Speaker 1: Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: Greetings and Welcome inside the latest Special Teams with Jason
Speaker 1: Smith and Mike Harmon podcast. On Special Teams, we take
Speaker 1: a look back at individual seasons in sports history and
Speaker 1: celebrate what made them so great for those teams, whether
Speaker 1: it's football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, archery, highlight. We're gonna
Speaker 1: go back and look at highlight at some point. I
Speaker 1: can't wait. The history of high lot. Maybe in a
Speaker 1: little AUSI rules football, Oh AFL, Collingwood Magpies, Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: uh goat roping? Is there really great moments and great
Speaker 1: single seasons and goat roping history? I don't know. Calf roping, Oh,
Speaker 1: calf roping, go roping? No, but I'll go to kaf rope.
Speaker 1: I don't know there's any kind of roping. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe they're state fair than we can find some great stats,
Speaker 1: are great performances, I don't know. I watched the King
Speaker 1: of the Hill episode where Bobby became a Rodeo clown,
Speaker 1: so suddenly that was in my head night game and
Speaker 1: though it was rob ro ro ro rope Roro. Uh
Speaker 1: So today on the podcast again, your host Jason Smith,
Speaker 1: Mike Carmen. Our show is heard on Fox Sports Radio
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday, ten pm to two am, East Coast time,
Speaker 1: seven pm to eleven pm on the West Coast. We're
Speaker 1: on over four d affiliates coast to coast. You got
Speaker 1: our special brand of entertainment, humor, and whatever Harmon decides
Speaker 1: he wants to say on a daily basis, Hey, sometimes
Speaker 1: you gotta take it left turn and take people down
Speaker 1: the road they don't know they want to go on.
Speaker 1: And that's what we do each and every night. Tonight
Speaker 1: is a tough road because my wife, being a Michigan
Speaker 1: fan going to Michigan, She's had to sit around all
Speaker 1: week while I have had notes on the two thousand
Speaker 1: two Ohio State buck eyes all around the house, pictures
Speaker 1: of Maarice Clarette and all those guys, Craig Krenzel, I
Speaker 1: got big fat heads on the wall. Why do you
Speaker 1: have this Ohio States because we're gonna do Ohio State
Speaker 1: this week. But I can't just put it somewhere I
Speaker 1: don't see it. I said, look, we did Michigan. She was, yeah,
Speaker 1: just put this someplace else. So I had to put
Speaker 1: it someplace. That's kind of anger. The two thousand two
Speaker 1: Ohio State Buckeyes, who played one of the most memorable
Speaker 1: national championship games ever, became legendary over the course of
Speaker 1: this college football season and in January. One of the
Speaker 1: great college football years of all time in Ohio States
Speaker 1: started two thousand and two, the second year under Jim Trestle,
Speaker 1: who you could tell there was something special going on
Speaker 1: because it was the year before when he got hired
Speaker 1: from Youngstown State and he got up at the basketball
Speaker 1: game and said, you'll be proud of this team. In
Speaker 1: three and twelve days, and we played the Michigan Wolverines.
Speaker 1: They played them, they beat them, and you realize, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, this guy maybe ushering in the non John
Speaker 1: Cooper era of Ohio State football, where Ohio State had
Speaker 1: plenty of chances in the nineties to compete for a
Speaker 1: national championship. They lost to Michigan all these times, and
Speaker 1: it was boy, no matter who Ohio State beats, they
Speaker 1: can't beat Michigan. Jim Trestle ushered in that era, which
Speaker 1: they've enjoyed for the better part of twenty years. No
Speaker 1: matter what you did the rest of the year, it
Speaker 1: didn't matter. I mean it's one of those rivalries. Many
Speaker 1: go to the wayside based on scheduling, based on how
Speaker 1: you go through the process, and certainly with the big
Speaker 1: tenant and its evolution and growth, you've you've seen some
Speaker 1: of that fractured, right because of the schedule imbalanced. But
Speaker 1: Ohio State Michigan, you want to get people riled up.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have the microcosm of your wife, but
Speaker 1: it's certainly you going you go into any sports bar
Speaker 1: when that game's on, and it's really an interesting sociological
Speaker 1: experiment because there's a lot of anger being tossed back
Speaker 1: and forth, even where we are in southern California. Heading
Speaker 1: into the year, there were two big announcements that Ohio
Speaker 1: State dealt with. Number one was Mike DAWs, two time
Speaker 1: All American, decided to stay in an emotional announcement, and
Speaker 1: Maurice Clarette enrolled early so he could play four Ohio
Speaker 1: State in the fall. Laurice Clarette, who had one year
Speaker 1: of college football and there are a few people had
Speaker 1: a more memorable year than Maurice Clarette. No, obviously he's
Speaker 1: run into trouble throughout the rest of his career, but
Speaker 1: this one year Ohio State I mean he's gonna live forever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: great comeback story in terms of life and post football
Speaker 1: and some of those transgressions in some ways, well, you know,
Speaker 1: look at the irony of a guy who graduates early
Speaker 1: and then really didn't take a class while he was
Speaker 1: at Ohive State. But that's a whole other thing. As
Speaker 1: from Mike Dawson went on to a nice NFL career
Speaker 1: when he was done. Perhaps we'll talk about him a
Speaker 1: little bit. Uh in our where are They Now? Portion
Speaker 1: of the podcast, Shodow Mike Dawson became a second round pick,
Speaker 1: but that was gonna be the heartbeat of this team.
Speaker 1: Whatever was gonna happen offensively, you knew you were bringing
Speaker 1: back a stalwart defense. Here's some of the star power
Speaker 1: on this Ohio State two thousand two team. Chris Gamble,
Speaker 1: who were going to talk a lot about here on podcast,
Speaker 1: played both offense and defense. Ben Hart soccer went on
Speaker 1: to a long career in the NFL. Will Allen as well.
Speaker 1: Bobby Carpenter linebacker, Dustin Fox who actually follows me on Twitter.
Speaker 1: Uh now a media man, Yeah, a j Hawk. He
Speaker 1: was a freshman on this team. Mike Nugent went on
Speaker 1: to kick in the NFL for a really long time.
Speaker 1: A lot of Jet ties to this team. Actually, no,
Speaker 1: there's not. Santonio Holmes was on this team as a
Speaker 1: fresh it's not and they were winners and then they
Speaker 1: came to you. It's not about the Jets. Dick Mangold
Speaker 1: was the center on this team. Troy Smith went on
Speaker 1: to win the Heisman Trophy years later, was the backup
Speaker 1: quarterback on this team as a freshman. Michael Jenkins was
Speaker 1: the star receiver. Craig Krenzel was the quarterback, and on
Speaker 1: Jim Trustle's staff a young man named Mark D'Antonio, who
Speaker 1: then went on to a great career head coach at
Speaker 1: Michigan State, the great Luke Fickle Mel Tucker distinguished careers
Speaker 1: for all and and certainly D'Antoni has had some big
Speaker 1: years for Michigan State, hanging around in the Big ten
Speaker 1: and and vexing um well these Buckeys at time, so
Speaker 1: Ohio State did have a great defense going into this year.
Speaker 1: What else were people talking about as we get ready
Speaker 1: for the two thousand two fall campaign? Here is two
Speaker 1: thousand two pop culture in review. The big movies in
Speaker 1: two thousand and two included Lord of the Rings, the
Speaker 1: Two Towers, the middle one okay, alright, the really long
Speaker 1: one in the middle that was, Oh my god, I
Speaker 1: just ket Bridge from the first one of the last one.
Speaker 1: They were long books. Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets.
Speaker 1: There you go, Spider Man. But I mean like, this
Speaker 1: is like four Spider Man. Yes, this is Are you
Speaker 1: gonna get into an Elizabeth Banks thing about which Spider
Speaker 1: Man iteration was listen, spider Man. Tom Holland was the best.
Speaker 1: Everything else was gaha. William Dafoe was pretty cool. He
Speaker 1: was good. William Dafoe was a good villain. I I oh, sorry,
Speaker 1: spoiler if you haven't seen that Spider right Men in
Speaker 1: Black two Star Wars episode, Yeah, I know ago. I
Speaker 1: remember going with a group from work to a very
Speaker 1: early showing of both Phantom Menace and then later on
Speaker 1: Attack of the Clones. I was the guy armed with
Speaker 1: two very large jugs of quote unquote orange juice for
Speaker 1: the morning showing. Was it just orange juice? Okay? Very good,
Speaker 1: that's good. The Angels won the World series. How long
Speaker 1: ago was that? People forget that? Oh? Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: There's you know, and the thing is had the Angels
Speaker 1: not one, Barry Bonds would have been the m v
Speaker 1: P of the World Series. He was having a great
Speaker 1: World Series, but that relentless lineup of the Angels just
Speaker 1: too much about that the outlier of the Bonds career.
Speaker 1: He was having a great World Series. And also the
Speaker 1: Euro became the unit of currency. I like that in Europe,
Speaker 1: the euro when you figure euro for Europe I had.
Speaker 1: It's not like the Euro was in the United States.
Speaker 1: The Euro and Europe. You want another good sports one,
Speaker 1: give me another good one. The w w UF had
Speaker 1: to become the w w E after the World One Wildlife.
Speaker 1: You know what I really can't fail to understand, and
Speaker 1: that whole thing is this is that the w w F,
Speaker 1: the World Wrestling Federation, was monstrous. W w F wildlife.
Speaker 1: How did they not have the best lawyers to win
Speaker 1: in court? How do that? Then? How do you claim
Speaker 1: that anybody's confusing the two? Until the bumper stickers of
Speaker 1: the band bears chairs came out, it's really no confusing
Speaker 1: the two. So this is what the world was talking about.
Speaker 1: As we head into two thousand and two, into the
Speaker 1: Fall War, Ohio State makes a run to a national
Speaker 1: championship thanks to their defense thanks to a controversial call
Speaker 1: in the bowl game that is still controversial. We get
Speaker 1: into the season as special teams continues. Next, the Ohio
Speaker 1: State buck Eyes came into two thousand and two ranked
Speaker 1: thirteenth in the country. They had some potential national championship dreams,
Speaker 1: but in the beginning they just had to win some games,
Speaker 1: and Ohio State had two tough ones coming out of
Speaker 1: the gate in their first three where they faced Heisman
Speaker 1: Trophy candidates Cliff Kingsbury Guess Jason Guesser. When Cliff Kingsbury
Speaker 1: first was was a Heisman Trophy candidate with Texas Tech
Speaker 1: while winging the ball all over the place. Problem was,
Speaker 1: they had a bad offensive line and nobody they didn't
Speaker 1: play a lick of defense. As for guess Or uh yeah,
Speaker 1: he in Washington State, another team expecting the explosive offense,
Speaker 1: but certainly this Buckeye defense was a formidable opponent. Texas
Speaker 1: Tech was able to put the most points on the
Speaker 1: board that Ohio State gave up during the regular season
Speaker 1: with twenty one. However, Ohio State's offense rolled to a
Speaker 1: forty five when he won victory. Meanwhile, in Game three,
Speaker 1: against Washington State, who was ranked tenth in the country
Speaker 1: at the time. Their defense shut them down at home,
Speaker 1: winning twenty five to seven. In his first two games
Speaker 1: in college football, Maurice Clarette scored five touchdowns and in
Speaker 1: the game against Washington State he ran for two hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty yards. And I remember then the question was
Speaker 1: can a freshman win the Heisman Trophy? Ken Maurice Clarette
Speaker 1: this kind of story. He was the breakout star in
Speaker 1: two thousand and two. Can he win the Heisman Trophy?
Speaker 1: To thirty five touchdowns? But he suffered a knee injury
Speaker 1: and he missed the next game. If he had been
Speaker 1: able to stay healthy all year long, because Maurice Clarette
Speaker 1: was in and out of the lineup, and this was
Speaker 1: the Maurice Clarette freshman sensation. Maurice Clarette, if he was
Speaker 1: able to stay in the lineup, he would have won
Speaker 1: the Heisman. But he kept getting dinged up. He'd missed
Speaker 1: a game, come back in play a game, missed two
Speaker 1: games that really hurt him. But man, if he was
Speaker 1: able to play top to bottom with the story, Ohio
Speaker 1: State was moving all the way up to the top
Speaker 1: of the rankings. He wouldn't won the Heisman. Now, that
Speaker 1: would have been a fun decision to have, to see, right,
Speaker 1: because as we know, the Heisman voters certainly don't want
Speaker 1: to go back to the well a second time. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you get the career Award, and generally if you're a
Speaker 1: youngster breaking onto the scene, they don't want any part
Speaker 1: of it. Right, you have to have transferred, sat out,
Speaker 1: been injured, gotten some kind of formal release, gone into
Speaker 1: transfer portals or whatever we're gonna call it in a
Speaker 1: given day, and have some long road. Not hey, I
Speaker 1: graduated early and I'm on campus. Ohio State gets the
Speaker 1: midway point of the season ranked number five in the country.
Speaker 1: They had blown out San Jose State fifty to seven,
Speaker 1: and then a string of close games, and this is
Speaker 1: where Ohio States defense stepped to the forefront. They beat
Speaker 1: Wisconsin by five, They beat Penn State thirteen to seven.
Speaker 1: They beat Minnesota, who was ranked in the top twenty five.
Speaker 1: They beat per Due ten to six. They won at
Speaker 1: Illinois and over Time twenty three to sixteen. All of
Speaker 1: these games were close, and there were many nonbelievers. I
Speaker 1: remember this year's boy, how good is Ohio State? How
Speaker 1: good is the Big ten. We don't know. They just
Speaker 1: keep eking out these victories over these teams that are
Speaker 1: not very good. Yeah, I mean there's a passetter fearence call,
Speaker 1: and and other things that that seemed to go their way. Right.
Speaker 1: It was one of those where bounces happen. You talk
Speaker 1: abouten Chicago Bears season with all the turnovers and everything.
Speaker 1: Go back to the Super Bowl appearance they made with
Speaker 1: Rex Grosser. Have to bring up Bears, your Bears have
Speaker 1: to wor sometimes you gotta be I don't unders played
Speaker 1: for the Bears, so I'm gonna make that he barely
Speaker 1: played for the ship. The idea just being sometimes all
Speaker 1: the calls seem to go your way, all the bouncers
Speaker 1: go yourway. This is a season where they lived dangerously
Speaker 1: on a week to week basis. So even even a
Speaker 1: couple of the mid season games, they had early early
Speaker 1: struggles to break out of the gate and then needed
Speaker 1: late comebacks. Here the same thing as we got deeper
Speaker 1: into the schedule and we we get to this produe
Speaker 1: game where it's just a grind, a grind into the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter before you finally have that breakthrough touchdown. Pass.
Speaker 1: One thing that's forgotten a lot in this because we
Speaker 1: had seen Charles Woodson do it five years previously, become
Speaker 1: the first primary defensive player to win the Heisman Trophy.
Speaker 1: But did he win because he played defense? No, he
Speaker 1: won because he played a phenomenal defensive back. He also returned.
Speaker 1: He was on the return game, and he played offense,
Speaker 1: and he made big plays for his team down the stretch,
Speaker 1: big plays on offense. Chris Gamble was that guy for
Speaker 1: Ohio State, a wide receiver who turned and started playing
Speaker 1: defensive back during the season, and he had numerous interceptions
Speaker 1: in big games. Every game they played, I felt like
Speaker 1: Chris Gamble comes down with this big interception. And you know,
Speaker 1: obviously didn't have the star power of Woodson in Michigan,
Speaker 1: but he was every bit that player for Ohio State.
Speaker 1: Well somewhere he was gonna find the ball like just
Speaker 1: a ball hawk, which is what made him eventually a
Speaker 1: number first round pick as a defense and back once
Speaker 1: he converted full time. But here facing Kyle Orton, cell bears.
Speaker 1: Are you only gonna bring up bears? How about the
Speaker 1: neck beard? He was the guy that threw the pick.
Speaker 1: He did have a great neck beer, but he threw
Speaker 1: the pick that gambled, caught want me. I'm just that
Speaker 1: you know that way that that's allowed. Okay, that's allowed.
Speaker 1: You had to go to the replay book. The river
Speaker 1: N's not overturning that. He's just gonna laugh. And I
Speaker 1: don't care when you called Mike Pereira. Mike Pereira said, hey,
Speaker 1: I just put down my wine so I can give
Speaker 1: you an update. That's what happened. Harmon can say whatever
Speaker 1: he wants. So by this point, for Ohio State, look,
Speaker 1: their defense has been rolling. You know, we talked about
Speaker 1: some of the big players on defense. They go into
Speaker 1: their showdown against number twelve Michigan ranked number two in
Speaker 1: the country, undefeated the point and there have been many
Speaker 1: classic Ohio State Michigan games where there are so many
Speaker 1: twists and turns. This was not one of them. This
Speaker 1: was a defensive struggle. Craig Krenzel was able to run
Speaker 1: for a key fourth and one first down. And really,
Speaker 1: Krenzel was a player who just made enough plays all
Speaker 1: season long. Right, was he the most talented of quarterbacks. No,
Speaker 1: but he made just enough place. He threw a touchdown
Speaker 1: pass just clutch enough in the fourth quarter. He drove
Speaker 1: the team down to a game winning drive or a
Speaker 1: game clinching drive, just enough to keep the job, and
Speaker 1: he did it. Against Michigan. The defense shuts down the
Speaker 1: Wolverines like they have all season long. They win fourteen
Speaker 1: to nine, and they head in to the National Championship
Speaker 1: game in Tempi in the Fiesta Bowl up against Miami.
Speaker 1: And still nobody was giving Ohio State do because the
Speaker 1: the overarching story we we got into it, nobody really
Speaker 1: believed how good they were, even when they beat Michigan.
Speaker 1: Here it was well Michigan, but they were right twelve
Speaker 1: and it's a fourteen nine. Give a look. And I've
Speaker 1: seen every Ohio State Michigan game for the past thirty years,
Speaker 1: so I'll tell you which ones are great, which ones worring.
Speaker 1: This is one of those it's tough to watch games,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it was. It was really difficult, and
Speaker 1: it was Ohio State just made enough plays. It was
Speaker 1: a grind. And there is something to be said for
Speaker 1: style points, especially when you have to worry about impressing voters.
Speaker 1: Defense is sexy, but it's got to be over the
Speaker 1: top good. It's got to be numerous picks and returns
Speaker 1: for touchdowns and sacks. Sometimes when you're keeping teams off
Speaker 1: the board and you're beating bad teams barely because you
Speaker 1: have great defense, it's not sexy enough. So Ohio State
Speaker 1: goes into this national championship game very very unsexy. Well,
Speaker 1: and that's it, is you you mentioned just from the
Speaker 1: sex appeal of appealing to the posters, and that's why
Speaker 1: you have the running up to score helly, No matter
Speaker 1: how many algorithms you add to the equation. Now from
Speaker 1: playoffs selection, you're still looking going, all right, how much
Speaker 1: does it help if we score another touchdown here? How
Speaker 1: much does it help if we keep rolling it up?
Speaker 1: Just like you were Steve Spurrier thirty years ago. But
Speaker 1: you look at their scoring game to game, they only
Speaker 1: scored more than thirty points three times. One of those
Speaker 1: was a fifty burger on San Jose State, alright, hamburgers
Speaker 1: later on everybody, you know, forty five points against Indiana,
Speaker 1: and then there's another thirty four point output. But overall
Speaker 1: it's grinding out games, defense coming up with big plays.
Speaker 1: So you're rolling through, going all right against a big time,
Speaker 1: high powered opponent. One can they shut them down in
Speaker 1: the same way? Right? Is this just a function of
Speaker 1: a couple of bad Big ten teams. Uh San Jose
Speaker 1: stayed on the schedule and so on, versus can your
Speaker 1: offense score against the team of this caliber? And it's
Speaker 1: you know the classic bowl matchups as you get into them,
Speaker 1: where now it's all right, you're facing a different caliber
Speaker 1: of talent, right, because this wasn't the running guns shoot
Speaker 1: him up Big ten that it's become right. This was
Speaker 1: still coming out of the three yards at a cloud
Speaker 1: of dust and we'll grind you out. Yeah. Look, perfect example,
Speaker 1: the game winning drive against Michigan. They're down nine seven
Speaker 1: midway through the fourth quarter. Their defense has held Michigan
Speaker 1: to nine points. Ohio State couldn't do anything. Craig Krenzel
Speaker 1: then leads a drive, I said, the big first first
Speaker 1: down on a On a fourth down, quarterback Sneak completes
Speaker 1: a big wheel route past to Maurice Clarette, which lives
Speaker 1: in Ohio State. Lore a the wheel play that goes
Speaker 1: in for the go ahead touchdown. John Navar, who was
Speaker 1: playing quarterbacks for Michigan there. Yeah, I think he beat Michigan.
Speaker 1: I think he beat Ohiose State once Navarre did. But
Speaker 1: I think that's what every Michigan quarterback. They beat him
Speaker 1: once and they lose the next three. Yeah, but if
Speaker 1: you got one, you can at least say we're part
Speaker 1: of the one time club. You know. They get down
Speaker 1: the field and score a touchdown Navars picked off on
Speaker 1: the final play of the game by Will Allen, and
Speaker 1: and here goes Ohio State, everybody doubting them all the
Speaker 1: way to the National Championship Game, where they were a
Speaker 1: twelve point underdog to the University of Miami twelve points
Speaker 1: twelve with all of the defensive efforts that they'd put
Speaker 1: up over the course of a year, not just hey,
Speaker 1: you you canna score lowly here you're gonna give up.
Speaker 1: And suddenly this defense that had been so great all
Speaker 1: season long, this team is gonna be able to exploit
Speaker 1: the holes behind Ken Dorsey. So one of the great
Speaker 1: National Championship games of all time awaited US and one
Speaker 1: of the biggest controversy still to this day. As Special
Speaker 1: Teams with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon continues, Special Teams
Speaker 1: with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon continues now as we
Speaker 1: take a look back at the two thousand and two
Speaker 1: Ohio State Buckeyes who win an absolute thriller in a
Speaker 1: controversy filled National Championship game over the Miami Hurricanes to
Speaker 1: win the National Championship. There are so many twists and
Speaker 1: turns in this game, which eventually has won by Ohio State.
Speaker 1: One of the big plays early on in this in
Speaker 1: in in which look we watched Ohio States defense get
Speaker 1: a couple of turnovers. Early, they forced a fumble by
Speaker 1: Ken Dorsey. They turn a seven nothing deficit into a
Speaker 1: four teen seven lead. But one of the biggest plays
Speaker 1: comes to us courtesy of Maurice Clarette, who is obviously
Speaker 1: at the end of his run as an Ohio State
Speaker 1: running back. Nobody knows it at this point, but he
Speaker 1: makes one of the biggest plays in the National Championship game.
Speaker 1: In the Fiesta Bowl, Sean Taylor, the late Sean Taylor,
Speaker 1: picks off Craig Krenzel deep in Miami territory. Ohio State
Speaker 1: is going in for a score and Taylor's returning it
Speaker 1: and Clarette comes from behind, strips Sean Taylor of the
Speaker 1: ball and Ohio State recovers. They get a field goal.
Speaker 1: But this was a play that was, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: what in a momentum swing and Taylor can't hold onto
Speaker 1: the football, and Maurice Clarette the biggest play he makes
Speaker 1: in the National Championship because he didn't have a great
Speaker 1: game running the football. The biggest play was that stripped
Speaker 1: from behind that gives Ohio State another drive, a chance
Speaker 1: to put points on the board and takes a momentum
Speaker 1: away from Miami extend to attend point lead instead of
Speaker 1: having it be potentially a tie ball game. Momentum, the crowd,
Speaker 1: all of those things suddenly swinging back. And it's just
Speaker 1: funny when you get into games of this magnitude and
Speaker 1: you think about the star power on these fields, Right
Speaker 1: Sean Taylor, who was one of the most dominant players
Speaker 1: in the secondary that we'd seen uh and Willis mcgahey
Speaker 1: who goes onto a fabulous career on the other side,
Speaker 1: and Clarette the career that might have been um but
Speaker 1: for you know, some issues that befall him. But in
Speaker 1: this case, you've just got that big swing right there
Speaker 1: for Maurice Clarette not giving up on a play. How
Speaker 1: many times you watch college and pro as soon as
Speaker 1: the balls turned over, guys start looking at the sideline,
Speaker 1: Guys kind of half run back in into a play.
Speaker 1: I see more kickers get involved in play sometimes than
Speaker 1: skill position guys. You know, you usually have the the
Speaker 1: hogs from the offensive line doing their best to track
Speaker 1: down someone on a return. But here it's Clarette making
Speaker 1: the big play. That is the first drive of the
Speaker 1: second half. So instead of Miami having the football down
Speaker 1: a touchdown, Ohio gets a field goal and they go
Speaker 1: up by ten. So now would say seventeen seven lead.
Speaker 1: And this is where Miami. At some point I'm saying
Speaker 1: to myself, Miami's got the horses. All right. This is
Speaker 1: Larry Coker in his second year at Miami. You know,
Speaker 1: Rob Schatzinski is the offensive coordinator. Ken Dorsey had a
Speaker 1: huge year. They have Willis Mcgahey, there is star power
Speaker 1: all over this team all I mean, I look, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're top five Heisman finalists. I mean, Andre Johnson was
Speaker 1: on this team. You know, Frank Gore was on this team. Peyton,
Speaker 1: I mean this. Kellen Winslow when he was a good
Speaker 1: tight end was on this team. They had star power
Speaker 1: everywhere the tight end before he switched to being a
Speaker 1: full time offensive lineman. And it really shocked me that
Speaker 1: they couldn't get out offensively on Ohio State more than
Speaker 1: they did, and that I thought, Okay, here's how the
Speaker 1: game's gonna go. Miami's gonna struggle early and then they're
Speaker 1: gonna impose their will on the game and they're gonna
Speaker 1: go up and down the field on Ohio State. And
Speaker 1: that just didn't have to start getting that lean as
Speaker 1: as you would with your offensive line and especially behind
Speaker 1: the running of mcgahey. But certainly that's one of those
Speaker 1: moments that just lives on in national title lore while
Speaker 1: we go through that. But you know, the defensive side
Speaker 1: of the ball, they had my guy, Vince Wilfork, who's
Speaker 1: you know, the captain of my wall of mean, especially
Speaker 1: once he was wearing the overalls. That became a big
Speaker 1: deal later on. But for the purposes of of the
Speaker 1: offense of this game, just kept waiting for it to
Speaker 1: click right, I mean, it was a twelve point spread.
Speaker 1: Eventually the damn had to break. Did Willis mcgahey breaks
Speaker 1: through touchdown run that cuts the lead to three and
Speaker 1: suddenly Miami's got momentum. But Willis mcgae he is one
Speaker 1: of the poster boys of this game. If you remember,
Speaker 1: this is the game in which mcgahey suffered a really
Speaker 1: horrible knee injury later on in the second half, in
Speaker 1: which he missed the vast majority of the next year,
Speaker 1: and that really started the discussion of, oh, my goodness,
Speaker 1: willis mcgahe he looked at him, did he have insurance?
Speaker 1: Was he able to make sure that's his last college game?
Speaker 1: Because he was one of these stars in all of
Speaker 1: college football, would have been a top three or top
Speaker 1: four pick, but he injured his knees so badly that
Speaker 1: he falls in the draft because he's gonna miss almost
Speaker 1: all of the next year of play. The Buffalo Bills
Speaker 1: take him, and it takes him a little while to
Speaker 1: get into that run. And this was really the first
Speaker 1: injury where college football players parents everybody says, hey, you
Speaker 1: know what, maybe playing in a bowl game might not
Speaker 1: be what you should do if you're gonna wind up
Speaker 1: being a high first round pick. And now we see
Speaker 1: it all the time where players miss bowl games because
Speaker 1: they're worried about an injury. It doesn't matter what my
Speaker 1: team is playing for. I gotta sit out because I
Speaker 1: gotta preserve my career at the next level. It's not
Speaker 1: gonna help me if somebody takes a cheap shot at
Speaker 1: me in a game and I get hurt. It helped
Speaker 1: it stakes, but hey, I got you here, so I'm
Speaker 1: gonna sit this game out and then go to the NFL. No,
Speaker 1: and that that's the difficult part of this process was
Speaker 1: for mcgahey. I mean, that was just gruesome, right, So
Speaker 1: that wasn't just an injury. It was awful. That was
Speaker 1: one that you don't watch a second time. It's a
Speaker 1: screen pass in which he gets hit by Will Allen.
Speaker 1: His left knee gets bent backwards and it was tough
Speaker 1: to see tears of the a c L, PCL, m
Speaker 1: c L. It was really difficult. And like I said,
Speaker 1: he was going to be a top three, top five pick.
Speaker 1: Instead it was well, now he's gonna go in the
Speaker 1: third or fourth round. He eventually does get taken by
Speaker 1: the Bills and sits out all of two thousand and
Speaker 1: three before going onto thousand yards seasons. So it did
Speaker 1: turn out okay for mcgahey, But he was the real
Speaker 1: first guy that was playing the bull game. Really we
Speaker 1: should be doing okay, And now you just say no.
Speaker 1: Of course, you and I form SYR in Houston Northwestern
Speaker 1: going to a bowl every year would just be nice enough.
Speaker 1: Miami kicks a field goal to send the game to overtime,
Speaker 1: and in overtime, Miami scores first seven yard touchdown pass
Speaker 1: from Ken Dorrisey to Kellen Winslow. Ohio State. Now in
Speaker 1: overtime has to go for the touchdown otherwise they lose
Speaker 1: the game. Craig Krenzel completes a fourth and fourteen pass
Speaker 1: to Michael Jenkins that keeps the drive alive, and then
Speaker 1: it comes down to the fourth and three play, which
Speaker 1: is now known as the call. What looks to be
Speaker 1: an incomplete pass thrown by Craig Krenzel. You watch Miami celebrate.
Speaker 1: Larry Coker runs on the field. Miami's your national champions
Speaker 1: because a fourth and three pass from inside the five
Speaker 1: yard line goes incomplete in the end zone. However, official
Speaker 1: Terry Porter calls pass interference on Miami defensive at Glenn Sharp.
Speaker 1: They get a new set of downs, they go in
Speaker 1: for the game tying touchdown. Now, this is a play
Speaker 1: that many of us have seen many times. Was this
Speaker 1: a past interference play or not? It has been broken
Speaker 1: down as well by the letter of the law. It's
Speaker 1: past interference. This game was being referee pretty rough. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of physical play that both sides had
Speaker 1: gotten away with it. But even earlier in that possession, right,
Speaker 1: the Jenkins pass was potentially offensive past interference, Yes, but
Speaker 1: back then you didn't call offensive passing clubbed you guy know,
Speaker 1: I mean he pushed off on Sharp. You know who
Speaker 1: then got called for Who's got to be piste off
Speaker 1: going Jenkins doesn't get called, but I get called for this.
Speaker 1: I've seen the play and you know what it is.
Speaker 1: It's a no call. It's a no call. It's really
Speaker 1: hard to say there's an ocal because we saw it
Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl a few years ago, right, the
Speaker 1: big no call on fourth down with Colin Kaepernick and
Speaker 1: the when the Niners played the Baltimore Ravens and it
Speaker 1: was past no It was a good no call and
Speaker 1: that helped clinch the game for the Ravens. But the
Speaker 1: fact that Porter took a while to throw his flag,
Speaker 1: and that's what I have a problem with, because he
Speaker 1: said after the game, I wanted to replay it in
Speaker 1: my mind to make sure it was past interference, and
Speaker 1: then I threw the flag. You know what, That's a
Speaker 1: case where if you didn't see it, it's not a flag.
Speaker 1: If you got to think about it, like going to
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. You gotta think about it. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: you're not a Hall of Famer. It's I gotta think
Speaker 1: about it. I'm throwing the flag. That's why that was
Speaker 1: a bad call, because it's either you gotta see it
Speaker 1: right away pass interference I'm throwing not I gotta think
Speaker 1: about it, because boy, oh, I don't want to leave
Speaker 1: this game being the guy who didn't throw the flag.
Speaker 1: You know what, let me throw the flag and we'll
Speaker 1: let the players on the field decide it. No, if
Speaker 1: it's a penally, it's a penal. If it's not. If
Speaker 1: it's good defense, it's good defense, and they throw the flag.
Speaker 1: And that's really hard for Miami going from we've just
Speaker 1: won the National championship too. Oh hey, no, yeah, no
Speaker 1: you haven't. I mean that that was really that was
Speaker 1: the worst part of that, to say, you want to
Speaker 1: talk about a deflation. But what's funny is in the
Speaker 1: back end of it is that referee Magazine called it
Speaker 1: one of the best eighteen calls. Look at and say,
Speaker 1: but you wanna you want to back up by a
Speaker 1: referee magazine is not going to call something bad. Here's
Speaker 1: the worst referees and Referee magazine. Now it's referee Magazine's
Speaker 1: gonna spotlight the good referee. It would be the eighteen
Speaker 1: times you could have done better section. You know that
Speaker 1: that was it was a no call for me. But
Speaker 1: now Miami's gotta go back and play. Next overtime, Ohio
Speaker 1: State gets the ball. They go in for a touchdown,
Speaker 1: five yard touchdown run by Martice Clarette. Miami gets a
Speaker 1: second possession. They have to get in the end zone
Speaker 1: right now, Derrick Crudip comes in the backup quarterback because
Speaker 1: Ken Dorsey gets knocked silly on a play, so now
Speaker 1: he has to come out of the game. He's still woozy.
Speaker 1: The backup comes in completes a fourth down pass to
Speaker 1: Kellen Winslow. At that point, I go, this game is over, Derrek.
Speaker 1: He's he's in the huddle, go and sid har and
Speaker 1: he completes a fourth down pass to keep the drive going.
Speaker 1: And then he goes right back out of the game.
Speaker 1: Right because now Ken Dorsey comes back in on the
Speaker 1: side of hey, hey, get back again and get back
Speaker 1: in again. Nowadays, how did he get cleared? Did he
Speaker 1: go through the proper concussion protocol to get back in
Speaker 1: the game or was it dude, are you okay? Come on, man,
Speaker 1: this is the next Joe Montana? Great? What are you doing?
Speaker 1: He's it's Ken Dorsey. The guy thinks he's Joe Montana.
Speaker 1: He said Candy and ran back on the field. Don't
Speaker 1: go out three things. He's Montana. But you watch Dorsey play,
Speaker 1: you can tell he is still not himself. Hurricanes get
Speaker 1: stopped on their first three plays after that, including Dorsey
Speaker 1: missing a wide open player for what could have been
Speaker 1: a touchdown, and on fourth and goal he's pressured, he
Speaker 1: chucks it up desperation pass incomplete. No flags on that
Speaker 1: play at Ohio State? Are your two thousand and two
Speaker 1: national champions? After the game was over, I still couldn't
Speaker 1: believe they were the national champions. No, it was one
Speaker 1: that again because of the officiating and the twists and
Speaker 1: turns and big injury and and everything that. It just
Speaker 1: left you exhausted. For one. But you you look at
Speaker 1: games like this compared to how they're officiated today, when
Speaker 1: you talk about instant replay and challenges, I mean, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna overturn any of these, just like they don't do.
Speaker 1: From New York in the National Football League, you know,
Speaker 1: as you and I speak, But it's just a different era, right,
Speaker 1: a lot more physical and and for this one, it
Speaker 1: was it was a slug fest. It really was that.
Speaker 1: It was a battle and a war of attrition. It
Speaker 1: was shocking, it was exciting, it was everything you'd want
Speaker 1: a National Championship game. And with the big controversial call
Speaker 1: that lives forever. I mean, you can't, you can't dial
Speaker 1: it up any better than that. Did the right team win? Well?
Speaker 1: The call was made and Miami did have a chance
Speaker 1: at Ohio State made all the plays. Jim Trestle does
Speaker 1: not get enough credit for the coach he was, obviously
Speaker 1: because the way things ended amid scandal, he has to resign.
Speaker 1: Players are getting free tattoos. Terrell Prior is at the
Speaker 1: crux of this, and we forget just what a great
Speaker 1: head coach he was. Three tattoos. That's here. You gave
Speaker 1: me a jackie, you gave me merch had traded in
Speaker 1: for tattoos. There's the problem. You yeah, shouldn't have done it,
Speaker 1: But I mean that the fact that that's a rule.
Speaker 1: And we can do a podcast on in an n
Speaker 1: C double A rules another time. But the fact that
Speaker 1: that's the scandal that hits him with all the other
Speaker 1: stuff that's gone on in the Big Ten and in
Speaker 1: football in general, that that's it. That guy got a
Speaker 1: tattoo for free, and you know what, he had to
Speaker 1: give up that letterman's jacket. He didn't want this thing
Speaker 1: that they gave me for free. Yeah here, just putting
Speaker 1: like four more tats on me. Man, he just wants
Speaker 1: the swag bag from the bull game. He got an
Speaker 1: MP three player and a set of headphones at a sweatshirt.
Speaker 1: Al right here, Well, yeah, don't worry about it. We're fine,
Speaker 1: We're absolutely fine. He doesn't get that credit because he
Speaker 1: what he came in and turned a program that was
Speaker 1: always talented, but when it came to putting your feet
Speaker 1: to the fire, they faltered. Instead, they had the belief,
Speaker 1: and he instilled that belief that this is a program
Speaker 1: that's going to continue and I'm gonna be at the
Speaker 1: head of this and I'm going to continue on with
Speaker 1: it as long as I want to go. It's a
Speaker 1: shame that's how it ended for him because of what happened. Obviously,
Speaker 1: they had their problems and he had to go. But
Speaker 1: just the image of him the sweater vest, everything is
Speaker 1: buttoned up, and all kinds of crazy stuff is going
Speaker 1: on beyond. Hey, when you can do that, when you
Speaker 1: can at least give the image that I'm in charge
Speaker 1: of things, it doesn't matter what happens behind closed door,
Speaker 1: six and four in Bowl games, sixties, six and fourteen
Speaker 1: in the Big Ten, and one oh six and twenty
Speaker 1: two overall as the head coach of the State buck
Speaker 1: Eyes during his I mean, that's just absolutely absurd. For
Speaker 1: his career, a seventy winning percentage, So talking about domination throughout.
Speaker 1: But for Jim Trestle, you know, history not as kind
Speaker 1: perhaps as it should be. This team as a whole
Speaker 1: not regarded typically very well. I mean, there was an
Speaker 1: ESPN poll that ranked him the worst champion of a
Speaker 1: twenty year period. I said, I don't know that you
Speaker 1: can say that they beat the best team. They beat him,
Speaker 1: and and it was a dominant game defensively. You could
Speaker 1: say that, hey, did Miami have a bad game yet,
Speaker 1: but they had a bad game because Ohio State was
Speaker 1: that good, you know, and then the Ohio State made
Speaker 1: all the place. Was Craig Krenzel great, No, but they
Speaker 1: look at all the NFL talent that we didn't talk.
Speaker 1: Will Smith was on this team starting defensive end. They
Speaker 1: put I think seven of their uh starting defenders went
Speaker 1: on to long careers in the NFL. This was that
Speaker 1: good a defensive team. But defensive teams, unless you're the
Speaker 1: eight five Bears or legendary teams like that, you just
Speaker 1: don't get to do that. Other teams do that. Led
Speaker 1: up to scoreboard, I mean, you want the sexiness of points,
Speaker 1: as we said that was that wasn't the hallmark for
Speaker 1: this team. They had a couple of explosions against the
Speaker 1: inferior opponents or where the defense just put it late
Speaker 1: at the table for them to just finish the job.
Speaker 1: But when you play that kind of defense, again, Joe
Speaker 1: Tiller only been doing his thing and produce for a
Speaker 1: couple of years at this point, so the Big ten
Speaker 1: hadn't changed, so naturally you hadn't changed the style of
Speaker 1: game you were playing either, which is why when you
Speaker 1: played the SEC or the Pac ten and whatever else,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden you're facing all these big,
Speaker 1: fast wideouts and the offenses are that much more prolific,
Speaker 1: or going to the SEC more three yards in a
Speaker 1: cloud of dust, but still you know, just a different
Speaker 1: in terms of the athletes or the Florida schools that
Speaker 1: it was always seen as a mismatch in bowl games
Speaker 1: and sometimes they get run out of the gym and
Speaker 1: they would diminish the fact that you had the cannibalization
Speaker 1: and just a different style of play across the big
Speaker 1: ten in before we get to the where are they now?
Speaker 1: Maurice Clarette has become the most visible personality associated with
Speaker 1: this two thousand and two teams. Everything was at his feet.
Speaker 1: He was the first freshman to be the leading rusher
Speaker 1: on a national championship game. Since I'm on green of
Speaker 1: Nebraska and Ohio State is thinking we're gonna win it
Speaker 1: all next year. The year after, there's Heisman trophies. There's
Speaker 1: the NFL in his future. But that was it for
Speaker 1: Ohio State all right. In December, he had gotten upset
Speaker 1: with the team because they wouldn't let him fly back
Speaker 1: for a friend's funeral. That was the first part of
Speaker 1: the divorce proceedings that started between Clarette and Ohio State.
Speaker 1: He gotten a very highly publicized shouting match with his
Speaker 1: position coach during the Northwestern game earlier in the year.
Speaker 1: Later on, after the National Championship. It was revealed he
Speaker 1: didn't go to any classes during his only year at
Speaker 1: Ohio State. This story gets out, it's an academic scandal,
Speaker 1: and Ohio State has no choice but to dismiss him
Speaker 1: from the team. So now he is no longer an
Speaker 1: Ohio State Buckeye. He suites to get into the NFL Draft.
Speaker 1: He wins his case, but there's some shenanigans legally that
Speaker 1: prevent him from getting into the NFL. So now he's
Speaker 1: a man without a team. Well in that city, becomes
Speaker 1: a guy with a couple of injuries coming out of
Speaker 1: that freshman year, but signs an agent because he's told, hey,
Speaker 1: you're clear, you're gonna be good. So he and Mike
Speaker 1: Williams of USC go and they sign agents. And then
Speaker 1: once they're told no, you can't and c double A
Speaker 1: won't let them back. So now they're in no man's
Speaker 1: land right And at the time, I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: they could have gone and played in Canada. Probably could
Speaker 1: have gone and and done that, but otherwise you're without
Speaker 1: a home. And from Maurice Claret, it became just the
Speaker 1: beginning of a downward spiral. Waiting on that opportunity to
Speaker 1: try to get into the NFL and a ruling, and
Speaker 1: we've had this conversation I once wrote, I think it
Speaker 1: was about a five thousand word diet tribe about their
Speaker 1: or legal situation. How screwed they got in the process
Speaker 1: because of bad advice and just a bad rule. Right,
Speaker 1: if a team wants to take a shot on you
Speaker 1: after a year or just like in in basketball at
Speaker 1: times and time again that you know, coming out of
Speaker 1: high school, and they want to put you into a
Speaker 1: developmental program, why not, right, Maurice Clarette coming off an injury,
Speaker 1: could have got bulked up, could have got rehab on
Speaker 1: the leg and everything else and gone on and maybe
Speaker 1: a straight path into a viable NFL career. But instead
Speaker 1: he's a man without a home. He challenges the NFL's
Speaker 1: rule that a player have to wait three years until
Speaker 1: after graduating from high school. He loses in two thousand four,
Speaker 1: but he gets in the two thousand five draft. He
Speaker 1: trains he does not have a great combine. I remember
Speaker 1: mel kiper I did shows with mel Kipert ESPN. At
Speaker 1: that point he was saying he's gonna be a six
Speaker 1: or seventh round pick, but the Broncos draft him at
Speaker 1: the end of the first day in the third round,
Speaker 1: and Clarette actually gets into the Nash in the Football League.
Speaker 1: His career never gets off the ground. It's revealed his
Speaker 1: battled depression alcoholism since his earliest two thousand and two.
Speaker 1: And then he has two really disastrous legal moments. One
Speaker 1: is a robbery conviction in which he attempted to rob
Speaker 1: a couple of people with a gun outside a bar
Speaker 1: in early two thousand and six. And then he had
Speaker 1: the instance in August of two thousand and six in
Speaker 1: which he was arrested after he made an a legal
Speaker 1: you turn driving in his car, led police on a
Speaker 1: chase uh in an SUV that reportedly belonged to his uncle.
Speaker 1: When they finally stopped Clarette, they look in the car
Speaker 1: and he's got all kinds of weapons in there, loaded
Speaker 1: a K forty seven katana blade, loaded handguns, everything, and
Speaker 1: an open bottle of Great Goose vodka. And this was
Speaker 1: really the end of the Maurice Clarette story where I thought,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this guy, he needs so much help.
Speaker 1: He has gotten it. He turned his life around after that.
Speaker 1: He started to to counsel players so they wouldn't fall
Speaker 1: into the same traps as him, but you know, his
Speaker 1: career was something that really it was. It was the
Speaker 1: shiny example of all right, here's how to achieve and
Speaker 1: then here's what not to do. So there's Maurice Threat
Speaker 1: who was able to turn his life around later on,
Speaker 1: but the twist and turns to get there were really crazy.
Speaker 1: What about some others in where are they now? All right,
Speaker 1: we got ben Hart Suck. We mentioned him a little
Speaker 1: bit earlier, played in the league for Jets Hawaiian awhile, yep,
Speaker 1: he's now an agent. About that? Went on the other
Speaker 1: side saying, wait, I can get a couple of percent
Speaker 1: by just hyping guys. Yeah, I'm in on that. Uh.
Speaker 1: Tim Anderson defensive line played in the league for a
Speaker 1: little bit. He's a history teacher and he also does
Speaker 1: he's a wrestling coach. Adrian Clark became a trainer and
Speaker 1: works with offensive lineman working on their technique. So if
Speaker 1: you want to be a dancing bear in the NFL,
Speaker 1: you go find him to be a bear. Why it's
Speaker 1: not all about the Bears. Have you never heard that bears? Yes?
Speaker 1: I know, but you brought it up just because you're
Speaker 1: a Bears. You're right, Santonio Holmes Staler all of that.
Speaker 1: Uh does a lot of work for the Sickle Cell
Speaker 1: Research and Foundation that he is started. You've got Donnie
Speaker 1: Nikki uh financial industry from MetLife about that new a
Speaker 1: gan Niki. Guess you can say he save me some money.
Speaker 1: Nicely done, just Befriendzi does some insurance work in Columbus,
Speaker 1: a little bit of media work. Doesn't everybody buy their
Speaker 1: Craig Crass I can talk to him about two thousand too,
Speaker 1: how many insurance calls? I think he goes on where
Speaker 1: guys go. Hey, tell me about the national championship. Alright, five?
Speaker 1: So fourth quarter comes and here's what happens. Great. I
Speaker 1: bet she's got a nice life and a nice house
Speaker 1: and everything else. So he tells that every day, just
Speaker 1: keeps telling stories and gets more clients ten times a day.
Speaker 1: I bet she's got a lot of Augusto Mike Doss.
Speaker 1: We talked about him before zimmer Biomet medical sales rep.
Speaker 1: And then I got one more for you because I
Speaker 1: know you're gonna like this. He got Rob Sims alright,
Speaker 1: played the league a little bit, played in Detroit with
Speaker 1: Calvin Johnson. Two of them have started their own little
Speaker 1: cannabis run there in Michigan, and they've also got a
Speaker 1: giant research thing going on with Harvard. Wow, everything and
Speaker 1: everything related to cannabis and it's use. So there is
Speaker 1: our look back at the two thousand and two Ohha
Speaker 1: State buck Eyes National champions, pulling one of the big
Speaker 1: upsets in college football history in an incredibly memorable game
Speaker 1: against the Miami Hurricanes. I'm Jason Smith, He's Mike Harmon.
Speaker 1: You can hit us up on Twitter at how about
Speaker 1: a Fresca or Mike is at Swollen Dumb. Let us
Speaker 1: know what you think, let us know what teams you
Speaker 1: would like to see spotlighted on Special Teams with Jason
Speaker 1: Smith and Mike Carmen. We'll talk to you next time
Speaker 1: before you go, rate and review the show. Whether you're
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Speaker 1: like it. We will love you forever and ever and ever.
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