When the dust finally settled and the Tostitos were swept off the field, the Buckeyes stood as the only undefeated team in the nation and the national champions.
They withstood all the criticism from the national media and the controversy over Maurice Clarett wanting to leave Tempe to attend the funeral of one of his friends and dethroned defending national champion Miami in a double-overtime thriller that will be seen on ESPN Classic for decades to come.
The Buckeyes went into the game with seemingly everything stacked against them. Miami was riding high on a 34 game winning streak and their head coach, Larry Coker, had yet to suffer a defeat since taking the reigns two years ago. In addition, the powers that be made them 13 point underdogs.
It seemed that nobody outside of the state of Ohio believed that they even belonged in the same league as the Hurricanes, let alone on the same field as them with the coveted Circuit City national championship trophy on the line.
The doubts that so many people had in the Buckeyes were certainly not unjustified.
Clarett’s recurring shoulder injury coupled with his anger over the funeral issue made many wonder just how much of a factor he would be in the game.
Also, their 13 game winning streak that put them in the Fiesta Bowl was by no means a smooth ride. They suffered numerous scares against opponents that they probably should not have struggled against; needing a gutsy fourth down touchdown pass in the final minute to beat Purdue, intercepting a potential last-minute winning touchdown pass against Cincinnati, and having to go into overtime to take out Illinois.
In most sports writers minds, a Miami national championship repeat was a done deal.
Head coach Jim Tressel and his Buckeyes obviously did not get the message that the trophy was set to spend another year in Miami.
They gutted it out for six quarters against the supposedly unbeatable Hurricanes, benefiting like they had all season from key plays by their defense and a little luck, like Clarett stripping and recovering the ball on the same play in which Miami had intercepted the ball in the end zone.
If Tressel’s Buckeyes felt overmatched against the Hurricanes, they certainly never showed it. They brought the game to their level, incorporating the Big Ten smashmouth style of football into it. Miami’s players suffered the consequences. The Hurricanes were forced to finish the game without their star running back Willis McGahee after he suffered a serious knee injury.
Starting quarterback Ken Dorsey was shaken up during the second overtime and was not himself for the rest of that final, crucial drive.
They coupled that with the overwhelming domination of Buckeye fans over Hurricane fans in the seats of Sun Devil stadium to snatch the trophy from the hands of Coker and his Hurricanes.
When all was said and done, the Buckeyes came through in the clutch, and the Hurricanes faltered.
Though not always the prettiest team to watch, they came out of every game with more points then their opponents.
Their 14-0 record set a Division I record, and they hoisted the trophy over their heads at the end of the game.
Throughout the entire season they “played like crazy,” as Tressel likes to say. They crawled and scratched their way to the top of the mountain. For that they deserve some serious recognition from all the experts.