Miami Learns the Hard Truth About Perfection

Ohio State’s champions are as gray as their uniforms and their stadium, but hard as the concrete it was built with.

When their freshman tailback, Maurice Clarett, let his emotions burst out, his anger and frustration, his disappointment, his feelings of abandonment because he wasn’t allowed to fly home to attend the funeral of a murdered friend, the coach didn’t panic, his teammates didn’t get discombobulated.

Miami did.

All the mistakes, the dropped passes, the slips, the overthrown balls, the hard hits. Losing tailback Willis McGahee, the Heisman Trophy finalist, with almost 12 minutes left in the game. Having quarterback Ken Dorsey, another Heisman finalist, knocked loopy on the last series, having him stagger back into the game and throw his last, desperate, fourth-and-goal pass in the second overtime period up for grabs, up in the empty air. Finally, it was just too hard.

There is a new collegiate football national champion.

Undefeated Ohio State beat Miami, 31-24. It took two overtimes. It left Dorsey slumped on the ground, eyes foggy, heart heavy, tears coming from his eyes.

The Hurricanes and their 34-game winning streak crumbled.

And there’s a lesson for USC in what happened at the Fiesta Bowl on Friday night.

In no single part of the game does Ohio State seem better than the Trojans. Except concentration.

The Buckeyes never lost sight of perfection. They never took for granted the little things (extra points for example) and they never let their minds wander for so long that they put themselves too far behind to catch up (does that Kansas State game ring a bell?)

Until there is some sort of playoff system, the college football teams that want to win a national title are going to have to think about perfection.

They will have to think about scheduling some easy wins out of conference, but not so easy as to hurt the strength of schedule. Ohio State threw in a Kent State, a Cincinnati, where USC was battling Kansas State and Colorado, Auburn and Notre Dame.

They will also have to think about being sturdy and single-minded and never swerving from their strengths.

This was not a wowza national championship game. It couldn’t have been. The Buckeyes weren’t concerned about making things pretty. The Buckeyes were interested in making things harder and harder for the Hurricanes. If Miami completed a pass, a Buckeye wouldn’t be content only to make a tackle. A Buckeye would steal the ball from the paws of the receiver.

If Dorsey was going to throw in overtime, a Buckeye was going to walk the very edge of decency and bulldoze Dorsey into the ground, a borderline hit, just on the edge of being late, just on the edge of being cheap, but not quite.

And the Hurricanes sometimes played as if they were tired of it all, of losing Heisman Trophies, of lugging around that 34-game winning streak, of being 13-point favorites, of proving themselves over and over.

Five turnovers, curious play calling sometimes, underthrown and overthrown balls by Dorsey, a laggardly start by McGahee and then a game-ending knee injury just when he was heating up, and finally a carelessness of spirit and execution did in the Hurricanes.

And the Buckeyes, as they have all season, took advantage. They weren’t spectacular but they were consistent -- consistent in hitting hard, in making one more swipe at a ball or squirming for one more inch or putting an extra helmet into the chest or onto the ball.

One play in particular marked the character of the Buckeyes.

The Hurricanes were trailing, 14-7. It was early in the third quarter and Miami pressured the Buckeyes into a big mistake. A Craig Krenzel pass was intercepted by Miami free safety Sean Taylor in the end zone.

Taylor is swift and he had gotten up a head of steam, had worked himself up for a 28-yard return of the interception, and just as he was about to tumble out of bounds, Clarett wrapped two hands around the football and took it from Taylor, just stole that interception back. Taylor didn’t seem to know what had happened. It was a play of will and Clarett’s was stronger.

If Trojan players sat home and watched this game, if they ached for a chance to play either of these teams, if they hit their heads with their hands and said, “We’re better than these teams,” good for them. Because maybe they’ll remember that feeling next season when it might seem easier in September to play with nonchalance instead of fervor.

This season Ohio State beat Cincinnati, 23-19; Wisconsin, 19-14; Penn State, 13-7; Purdue, 10-6; Illinois, 23-16, in overtime; Michigan, 14-9. The Buckeyes weren’t so much better than any of those teams. But they did enough good things, made just enough right plays and avoided just that one wrong play.

“I guess people look at those scores and think we’re not very good,” Krenzel said. “I look at those scores and I think that shows the heart and character of this team. No matter what ... we knew we were going to keep hitting and we were going to keep making plays.”

“You have to give them credit,” Miami tight end Kellen Winslow said. “They played with a lot of heart.”

More than that, they played as if every possession mattered. They played carefully but not scared. They were willing to take some chances with their hitting but never with their offense.

They walked away with a national title, and seven teams the Buckeyes beat this year are sure they are better. But it doesn’t matter what anybody thinks. Thinking is useless when the record says 14-0.

Perfection.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com