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Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN and the ESPN App. Line is tOSU -9.5

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Easy to say, hard to do, Miami needs to put Saying on his back every time he drops back. Zero time to think/throw.

Just now, Dewey said:

Easy to say, hard to do, Miami needs to put Saying on his back every time he drops back. Zero time to think/throw.

Can't have Beck go full Beck either

Just now, Js1 said:

Can't have Beck go full Beck either

Run game, need that too

I would really like to see Miami win, so OSU will win by double digits. I just wants to see some Sayin INTs.

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Edited by satyanash

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Chris Vannini: Ohio State-Miami 2003 epic looms over this Cotton Bowl, even if few on either side were there

ARLINGTON, Texas — It was on the flight down to Texas earlier this week that former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett had a realization. On Jan. 3, 2003, Clarett and the Buckeyes shocked the sports world, upsetting 11.5-point favorite Miami in the national championship game. Clarett scored twice in a 31-24 double-overtime win that ended Miami’s 34-game unbeaten streak and sent two proud programs in opposite directions.

As Ohio State and Miami prepare for Wednesday’s College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Cotton Bowl, those who remember the instant classic that capped the 2002 season have thought about it often. “What I remember most was how much they doubted us,” Clarrett said Monday. “Prior to the game, they had an afterparty scheduled.” But a lot of people here for this game don’t remember it. Clarett, who has traveled with the Buckeyes to big games in recent years, noticed that the only two people on the team flight who were part of that last big Miami game were him and longtime head trainer Doug Calland.

“None of these kids were even born when I played,” Clarett said. Many of them don’t know that game is a seminal moment in college football history. Of the 43 starters, 37 became NFL Draft picks, including 18 first-rounders. It brought about a changing of the guard, sending Ohio State back to the top of the sport, where the Buckeyes have remained ever since. Miami, on the other hand, hasn’t been back to this level of a stage since that game.

Current Miami wide receivers coach Kevin Beard played receiver on that Hurricanes team. He tore his ACL in November of that season and didn’t play in the title game, but there are lessons from it he imparts to his players. Such as the infamous late pass interference flag on a fourth down in overtime that kept the Buckeyes’ hopes alive. “In the process of my time here, those conversations always come up from the standpoint of, don’t leave it in their hands,” Beard said, referring to the officials. “If you leave it in their hands, don’t be surprised if it goes the other way.”

Official Terry Porter, who threw the flag, remains a villain to Miami faithful. Porter has said the delay came from making sure he got the call right. Officiating supervisors in the months and years after the game said pass interference was the correct call. It just didn’t happen during the part of the play everyone looks back on. Replays of that moment, including during the live broadcast, focus on when the ball got to Ohio State wide receiver Chris Gamble and cornerback Glenn Sharpe. Color commentator Dan Fouts offered a “Bad call” on the broadcast.

But the call was for Sharpe jamming and holding Gamble before the ball was in their area, not his hug after the ball arrived. The line judge at the goal line didn’t throw a flag, but other camera angles show Porter quickly signaling defensive holding. “Was the flag late? Yes. But was it deserving of being a flag? Yes.” Clarett said. “Miami fans get stuck in one place. If they were sitting in our seat, they’d probably say the same thing.”

Beard, like many other Canes, disagrees. “You feel robbed, you feel cheated,” Beard said of his feeling at the time. “But that’s why I’m able to say what I do to our guys, don’t make it close, or you give them a chance to make that call.” The fact the game was so close in the first place was a surprise. Miami needed a 40-yard field goal in the final seconds to force overtime after trailing 17-7 at one point, something few could have predicted before kickoff. The expectation was that Miami’s speed would overwhelm the plodding Buckeyes.

All dynasties come to an end, and it’s hard to know when that moment will arrive. That night in Arizona turned out to be the one for Miami. “When I look back on it, it was probably more of a mindset of, we got complacent, we got relaxed,” Beard said. Beard and the 2003 Miami team finished 11-2 and ranked No. 5, a step down from the championship standard. The Hurricanes haven’t finished in the top 10 since then.

“I think what Miami lost at that moment was the culture,” Beard said. “When you came to Miami, you really didn’t play as a freshman. After those years, freshmen started coming in and playing early, and they didn’t have that foundation of the culture and what it took to become champions. That’s what has been missing for so many years. People just want to come and throw the “U” up, put that “U” on the helmet, come out of the smoke. But you gotta play. You’re the opponent’s championship game. That’s not an arrogant thing. That’s just what Miami’s tradition has created. That’s what started the spiral.”

This year’s Miami team is almost assured to finish in the top 10. A win on New Year’s Eve could lead to the program’s first top-five finish since Beard’s playing days, in addition to keeping national title hopes alive. These past two seasons are the first time Miami has won 10 games in consecutive seasons since 2002 and ’03. Slowly, Beard says, he’s starting to see what he used to.

“I think we’ve gradually built that up,” he said. “A lot of people want to be champions overnight, and most overnight champions don’t last long. Last year, getting left out of the playoffs, has put something in these guys. They understand now what it is and what is not. They’ve prepared mentally and emotionally every day, and us coaches try to do a good job of leading that.”

A lot of time has passed. Former Miami running back Willis McGahee, who suffered a brutal knee injury in the second half of that game, has a son who currently plays linebacker at Nebraska. Former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel is the Lieutenant Governor of Ohio. This time around, as the Buckeyes and Hurricanes meet in the tournament for the national championship, Miami is playing the role of that 2002 Ohio State team, trying to return a program to past glory.

And it’s Ohio State that sits in the old Miami spot, led by several of the best players in the country after losing a fleet of players to the NFL Draft, trying to defend the national championship. Ohio State is a 9.5-point favorite. “Some people have only known Ohio State to be good,” Clarett said. “When we came in, Ohio State was just a solid Big Ten team. You’re trying to get guys to believe in themselves. It all began to reshape because of what we did in 2002.”

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