It’s Miami and Second Spot in Rose Bowl Championship Game Still Up for Grabs

The last six minutes turned into a remake of “Waiting to Exhale,” a football soul search for oxygen.

Miami President Donna Shalala, dressed in orange, almost turned blue.

“I’ve never held my breath that long,” she would say later.

Gary Thomas, Rose Bowl Executive Vice President, came all the way from Pasadena with roses, but almost found himself standing on the doorstep like a high school kid jilted on a prom date.

He, too, had respiratory difficulties.

“I was in the corner of the end zone, holding my breath,” he said.

Yet, it all worked out in the end zone.

No.1 Miami held off a furious fourth-quarter rally Saturday to beat No. 14 Virginia Tech, 26-24, before a crowd of 53,662 at Lane Stadium to cap an 11-0 regular season and earn the first berth in the Jan. 3 national championship game.

For sure, the Hurricanes became the first school to accept a Rose Bowl bid from the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

“I had to get my map to find out where it was,” Rose Bowl committee member Ed Griest, who joined Thomas on the trip, said jokingly of Blacksburg.

A year ago, Miami lost out on a national title spot by .32 in the bowl championship series standings and has sort of been ticked off/peeved/grousing about it ever since.

“There’s no vengeance towards the BCS,” Miami tailback Najeh Davenport scoffed. “It was just like, ‘we’ll show you.”’

The Rose Bowl said its invitation to Miami was formal, binding and official, even though final BCS standings won’t be released until Dec. 9.

Only the top two teams advance to the title game, yet it appears a dead-lock cinch Miami, the only undefeated school in the BCS top 10, will hold the top under all circumstances.

Entering weekend play, Miami held a commanding 5.85 lead in the BCS over No.3 Texas.

Is anything possible? Sure, it’s the BCS. Miami dropped from No.1 to No.2 in the coaches’ poll after a narrow victory at Boston College, but no one expects any unexpected blips this year.

Miami, however, almost took itself down against feisty Virginia Tech (8-3), which rallied from a 20-3 halftime deficit to nearly steal the game and wreck Miami’s Rose Bowl hopes.

It appeared Virginia Tech was going to tie the game at 26-all with 6:03 left after the Hokies’ vaunted special teams struck, Brandon Manning returning a blocked punt 22 yards for a touchdown to cut the Miami lead to two.

Virginia Tech went for the two-point try and appeared to have converted when receiver Ernest Wilford shook loose of defender Phillip Buchanon in the right corner of the end zone.

Grant Noel’s pass hit Wilford smack in the chest.

And Wilford dropped it.

Miami still wasn’t quite Rose Bowl bound, though, as it tried to milk the clock, cling to its two-point lead and halt the Hokies’ undeniable momentum.

Hurricane players could be seen running down the sideline, imploring teammates to hang on.

“Everything we worked on for the whole summer, it was slipping away,” Davenport said. “That was something else, those last six minutes.”

Holding a two-point lead, Miami got the ball back but couldn’t hold it for long, going three-and-out.

Virginia Tech took possession at its own 49, with 5:05 left, needing only to gain about 20 yards or so to get into field-goal range, but Noel’s right arm failed him again.

His third-down pass was intercepted at the Miami 31 by safety Ed Reed with 4:18 left. It was Reed’s second interception, leaving Noel with more turnovers, five, than completed passes, four.

Miami would eventually have to punt again in the final minute, the last thing it wanted to do against a school that has turned big plays on special teams into an art form.

Virginia Tech’s block-for-touchdown in the fourth quarter was the school’s 90th block of either a punt, field goal or extra point in 173 games under Coach Frank Beamer.

Miami Coach Larry Coker had no choice but to send his punter, Freddie Capshaw, out for one last punt.

Nervous?

“You bet,”Coker said afterward.

Virginia Tech rushed 11 men at the opposing punter’s foot, but this time the protection held and Capshaw’s boot trickled to the Hokies’ four-yard line with 20 seconds left.

Miami’s sack of Noel on first down ended all miracle comeback hopes.

As the clock struck zero, a few Miami players tossed helmets skyward, but there wasn’t as much celebrating as one might have thought.

Maybe Miami was too busy counting lucky stars.

Buchanon, who nearly surrendered the game-tying reception, put it best.

“Am I happy?” he said. “No, I’m not. The only thing I feel is relief. I’m happy we won, but walking off the field, I said this is not the way it’s supposed to feel going to the Rose Bowl.”

These were unprecedented words emanating from the mouth of a Miami player.

The Hurricanes will be making their first Rose Bowl appearance. The Jan.3 game will be the first Rose Bowl since 1946 that will not involve a team from the Big Ten and, what is now, the Pacific 10.

The stakes have changed since USC and Alabama met in 1946, with the Rose Bowl now getting the national championship game every four years.

“Is it strange, yes, because it’s not the Big Ten and Pac-10,” Thomas said when asked about handing out Rose Bowl flowers to Miami in Blacksburg. “But we’ve been establishing relationships with these people for a few years.”

The enormity of the moment was not lost on Coker, who is one victory shy of becoming the second rookie coach to win a national title. Michigan’s Bennie G. Oosterbaan did it in 1948.

Coker got emotional when he spoke of watching the Rose Bowl on television as a kid.

“It’s the Rose Bowl, what can you say?” Coker said. “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Confusion Says...

One team is in, but the national title picture remains muddled:

MIAMI (11-0)

* The Hurricanes can book trip to Pasadena. They might have to wait awhile for their opponent, though.

*

NEBRASKA (11-1)

* Florida’s loss keeps Cornhuskers’ hopes alive. But do they have enough without playing a game?

*

OREGON (10-1)

* Ducks might leapfrog Nebraska, but victory against Oregon State wasn’t as convincing as needed.

*

TENNESSEE (10-1)

* Volunteers still must win SEC championship game and hope their late hot streak scores big points.