as Dorsey does for his much-chronicled 37-1 mark. So what if he’s got by far the nation’s most talented squad at his fingertips? Do people not realize how hard it is to keep that talent properly motivated, focused and coached every week of the season? Guarantee you this much: Stoops does. Stewart Mandel covers college football for CNNSI.com. Got a comment, question or scoop for Stewart? Click here.
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