Curtain goes up one final time

By M. Edward Guest Sports Central Columnist

The University of Miami football program has won 38 of its last 39 games, including the 2002 Rose Bowl for the 2001 national championship -- the school's first since it split the honors with the University of Washington in 1991. Miami, which plays Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl this week, will be gunning for its sixth championship in 20 football seasons -- and perhaps a place in college football lore.

The story is already being drafted throughout the newsrooms; the story of Ken Dorsey leading the Canes to a second straight title -- and the story of one of the greatest teams in collegiate football history chugging along toward Oklahoma's legendary 47-game unbeaten streak, a mark suddenly 13 victories away.

Last year, seniors Edward Reed and Bryant McKinnie finished with a flourish -- dominating No. 2 Nebraska in Pasadena. Does the same fate await Dorsey and William Joseph -- or will Miami be handed a third defeat in 18 years in a national championship game they entered as No. 1?

We often remember the greatest teams in college football history because they left in indelible mark in their final contest. The model that Miami would dearly love to emulate is Nebraska's grand finale of 1995. Although the calendar showed 1996 as the New Year, the Huskers of 1995 paid little notice, trouncing the previously-unbeaten Florida Gators 62-24, in yes, the Fiesta Bowl. The model that Miami would be best to avoid is the lackluster finish of their 1992 predecessors.

Attempting to win three national titles in four years, the loaded Miami senior class led by Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta was summarily vanquished by the hungry players from Tuscaloosa. In fact, it took the 'Canes nearly a decade to get back over the proverbial hump that a 34-13 Sugar Bowl debacle to Alabama created -- suffering through mediocre Big East campaigns until the turn of the century. Nebraska '95, juggernaut of Frazier, Lawrence Phillips, and the great Blackshirt defense is remembered fondly for a 36-1 record (1993-1995) because it climaxed with a second straight national championship.

The initial campaign of Nebraska's Class of 1995 pales in comparison to Miami's Class of 1992, after all, the '89 Canes won the championship -- but the guys from Lincoln passed a Miami senior class that lost just four times in four years -- because of their grand finale, and because Miami was embarrassed by the 1992 'Tide defense. Proving once more, it is not how you start, but how you finish.

Whether it is Dorsey for the 'Canes or Mike Doss for the Ohio State Buckeyes -- seniors are likely to dominate the storyline of the Fiesta Bowl. Simply put, this is it for them -- many will never play in the National Football League -- and no one wants to go out a loser. Coral Gables' finest will saunter onto the field in Tempe determined to keep the streak alive -- and conclude their college careers in style. Yet, the history of college football is filled with stories of seniors who languished in obscurity for the vast majority of their careers -- only to prevail as seniors.

The 1999 Buckeyes, who went 6-6, are long gone from Columbus -- but their remnants can be found in Doss, safety Donnie Nickey, and others who remember the dark days. Surely, they are aware of their opportunity to conclude their senior campaign with a trophy -- symbolizing how far they had come in just a few scant years. Ohio State has not won a consensus national championship since All-American David Foley led them to glory in 1968, a senior offensive tackle who would not experience the next two great years of the program -- but a player who left the stage as a champion.

Warrick Dunn lost 52-20 in his last college football game, as his Florida State Seminoles fell to Steve Spurrier's Gators -- and lost the championship. Yet, Josh Heupel, Torrence Marshall, and the rest of the 2000 Oklahoma seniors revived the once-great program with a 13-2 stunner over Florida State -- winning the school's first championship since Tony Casillas charged off the field after defeating Penn State for the 1985 title.

Regardless of how superb Miami has played since their 34-29 loss in Seattle (2000), a blemish in the Fiesta will contaminate an otherwise sterling record -- conjuring up images of 1992 Miami and 1970 Texas (Longhorns went undefeated in 1969 and 1970, losing only to Joe Theismann's Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Cotton Bowl -- spoiling back-to-back undefeated and untied campaigns).

The Buckeyes, meanwhile, seek to claim just the second national championship for the Big 10 Conference since 1968 -- and prove that the Midwesterners can play some football with those "fast" schools. Kenny Dorsey and Mike Doss have each enjoyed splendid collegiate careers, but only one can walk off the field in Arizona with a triumph in their last battle as amateurs.

And so the curtain will go up one final time for Dorsey (possibly Willis McGahee and Johnson?) and Joseph, as it will for the senior Buckeyes -- and only one set will walk off into the sunset with their hearts content. Miami is playing for a place in the annals of history, a place with Nebraska '71 and '95, and others who left no doubt who the king was and are still remembered to this day.

A victory over the double-digit underdog Buckeyes would secure their place at college football's Valhalla; a loss would stain and perhaps obscure their accomplishments for future generations.

However, even though the Ohio State University appears to be under no great pressure or expectations -- their seniors (as well as Maurice Clarett and Craig Krenzel, who may never return to the game's ultimate stage) are playing for a line in the book, a passage next to the 1973, 1968, 1961, 1954, and 1944 Buckeyes who never fell to defeat.

The Miami Hurricanes will either be proclaimed the greatest team of all-time by the pundits, or the Buckeyes, a team that looked hapless in West Lafayette and Champaign will have pulled a stunner on the scale of Alabama '92 or Penn State '86 -- who coincidentally enough beat Miami for the championship.

Motivation, therefore, is not at an imbalance here -- for when the curtain goes up for the final (or first and last) time, both teams will be salivating at their historic opportunity.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.