Hurricanes Can Pull Another Fast (No.) 1

Let’s cut right to tonight’s Fiesta Bowl chase, and by chase we mean No. 2 Ohio State (13-0) chasing No. 1 Miami (12-0), and Miami chasing history.

Speed kills, speed wins, and Miami gets from Point A to Point E (end zone) faster than any school since last year’s hurry-up Hurricanes.

Ohio State?

“I don’t know if they can match our speed, to tell you the truth,” Miami center Brett Romberg said this week.

Miami talks fast and walks fast. The Hurricanes have a scout team tailback, Frank Gore, who wouldn’t look out of place carrying a baton on the last leg of an Olympic relay team.

Starting tailback Willis McGahee has been clocked at 4.2 seconds in the 40-yard dash but confesses he’s slower than starting wide receiver Andre Johnson.

And we’re not just talking about the skill players.

“There’s a linebacker, No. 58, Jarrell Weaver, who keeps telling me he’s faster,” McGahee said of one of his teammates. “He’s not faster than me.”

Weaver has been clocked in the 40 at 4.32.

A linebacker.

Ohio State might want to put out spike strips tonight when the teams meet at Sun Devil Stadium for the national championship.

“They’re a lot faster than any team we’ve ever played,” said Buckeye tailback Maurice Clarett, never one to mince words.

Ohio State is undefeated, indefatigable, deserves to be here, plays a no-nonsense style and won seven games this year by seven points or fewer.

The Buckeyes have that terrific, talkative, loose-cannon tailback, and a quarterback, Craig Krenzel, whose major is molecular genetics, meaning he knows that everything breaks down.

Krenzel doesn’t do much on offense unless he is needed, but, boy, was he needed on that fourth-down touchdown pass to beat Purdue.

“Whatever it takes to win,” Krenzel said. “We played 13 games and I attempted [only] 228 passes. I’m still sitting up here smiling because we’re 13 and 0.”

Ohio State boasts a defense that hits like bricks, led by hard-headed strong safety Michael Doss, and two quality kickers, yet the consensus seems to be the Buckeyes are only standing in destiny’s way.

Anyone with a dissenting viewpoint?

“I think we have the speed to match Miami,” Buckeye defense end Will Smith said.

He thinks.

Romberg, the Miami center, saw something different when he broke down the Ohio State film.

“I don’t see a Florida State defense; I don’t see that kind of speed at all,” he said. “They just control gaps well, they’re just a fundamentally great team. But there are no speed demons on that football team. They’re good, but I just don’t see the great speed.”

For a primer on tonight’s game, you might want to reflect on last year’s Rose Bowl game, when another Midwest team, Nebraska, caught a dizzying dose of Miami magic and had given up the ghost by halftime, when the Hurricanes had a 34-0 lead.

Ohio State is going to need help in pulling off what would be considered a huge upset.

Ohio State has to have a big game from Clarett, who spent Fiesta Bowl week fuming over not being allowed to return home to attend a funeral of a friend.

Clarett, provided his head is still in the game, gives Ohio State a chance if he can pick and poke his way through a suspect Miami defensive front on time-consuming drives that lead to touchdowns.

“I just want to be like an 11-year-old kid playing in the street,” Clarett said. “I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself.”

The Miami defense has allowed opponents an average of 171 yards rushing.

“When we’ve gotten in trouble is when we’ve allowed teams to control the clock,” Miami Coach Larry Coker said. “We cannot allow them to do that.”

Ohio State might also need Miami players to get fumble fingers.

“We have to be mistake-free,” Romberg conceded. “We’ve been known to kind of kill ourselves on drives.”

Miami is playing for more than just one moment in time -- it’s playing for its place in history.

Ken Dorsey, who finished fifth in Heisman Trophy balloting, despite his 38-1 record as a starter, is looking to make his final imprint.

“I appreciate all the time I’ve been here,” Dorsey said. “I know this is my last game, and I’d definitely like to have a great game. But first and foremost is winning the game.”

A win probably pushes Miami into dynasty status. The Hurricanes have won 34 consecutive games, dating to September 2000, and are looking to become the first school to repeat as champion since Nebraska in 1995.

Miami, in fact, could be playing for its third consecutive title.

In 2000, remember, the Hurricanes missed a spot in the BCS title game by .34 of a point in bowl championship series standings. Miami finished second in both polls that year and defeated Florida State, the team that ended up losing to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.

If the Hurricanes win tonight, they will begin next season with a chance to break Oklahoma’s major college record of 47 consecutive victories.

Romberg and the rest of the Miami seniors plan to pass the streak, like an heirloom, on to the next generation.

“The 34-game streak is going to go to 35 and, hopefully, next year it will go to 47, just keep going and going,” Romberg said.

A win tonight will give Miami its sixth national title since the school won its first in 1983, incredible, given that there was talk of shutting down the program in the doldrums of the 1970s.

The Hurricanes lost chances at winning three more titles with bowl game defeats after the 1986, 1992 and 1994 seasons.

Miami is 201-39 since the start of the 1983 season and has won national titles with four coaches -- Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson and Coker.

Miami has been in this game before, and likely will be here again.

“Our players are not overwhelmed by the magnitude of the game,” Coker said Thursday. “Our players are not overwhelmed by playing in the national championship game. Hopefully, that will be an advantage for us.”

For a team that is all about speed, this national title game can’t get here fast enough.