Commentary: This is as good as it gets for the Buckeyes

With more than a week to digest it, weigh it, study it against past peaks in the program, Ohio State's 31-24 double overtime upset of No. 1-ranked Miami in the Fiesta Bowl has to be the pinnacle in Buckeye history.

It was the way national championships should be decided. Unfortunately, it almost never happens.

For anyone who was in Tempe, Ariz., the aura was intense as a sellout crowd stood throughout more than four hours of action. For those who watched it at home, the tension was no less stressful -- despite the 2,000-mile TV translation.

It was a game for the ages and, finally, Ohio State won what all concede was a magnificent struggle.

The volcanic eruption of euphoria that has followed continues to surprise retailers and dominate Internet traffic. For Ohio State fans, this was more than a legendary victory, it was an exorcism of bad karma.

From the Upset of the Century in 1969, to the punt that bounced off Nate Clements' helmet against Michigan State in 1998, something (usually something bizarre) consistently stopped Ohio State's preconceived march to multiple national championships.

Lancaster native Rex Kern has to be the happiest Buckeye of all. He's just received a snap from peace now that he's no longer the link to the school's last national championship story.

Kern, Jack Tatum, Jim Stillwagon, Jan White and Jim Otis brought back a 27-16 victory over O.J. Simpson and USC in the 1969 Rose Bowl. That, too, was a glorious event, they tell me.

It gave the Buckeyes their most recent, consensus national championship.

The 34-year wait between titles had the weight of an engine block leaning on the program. The saga was just six years shy of the record Moses established while stumbling around the desert. Fittingly, Ohio State's drought also ended in a desert that became the promised land.

Sure, the Buckeyes have rowed through a Red Sea of great victories between crowns.

The 1974 Rose Bowl hammering of USC, the upset of No. 1-ranked Iowa in 1985, the back-to-back poundings of Notre Dame in the mid-1990s and the 1997 Rose Bowl victory all come to mind.

But none of those wins led to a national championship.

Perhaps most frustrating was that Ohio State frequently had the best team in the nation during that era. Woody Hayes considered the 1969 and 1973 teams his best in Columbus. Neither won a national title.

Incredibly, the Buckeyes lost their final game or they would've won it all in 1969, 1970, 1974, 1975, and 1979. One regular-season game cost OSU three more national championships in 1973, 1996 and 1998.

All of that bad karma was finally dust-busted against Miami in a contest many are branding the greatest college football game ever.

What more could one game have?

The hitting was brutal. Miami running back Willis McGahee suffered a severe knee injury and quarterback Ken Dorsey spent time in the hospital after being planted by linebacker Matt Wilhelm.

Ohio State tailback Maurice Clarett resembled a chew toy for the ferocious Miami defense, but still managed to score twice (including the game-winner), and turned in a brilliant defensive play that stunned the Hurricanes and led to a crucial field goal. Quarterback Craig Krenzel was knocked woozy, yet managed to run for a game-high 81 yards and was voted the Offensive MVP.

Florida native Chris Gamble was in on 120 plays. He was the best athlete on the field, and he did it against a school from his home state that ignored him in the recruiting process. Gamble was OSU's leading receiver on offense and accounted for the longest play of the game. Defensively, he shadowed Miami's top receiver, Andre Johnson, and made him a non-factor.

The quick line will read a two-touchdown underdog bringing down college football's latest dynasty and halting a 34-game winning streak that stretched across most of three seasons.

There were five fourth-and-the-game plays and four of them were converted (one of those was a game-tying field goal as time expired in regulation).

There was the dual controversy of Miami getting away with a blatant pass interference penalty that would've all but ended it with two minutes remaining in regulation; and the belated pass interference flag thrown on the Hurricanes in overtime that kept OSU alive in the first extra session.

Finally, and poetically, the contest was capped by a gallant, goal-line stand with Miami, the best offensive in college football, having first-and-goal from the two. But Ohio State, the best defense in college football, yielded just one yard while stuffing the Hurricanes at the one on four shots at the end zone.

This season could have taken no other route home.

Coach Jim Tressel's team became the first in Division I-A history to go 14-0. OSU won its last three games on the final snap, and seven victories were by a touchdown or less, including the last four in a row.

It's hard to imagine any team, in any sport, anywhere, having a more thrilling year or a more perfect conclusion.

This wasn't Ohio State's best team. It wasn't close to that label.

Yet the heart, courage and toughness shown in Arizona made sure this will always be remembered as the Buckeyes' best game, and this as the school's best season.

Originally published Tuesday, January 14, 2003