Ranking the 30 Greatest National Championship Games
By Zach Bigalke
12. 2003 Fiesta Bowl
#2 Ohio State d. #1 Miami 31-24 (2OT)
BEFORE THE GAME
At the end of the 2002 season, only two undefeated teams remained among the 117 I-A schools. Once Oklahoma lost at Texas A&M to eliminate the possibility of three undefeated major-conference champions emerging at the end of the regular season, it made the job easy for the BCS. After the controversies of the past few seasons, things played out in perhaps the tidiest fashion they ever did during the system’s 16-year run.
Top-ranked Miami was the defending national champion after demolishing Nebraska in the 2002 Rose Bowl to cap an undefeated season. They arrived at the 2003 Fiesta Bowl on a 34-game winning streak and averaged just under six touchdowns per game. The Hurricanes boasted two-time Heisman finalist Ken Dorsey at quarterback and 1000-yard receiver Andre Johnson, the MVPs of the prior year’s Rose Bowl victory. Dorsey’s center was Rimington Trophy winner Brett Romberg. The offense was balanced by Willis McGahee, who rushed for nearly 1700 yards and finished with over 2000 yards of total offense in the regular season.
They would take on Big Ten champion Ohio State, which played nine of its 13 regular-season games in its home state. Jim Tressel’s defense had allowed just 12.2 points per game as they went 13-0, including a 25-7 home victory over Pac-10 champion Washington State. Instead of a rematch against the Cougars in the Rose Bowl, the Buckeyes were an easy pick for both the human pollsters and the computer calculations to match up opposite the Hurricanes 375 miles east of Pasadena in the Fiesta Bowl.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Miami entered the game as a two-touchdown favorite, and Roscoe Parrish put the Hurricanes on the scoreboard first on a 25-yard TD pass from Dorsey near the end of the first quarter. Ohio State responded in the second frame, as quarterback Craig Krenzel and running back Maurice Clarett each rushed for a score. The Buckeyes found themselves heading to the locker room up 14-7 at halftime, as their defense had largely won the battle against Miami’s high-flying offense.
Tressel’s team extended its lead to 10 points on a 44-yard Mike Nugent field goal midway through the third quarter. That seemed to awaken Larry Coker’s squad, and McGahee began to respond. He pulled the Canes back within one score on a nine-yard touchdown run, but then disaster struck when the running back suffered a horrific knee injury on a screen pass early in the fourth quarter. Battling without their workhorse in the backfield, Miami managed to set up a game-tying 40-yard field goal as time expired to force overtime.
It was the first time in history that a national championship went to extra time. Miami got the ball first and scored a touchdown, forcing Ohio State to reach the endzone. The Hurricanes and their fans thought they had won the game when Krenzel’s 4th-and-3 pass bounced off Chris Gamble’s hands and fell incomplete. But a late flag for a controversial defensive holding call gave the Buckeyes new life, and they capitalized three plays later on a Krenzel sneak. Maurice Clarett scored for Ohio State in the second overtime. The OSU defense made a goal-line stand, and the Big Ten champs completed the upset.