'The Best Damn Team' Wins the Big One

Underdog Ohio State stunned mighty Miami in a two-overtime thriller to win its first national championship since 1968

By Austin Murphy

Issue date: January 13, 2003

If you listened closely, you could hear it calling out: Pop my cork -- you've earned it! Someone had left a bottle of Moët in the ice bucket in Room 6414 of the Princess Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz. Even as the hundreds of Ohio State fans at the hotel -- and the rest of the red-clad horde that had descended by the tens of thousands on the Valley of the Sun for the Fiesta Bowl -- swung into full party mode, neither Will Smith nor Darrion Scott seemed much interested in champagne.

Damian Strohmeyer

"It hurts to move," Smith said. Like Scott, he is a starting defensive end for the Buckeyes. Like Scott, he was too banged-up and exhausted, physically and emotionally, to celebrate Ohio State's 31-24 victory over heavily favored Miami in the most dramatic title game in the five-year history of the Bowl Championship Series. So the two teammates remained in attitudes of abject fatigue -- Smith sprawled on the sofa, Scott curled up on his bed, watching a comedian named Cocoa Brown on BET -- casting their minds back several hours to the goal line stand that had ended one of college football's greatest games.

Six feet stood between the Hurricanes and a chance to extend the game to a third overtime, their winning streak to 35 games and their reign as national champions to two years. It was first-and-goal at the two, and Miami must have liked its chances. In Ken Dorsey the Hurricanes had a senior quarterback with a 38-1 record. In Andre Johnson and Roscoe Parrish they had two wideouts ticketed for the NFL. In Kellen Winslow they had a tight end who had outplayed everyone else on the field. On top of all that, they had an offensive line touted as among the finest in the land. But the Hurricanes also had this small problem. "Their offensive line was overrated," said Ohio State linebacker Matt Wilhelm.

CNNSI.com's Stewart Mandel The fact that Ohio State won may have been surprising, but the way they pulled off another close call certainly wasn't. As the disappointed Hurricanes found out, it was the exact same way the Buckeyes have been doing it all year. FULL STORY Closer Look The pass fell incomplete. The 'Canes stormed the field in celebration. But a few seconds later, a flag fell on the floor as well. It was a pass interference call that kept Ohio State alive and will be talked about for years to come. FULL STORY Up in Smoke There would be no wide lefts to save Miami this time. For the first time in 34 games, the Hurricanes were besieged with bad luck in a stunning loss. FULL STORY Tough Enough All of the pregame talk centered on Ken Dorsey, but it was Craig Krenzel who lifted his team to victory with an array of clutch scrambles and key passes. FULL STORY Multimedia Photo Gallery: Fiesta Bowl Tressel: A 'fitting' title game Talent not enough for 'Canes Clarke: A truly testing finale Most Outstanding Players Ohio State Miami Craig Krenzel The junior signal-caller led the Buckeyes with 84 yards rushing, scoring on 1- and 7-yard runs. Kellen Winslow The stud tight end was unstoppable, catching 11 passes for 122 yards and a huge touchdown in overtime. More Stories SI Flashback: Fiesta Bowl Game draws record TV ratings McGahee needs knee surgery Ohio St. looks to repeat 'Canes take Fiesta loss hard Buckeyes top final AP poll Krenzel's crazy runs carry OSU Dorsey struggles in last start Clarett's strip stuns 'Canes Notebook: Flier fires up OSU Columbus hopes to avoid riots Complete Bowl Coverage

"They couldn't move the ball on the ground against us," said Scott after the game. "We knew it, and they knew we knew it."

The Buckeyes' defense disrupts by sending players at unexpected angles. They slant, they cross-blitz and they zone-blitz, running defensive backs and linebackers at the quarterback while dropping linemen into coverage. "A lot of teams do that," said Hurricanes center Brett Romberg before the game, "but not as much as Ohio State."

At a meeting of the Hurricanes' linemen and receivers four days before the Fiesta Bowl, they seemed acutely aware of the dangers they faced. "The key is on the back side," said offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski as the players watched video of themselves working against their scout team, which was running the Buckeyes' schemes. The Christmas tree standing next to the screen somehow failed to lend the room a festive atmosphere. "Somewhere along the line we've got to seal off the back side."

"If that guy slants," said offensive line coach Art Kehoe, pointing at a defensive end, "that's who you get, right, 'Los?" Starting left tackle Carlos Joseph nodded uncertainly. The session went on in that vein for half an hour.

"If we can get a body on a body, the ball will get through the line," said Romberg after the meeting, "but if people are tentative and second-guess, those guys will wipe right over the top of us."

And so it came to pass. It wasn't as if the Hurricanes didn't know what was coming. They were simply powerless to stop it. Smith sacked Dorsey on Miami's first play from scrimmage. The Buckeyes got him three more times and knocked him down on 10 other occasions. (Dorsey, who left the field for one play during the final overtime after a hard hit from Wilhelm, vomited on the Hurricanes' bus after the game and was hospitalized for several hours with dehydration and a possible concussion.) By the middle of the second quarter Miami had abandoned its man-blocking schemes on passing downs and resorted to slide-protection. This was a stunning concession to a defensive line that it could not handle.

Nor could the Hurricanes get anything going on the ground. Before he left the game in the fourth quarter with torn ligaments in his left knee, Miami tailback Willis McGahee -- who rushed for 1,686 yards and averaged 6.4 per attempt during the season -- had carried 20 times for just 67 yards. Now, on first-and-goal in the second overtime, his replacement, Jarrett Payton (son of the late Walter Payton), scratched out a yard. On second down Dorsey had tight end Eric Winston open in the end zone, but, feeling pressure from his left, rushed the throw. Incomplete. On third down the Hurricanes ran fullback Quadtrine Hill into the line. No imagination, no gain.

In the Ohio State huddle safety Mike Doss sought calm. "Everyone, get your composure," said the senior All-America, who had toyed with the idea of entering the draft after last season but foresaw great things for this Buckeyes squad and stuck around. (So focused was Doss on getting to the title game that every Monday night for a year he made himself a taco salad, one of whose ingredients was always Tostitos, a superstitious nod to the sponsor of the bowl in which he hoped to finish his career.) "This is our season right here."

From the sideline came the signal for a blitz called Tight Will Tulsa. "That means I'm coming off the edge," explained outside linebacker Cie Grant. "I'm bringing the juice."

Grant, a converted cornerback with serious closing speed, caught Dorsey with one arm, grabbed him by the collar and spun him around as he released a desperation throw. When that homely pass fluttered to the turf, it brought down the curtain on a nascent Hurricanes dynasty. The Miami quarterback sank to his knees while the celebration erupted around him.

Hadn't we just seen this movie? The first overtime had ended, or so it had seemed, with a failed throw from Ohio State quarterback Craig Krenzel. His fourth-down pass to flanker Chris Gamble had fallen incomplete and been followed by a spectacular display of Fiesta Bowl-sponsored pyrotechnics, a tidal wave of Hurricanes players and supporters flowing onto the field, and a yellow flag thrown by back judge Terry Porter, who waited four Mississippis before reaching for his back pocket because, he later explained, he wanted to go over the play in his mind (page 86). Three plays after the pass-interference penalty, Krenzel sneaked the ball in for the tying touchdown.

"They let us play all day," said an incredulous Mark Stoops, Miami's secondary coach, "then he makes a touch call. Who are these guys?"

Trophy Count Programs with the most Associated Press titles: School  No.  Notre Dame  8  Oklahoma  7  Alabama  6  Miami  5  Minnesota  4  Nebraska  4  Ohio State  4

Divine agents, some Buckeyes would argue. "That was just God giving us another chance," said Scott of the late flag. It was now 2:30 in the morning, and the lineman was sitting up in bed, fully awake, periodically rubbing his ailing left shoulder. Scott suspected he had a torn labrum -- he'd torn his right labrum in 2001, and this felt the same. Faced with a 6 a.m. flight, he'd given up on the idea of getting some sleep, and when Smith, who had taken a helmet to his right quadriceps, limped across the room to hand him a glass of the now-opened bubbly, Scott did not refuse it.

Like Scott and Smith, both of whom, it bears mentioning, are of legal drinking age, let us raise a glass, this time to the coaches -- to Miami's Larry Coker, who endured his first loss in two seasons at the helm with class and candor, and to Jim Tressel, who in his second season at Ohio State awakened a sleeping giant and delivered to the Buckeyes their first national championship since 1968. Tressel's style is quaint and retro: Players must memorize one another's names and the words to the school fight song Carmen Ohio, which they are required to sing while standing before the band following each game. (In the joyous anarchy on the field after the Fiesta Bowl, there was Buckeyes offensive tackle Shane Olivea, herding his teammates toward the end zone: "Coach says we can't do anything before we sing.")

Tressel's philosophy is simple. He insists on superior special teams, relentless defense and mistake-free offense. It is also effective. It worked for his father, Lee Tressel, at Baldwin-Wallace, where he won the Division III crown in 1978. It worked for Jim at Youngstown State, where he led the Penguins to four Division I-AA national titles between 1991 and '97. Last Friday night it worked on college football's biggest stage, in "a game for the history books," as Ohio State free safety Will Allen described the contest to his teammates before the first overtime.

But this 15-round heavyweight bout left some Buckeyes too drained for euphoria. "It just doesn't feel that big," tailback Maurice Clarett said on the field after the game, as teammates showered each other with corn chips. "It feels like winning another game. Know what I mean? I'm ready to go. Ready to go home." Then, to a teammate: "This s--- be too long."

It was indeed a long week for the freshman who had been the Buckeyes' most potent weapon during the season. Fifteen minutes into a routine press conference on Dec. 30, Clarett dropped one of the bombshells for which he is quickly becoming known. "I'm kinda messed up now," he said. "My friend had a funeral today at 11 o'clock, and they didn't put me on a plane to go back. So I'm kind of salty." For the next two days he and the school sparred in the press over whether Clarett had filled out the proper forms for the travel assistance the NCAA makes available to players in family emergencies.

Clarett's coaches and teammates offered condolences for his loss, sympathy for his frustration at missing the funeral and bemused shrugs at his decision to air them so publicly. "There's no question he's a team player," said Krenzel. "His heart's in the right place."

Instant Results Coaches who have won national titles in their first two years at a school: Year  Coach  School  Yrs  2002  Jim Tressel  Ohio St.  2nd  2001  Larry Coker  Miami  1st  2000  Bobby Stoops  Okla.  2nd  1974  Barry Switzer  Okla.  2nd   1948  B. Oosterbaan  Mich.  1st  1942  Paul Brown  Ohio St.  2nd

Clarett himself has a knack for being in the right place. Despite being bottled up much of the time by the Hurricanes' defense, which held him to 47 yards on 23 carries (he had rushed for 1,190 yards and averaged 6.0 per carry this season), Clarett found ways to leave his mark on the game. Every bit as important as his two rushing touchdowns was the defensive play he made in the third quarter. After Miami safety Sean Taylor had picked off Krenzel in the Hurricanes' end zone, Clarett stripped Taylor of the ball on the return, leading to a Buckeyes field goal.

That outrageous sequence was the signature play of a game in which emotions, and momentum, whipsawed. Whenever the tension seemingly could not be ratcheted any higher, it was. After enduring two Ohio State timeouts with :03 left in regulation, Miami kicker Todd Sievers drilled a 40-yard field goal to send the game into overtime. Winslow, who would finish with 11 receptions for 122 yards, capped the Hurricanes' first OT possession with a circus catch, contorting his body in midair and reaching around a defender's head to snare a seven-yard touchdown pass. Miami had momentum.

But back it swung to the Buckeyes with the flight of side judge Porter's flag, the signal to the Hurricanes that their celebrations were premature. Obscured by that bizarre turn of events was the gutsy play four snaps earlier that had made it possible. On fourth-and-14 from the 29, with the season on the line -- and with his mother, Debbie, in the stands saying, "Time to throw it to Mikey" -- Krenzel took a three-step drop and hummed a 17-yard strike to wideout Michael Jenkins at the right sideline.

Putting Krenzel in pressure spots is like throwing Brer Rabbit into the brier patch. The junior from Sterling Heights, Mich., led Ohio State to five fourth-quarter comebacks this season, leaving him with a somewhat cavalier attitude toward do-or-die situations. "It's sort of like, 'Yeah, our season's on the line again,'" he says. "So let's do something about it."

Krenzel's rise was one of the many unexpected twists in a surprising Buckeyes season. When he won the starting job last fall, it was widely assumed he would merely be keeping the spot warm for redshirt junior Scott McMullen or highly touted freshman Justin Zwick. But Krenzel has a nice arm and is a good runner, as Miami discovered. The 6'4" 215-pounder rushed for a game-high 81 yards, taking advantage of the Hurricanes' man-to-man coverage to pull the ball down and scramble for solid gains. Mostly, though, Krenzel is smart -- a molecular genetics major who pulled straight B-pluses in his three fall courses: Molecular Genetics 608, Molecular Genetics 701 and Microbiology. "Those are graduate-level courses," says his brother, Brian, a medical student at Louisville who played strong safety at Duke. Brian is fiercely proud of his little brother but saves his praise for when Craig is out of earshot.

Last Saturday afternoon, long after many other Buckeyes had left for home, the Krenzel brothers and their uncle Stan played a round of golf at a public course in Phoenix. Stan is a lifelong Michigan fan who pulls for his nephew during the football season but makes him pay when it's over.

"Watch Stan. He'll spend the whole round talking during Craig's backswing, trying to screw him up," said Brian, himself not above attempting to sabotage his brother's game. Both uncle and brother had parred the first hole when Craig bent over a five-foot par putt.

"This is where his game falls apart," said Stan.

"Awful quiet, isn't it Craig?" said Brian.

"Don't look now, but it's fourth-and-one," said Stan, who was silenced by the clattering of his nephew's ball dropping into the cup.

Issue date: January 13, 2003