While 'Canes wanted respect, Buckeyes wanted to win

If the Miami Hurricanes are still trying to figure out where everything went wrong for them, they need to take a look at how they behaved before the opening kickoff of the Fiesta Bowl on Friday night, January 3, 2002.

Their destiny was written well before the final goal line stand by the Ohio State Buckeyes and well before Maurice Clarett's game clenching touchdown run.

The Hurricanes tried to pretend they were being disrespected during the last week before the game.

Ohio State linebacker Matt Wilhelm said the Bucks wanted to focus on their running game and make them one-dimensional.

Miami QB Ken Dorsey took that as a personal jab, ignoring the fact that is exactly what 90 percent of coaches say in preparation for any game be it high school, college or pro.

But as the Fiesta Bowl game quickly approached, it became more apparent who was showing the disrespect.

Miami and the national media believed anyone who didn't expect a complete annihilation of the Buckeyes and a massive blowout on the score board just wasn't respecting the Hurricanes and all their talent.

Ohio State and their fans were being called disrespectful for, God forbid, even thinking their team had a chance to stay in the game. After all, they play in the sub-standard Big Ten (a conference that went 5-2 in Bowl Games, beating the Big East Champs and the runner-ups in the SEC, PAC 10 and Big 12) and there hasn't been a quick player in that conference since Desmond Howard graduated from Michigan.

Miami's Kellen Winslow Jr. called OSU another Nebraska, too big and too slow. This served to feed the media, who took on an almost stereotypical and prejudicial tone in regarding the Bucks and the Midwest. After all, 'dem farmer boys ain't played no teams with speed. Heck, the Big Ten ain't even ever tried usin' that fancy forward pass.

As far as the 'Canes and the media were concerned, OSU is another joke from fly-over country and how good could they actually be?

If the degrading comments towards the Buckeyes weren't enough, the descriptions of the Hurricane offense began reaching the level of folklore.

"They have more speed and talent then any team in the NFL," according to an unnamed scout from the New York Giants.

But, as OSU head coach Jim Tressel says, football is like life and you can't take anything for granted.

The Canes took a lot for granted. They didn't respect OSU enough to keep Andre Johnson's post-bowl party secret and they didn't respect them enough to keep their mouth shut.

After the coin-toss, OSU QB Craig Krenzel tried to shake Dorsey's hand. Dorsey just turned his back.

During Miami's first play from scrimmage, OSU linemen Darrion Scott sacked Dorsey. Dorsey reached up for Scott to help him up. Scott just looked at him and walked back to the huddle.

Dorsey would be sacked again late, twice in the first drive alone. He had been sacked only nine times the whole season.

Respect, or lack of it, is a two way street and the 'Canes quickly found themselves on the wrong side of the road.

The disrespect wasn't just motivation for the Bucks, it served to blind the 'Canes about what it was they were facing and Tressel baited them hook, line and sinker.

"Our scout team ran their little 4.7 legs off all week," said Tressel following the game with a sly grin.

The scout team consisted of red-shirt freshman Justin Zwick, who was considered to be one of the top QB prospects in the nation last year.

The other freshman QB was Troy Smith, who also helped prepare the Bucks against Miami's receivers. According to former Torch columnist Mark Madden, Smith runs a better time in the forty then Michael Vick. Not too shabby for SlowSU.

On top of being prepared better, OSU was better coached.

The last play of the game had been set up the entire second half when OSU left Cie Grant in single coverage against Winslow.

Again, Miami got baited and Dorsey went looking for Winslow again on the last play of the game. This time, Winslow was double covered and Grant, who was unaccounted for by Miami's blockers, blitzed Dorsey without a hand being laid on him.

Dorsey, his pass, the thirty-four game winning streak and Miami's place in the history books fell to the ground with him.

In the end, toughness defeated speed, heart beat talent and coaching beat hype.

The Ohio fly-over folk turned out in the thousands, making tickets for this game the most requested in the venue's history, even more valued then some of the previous Super Bowls.

OSU fans were even joining the Miami Booster Club so they could have a better chance at claiming a ticket for the game. Thousand went without tickets just to be there (hey, this is a state where forty thousand will show up to a high school game) and made Tempe an annexation of Columbus for a week.

They say home field is worth six points. The Bucks ended up winning by a touchdown.

In the end, what mattered was Miami wanted the respect. Respect as a team that could win back-to-back titles and the title as greatest college team ever.

All Ohio State wanted was to win the game.