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Football
Rematch With "The U" Looms as Big Game for Both Hurricanes and Buckeyes
By Brandon Castel

COLUMBUS — The last time Ohio State and Miami met on the football field they were playing for all the marbles in the 2003 BCS National Championship game.

There won’t be a trophy on the line this time when the Buckeyes and Hurricanes meet Saturday in Columbus for a rematch of OSU’s double-overtime victory in Tempe, but that isn’t going to stop Jim Tressel’s team from gearing up that way.

DeVier Posey
Photo by Jim Davidson

“We’re going to prepare like it’s the national championship game,” said junior wide receiver DeVier Posey, who caught a pair of touchdowns in Ohio State’s 45-7 win over Marshall.

Part of that is because players like Posey and classmate Michael Brewster realize it takes 12 weeks of championship-caliber football during the regular season to have chance at playing for all those marbles come January.

“Every week's the championship in BCS games,” said Brewster, a junior who attended high school in Orlando. 

“So next week, you can consider it a championship game. A great opponent is coming in and we're excited.”

But there is a different level of excitement in Columbus, and surrounding the team, heading into a game like this than there was for Marshall in the season-opener. The Buckeyes will play critical road games at Wisconsin and Iowa, along with home battles with Penn State and Michigan, but their clash with “The U” is one that stands alone on the schedule.

Chimdi Chekwa
Photo by Dan Harker

“It really goes back to the ‘02 National Championship,” said senior cornerback Chimdi Chekwa, who graduated from East Ridge High School in Clermont, Fla.

“It's Ohio State and Miami. Two schools with a lot of tradition and it's going to be a great game.”

The Buckeyes prevailed 31-24 against heavily-favored Miami back in the ’03 Fiesta Bowl, putting an end to the ‘Canes remarkable 34-game winning streak. But none of the players, and only a handful of the coaches, on either sideline in Saturday’s game participated in that thrilling championship bout.

“That didn’t have anything to with our team or their team,” said Posey, who was 13 years old when Ken Dorsey’s final pass hit the Turf. 

“We wear the colors, but it’s a lot of different guys in the uniforms.”

That might sound good in Columbus, where Buckeye fans are still feeling fuzzy from their first national title in nearly a quarter century, but what about Miami fans? Folks down in South Beach still haven’t gotten over the way that game ended, but will it be on the minds of the Hurricanes as they enter Ohio Stadium Saturday?

“If that's what they want to use, revenge, but that's eight years ago,” OSU quarterback Terrelle Pryor said.

“Times have changed. You come and play this game and you can't look back. You've got to look forward. I know we're not going to look at it like we should have lost.

“I don't know how they're feeling. Maybe they are (thinking revenge) but I doubt they are. I think they want to come in and make a name for themselves. It's a game. It's a game of inches, it's a game of mistakes, so whatever happened then (2002) happened. I don't think that either one of us should worry about the 2002 game.”

One game the Buckeyes are thinking about heading into this week is their last-minute defeat at the hands of then No. 3 USC in Ohio Stadium last Sept.

“I think about that USC game all the time,” Posey said of OSU’s 18-15 loss to the Trojans.

“But it’s in the past and (most of) the guys who were on the field are going to be on the field Saturday, so they remember that and were definitely going to think of that going into Saturday.”

After getting drilled 35-3 in their trip to Los Angeles in 2008, the Buckeyes held a 15-10 late in the fourth quarter of last season’s game before freshman quarterback Matt Barkley led USC on a 14-play, 86-yard touchdown drive. Joe McKnight did most of the work, but Stafon Johnson’s two-yard touchdown run with 1:05 to play handed Ohio State a gut-wrenching loss in their biggest national-stage game of the regular season.

“We want this game in the ‘Shoe at home,” Posey said.

“Last time we had a game like this in the ‘Shoe, we came up short. We want to prove points and we’re looking forward to playing against a great team.”

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