Fiesta Could Be Rare Gem

The side stories have been entertaining and emotional, but there’s also the potential for the Fiesta Bowl to be a very fine football game today.

Despite being traditional football powers located less than 300 miles apart, No. 4-ranked Ohio State and No. 5 Notre Dame have met only four times. The series is tied 2-2.

So what has been learned about this matchup at Sun Devil Stadium?

* Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn’s sister, Laura, is dating Ohio State linebacker A.J. Hawk and working for ESPN so she can do interviews with both. It’s a sitcom in the making.

* After 35 years at Arizona State’s on-campus facility, this is the last Fiesta Bowl before the game moves to a new stadium in Glendale, Ariz., which will be home to the NFL Cardinals. So there has been much nostalgia about ending a chapter.

* Notre Dame receiver Jeff Samardzija always thought his professional sports future would be as a baseball player until Charlie Weis arrived to coach the Fighting Irish and brought with him an offense. Ohio State defensive end Mike Kudla survived a near-fatal illness three years ago to play football again when doctors said he never would.

But what about this game?

It is between two teams that have combined to win 18 national championships -- Notre Dame has 11 -- and have produced 12 Heisman Trophy winners (13 trophies; Ohio State’s Archie Griffin has two), but played only twice in the 1930s and twice in the 1990s.

Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel said that the infrequent meetings make this one more special. “I think it adds a little something to the intrigue,” he said. “I think all indicators are that it’s interesting to a lot of people.”

Said Weis, who Sunday was announced as the winner of the Eddie Robinson Award as college football’s top coach: “The fact that we don’t play on a yearly basis makes it great.”

The Buckeyes (9-2) won their last national championship here in the 2002 season, when they upset previously undefeated Miami in overtime. Fighting Irish fans hope a victory here over Ohio State will be a springboard to Weis’ continued rebuilding of Notre Dame’s recently flailing national reputation.

Weis was blunt Sunday in saying that there would be a big difference in the off-season feeling between finishing 10-2 with a win over the Buckeyes versus 9-3 and ending with a loss.

“You can beat a team like Ohio State and end up 10-2, I think people will leave the season with a good taste in their mouth,” Weis said. “If you lose, everyone will say, ‘Well, you made some nice progress but you’re not quite there yet.’ That’s really not how you want to go into the off-season.

“To me this is a very, very clear case of black and white. There’s no subjectivity here. I think this is the one our season will be marked on.”

Weis said Ohio State’s defense -- ranked fourth in the nation overall -- will be the best the Irish have faced.

“I would say it’s the most complete defense,” Weis said. “Ohio State is good on all three levels. Sometimes you have a dynamic front four or a rock-solid secondary, but they’re good on all levels.”

That Buckeye defense is led by Hawk. The 6-foot-1, 240-pound senior has led Ohio State in tackles the last three seasons. He was chosen Big Ten defensive player of the year this season and then won the Lombardi Award, which goes to the nation’s top college lineman.

And Hawk will be focused on stopping Quinn, who finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy vote.

“Brady’s had a great season,” Hawk said. “It will be fun to get him.”

Said Quinn: “A.J.’s a tough guy. And their defense gets all the praise. So we’ve got something to prove.”