Buckeyes cap off dream season will chilly celebration

COLUMBUS -- Getting to Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey on the final play of the Fiesta Bowl was much easier for Ohio State linebacker Cie Grant than performing his solo rendition of "Carmen Ohio" on Saturday.

Grant wasn't worried about forgetting the words to the alma mater. He was worried about his vocal cords freezing in mid-stanza.

"I was nervous and cold, and I was just getting over some illness," Grant said, "but once the emotion flowed, it was easy."

With Ohio Stadium turned into a block of ice, an announced crowd of 52,000 braved minus-three wind chills to attend Saturday's pep rally honoring the national champion Buckeyes.

It was a chance for Grant to show off his musical gifts and to see his pass-altering, title-clinching blitz of Dorsey appear larger than life as the team and its loyalists watched a highlight video of OSU's 14-0 season on the scoreboard's jumbo screen.

"I've seen that play quite a few times, and it didn't really hit me," said Grant, reflecting on the 31-24 double-overtime victory over Miami that gave Ohio State its first consensus championship since 1968.

"Seeing it on the jumbo, it really sunk in for the first time that we are national champions. It's amazing what this group has done ... it's a beautiful thing."

During the ceremony, Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman announced that Lane Avenue, which runs along the north side of campus, will be renamed "Champions Lane" as he unveiled the new street sign.

Gov. Bob Taft held up a No. 1 Ohio State jersey he plans to give Florida counterpart Jeb Bush next month in Washington, D.C., at a conference attended by the nation's governors.

The ceremony ended with Grant and the other seniors, including co-captains Mike Doss and Donnie Nickey, dotting the "i" as the Ohio State marching band performed its legendary Script Ohio.

All-America punter Andy Groom choked back tears as the seniors addressed the media afterwards.

"I looked up in the stands to see my parents for one last time and my dad was losing it," Groom said. "I never saw him cry in my life. It's hard to say bye."

Nickey doesn't plan to, at least when it comes to this senior class.

"We've connected on a family level," he said. "I have a lot of friends, but to go through what we've gone through (as a football team), there's a lot of love. We'll always love each other."

He also embraced the crowd, which came out on one of the coldest days in recent memory.

"To see all those people ... this is the last page in our book," Nickey said. "It's over for us. We went out on the highest of highs."

Coach Jim Tressel, who won four Division I-AA national championships at Youngstown State, was asked if dethroning Miami and snapping the Hurricanes' 34-game winning streak was the pinnacle of his career.

"Isn't pinnacle the single moment where you'll never be up that high again?" he said. "I hope not."

Fans who showed up Saturday expecting to see Tressel's hair in cornrows were disappointed. He said in a preseason promise he would braid his hair that way if the Buckeyes finished the season unbeaten.

"I'm going to spring it on you when you least expect it," Tressel joked.

Doss was all smiles, too, as he talked about adjusting his diet.

"I kept eating Tostitos since last January," he said, poking fun at the sponsor of the Fiesta Bowl. "I finally don't have to eat them anymore."

Reach Jon Spencer at jspencer@nncogannett.com.

Originally published Sunday, January 19, 2003