Marked men

Second time around, Miami's title run not nearly as smooth

MIAMI -- Struggling to garner the energy to remove his shoulder pads, Miami center Brett Romberg looked less like somebody about to go to Disney World (or, in this case, Tempe) and more like someone who just survived a war.

Thirty-four straight wars, to be exact.

After fending off Virginia Tech 56-45 on Saturday, the Miami Hurricanes have once again finished their regular season undefeated and are once again headed to the national championship game.

Getting back, though, proved much tougher than getting there the first time.

“I definitely earned my scholarship this year,” said the veteran Romberg. “I’ve never played so many full football games in my life.”

In its run to the Rose Bowl in 2001, Miami played like a team with nothing to lose -- and one that simply couldn’t lose. It won its games by an average score of 43-10. Only two opponents came within 20 points.

This year, however, the 'Canes found out there’s something extra that comes with being the defending national champion. Everyone, from Florida State to Rutgers, is gunning for you. Everyone brings their “A” game.

There’s a reason only two teams have successfully repeated as champs in 25 years.

The 'Canes stand one win away from doing just that, though, despite losing an entire side of starters to the NFL, despite losing their projected starting running back before the season even began -- and despite having more than twice as many games go all four quarters.

“I can’t express the pressure our players have been under week after week,” said now 24-0 head coach Larry Coker. “It’s very difficult to go back-to-back. We lost 11 players to the National Football League. You looked at the schedule -- we were going to Tennessee, we were going to go to Florida. But I never wanted to flinch and say we couldn’t do it.”

Among those 11 departees were three members of a vaunted offensive line, all four starters in the secondary and a running back who now starts for the Denver Broncos. It’s enough to cripple most programs.

Yet a year later, Miami stands in the same position, with another running back, Willis McGahee, who’s had the most successful season in school history, a rebuilt offensive line that has both blocked for him and allowed single-digit sacks on Ken Dorsey, and an all-new secondary that led the nation in pass defense.

“I think it’s a tribute to the juniors who stayed with the team and became great leaders for the younger guys,” said Romberg. “I was questioning it before the season, especially on the offensive line. I was like, 'God, I have to play with [three] new guys; it’s going to be another long season of drudgery.’ But come spring time, we moved the ball on our defense, supposedly the best defensive line in the country, and I knew we were going to be all right.”

That defensive front was the focus of many of the 'Canes’ most visible struggles this season. Despite an outrageously deep roster of talent that includes Jerome McDougle, William Joseph, Matt Walters and linebackers D.J. Williams and Jonathan Vilma, Miami became surprisingly soft against the run during the middle of the season. Even Saturday, they seemed human at times against mobile Hokies QB Bryan Randall, who gained 132 yards on 25 carries.

But in true Miami fashion, the 'Canes also forced two huge turnovers when Sean Taylor and Jerome McDougle stripped Randall. And, in a statement to the awaiting Buckeyes and their star tailback Maurice Clarett, Virginia Tech’s vaunted “Untouchables,” Lee Suggs and Kevin Jones, managed just 56 yards on 20 carries.

“This team has so much talent,” said Walters. “A lot of people said we couldn’t do it, but I expected to get back [to the national championship game]. ‘Good’ is not good enough here; that’s why we’re so successful.”

Here they are, the most dominant program of the young decade, in the middle of the sport’s longest winning streak in over 30 years, yet they still left just enough glimmer of vulnerability Saturday to give Ohio State hope.

Last year, it was the down-to-the-wire nature of their 26-24 win at Virginia Tech that led some to pick Nebraska in the Rose Bowl even following the Huskers’ 62-36 loss to Colorado.

This year, it’s the matter of giving up 45 points to the Hokies, the most Miami has allowed in a game since 1998.

But raising doubts only to soundly quash them the following game has been the 'Canes’ routine all year long.

“It was a long season,” said Dorsey. “Teams were truly shooting for us this year. Every single team we played was giving us their best shot.”

So will the Buckeyes. But unfortunately for them, opponents’ best shots haven’t worked in 34 games.

Stewart Mandel covers college football for CNNSI.com.

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