Ohio State beat Miami 31-24 last night in the Fiesta Bowl to claim the National Championship.
Hardly anyone gave the Buckeyes a serious chance to win the game, but they stunned not only the Hurricanes, but also the nation.
It took two overtimes, and a little luck, but Jim Tressel's team did what it had done for most of the season. They hung around, dominated with defense and did what they needed to in the end to win the game.
The naysayers can all go away now. 14-0. National champions. The Buckeyes are back on the map as a force to be reckoned with in college football.
My hat goes off to Jim Tressel and his players. Not only did they have the heart, the desire and the determination, but they won with class. And give credit to Miami too, they played hard and lost with class in what is, without a doubt, the best BCS championship game to date, and the best football game that I've seen in quite some time.
And just for the record, I had the margin of victory right, but shorted each team 7 points. However, I was wrong about the Buckeyes throwing the ball. Instead, they ran Craig Krenzel up the middle about a dozen times, exploiting Miami's weakness and keeping several drives alive.
The game came down to two things: coaching and turnovers. OSU clearly outcoached Miami. Miami's gameplan played right into OSU's strengths, and the five turnovers simply killed much of the momentum that the 'Canes were able to muster.
Play of the game? Maurice Clarett stripping the ball from the Miami defender after Krenzel threw a pick in the end zone. OSU could have gone up 21-7, but had the wind knocked out of them when Miami picked Krenzel's throw off. But it wasn't two seconds later that Clarett got the ball back. That drive ended in a Mike Nugent field goal, making the score 17-7. If Clarett doesn't steal that ball back, it might have been a completely different story.