Miami’s Emphatic Victory Leaves Room at Top for Only One No. 1

You knew when it was 34-0 at the half that the bowl championship series had gotten this title-game thing half right.

In its noble quest to pit the nation’s top two teams in Thursday’s national title game, the BCS went one for two--basically Shaquille O’Neal’s free-throw percentage.

The only real debate after Miami’s 37-14 win over Nebraska before a crowd of 93,781 is where the Hurricanes will display their fifth national title trophy since 1983 and whether Nebraska will downgrade to eight-man football.

By the time Miami released Nebraska from its vise, there was no question the Hurricanes were deserving of victory’s spoils.

Miami was No. 1 going into the game and No. 1 coming out. The Hurricanes, the only major college team to finish 12-0, may now proceed directly to their local jeweler for their national title ring fittings.

So much for the delightful derision a Nebraska win might have wrought.

There would be no split title, no late-night tallies to see if Oregon, No. 2 in both polls, might have snared the Associated Press title in the event of a Nebraska win.

As it turned out, the question was whether Nebraska would score, not win.

Yes, there will always be the Oregon argument. That Oregon deserved to be in Pasadena instead of Nebraska. That Oregon would have given Miami a better game, would have not been run over like road kill.

That Oregon’s “Gang Green” defense surely would have fared better than Nebraska’s “Blackshirts,” who ought to be blacklisted until they rediscover the ancient art of tackling.

You really have to wonder, though, what chance Oregon would have stood against Miami, which outdid the pregame show in terms of fireworks displays.

Afterward, Miami Coach Larry Coker was asked if he’d like to play Oregon and settle this dispute once and for all.

“Why?” Coker said. “We’re national champions. There’s no need to settle anything. We won it on the field tonight.”

Doubts regarding which team was the nation’s best were answered shortly after the national anthem. Nebraska won the coin flip, then little else.

It was an even more dominant display than Miami wins in days of yore, when the Hurricanes’ speed and quickness led to three victories over Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.

Nothing in this storied rivalry ranked with this rank performance.

Nebraska players, apparently revived at halftime by the team’s medical staff, outscored Miami in the second half, 14-3, but it was like the fire squad arriving after the house burned down.

The Nebraska defense?

It picked up where it left off on Nov. 23, when it surrendered 62 points in a loss to Colorado at Boulder.

If you’re keeping tabs at the home office in Omaha, Nebraska has been outscored, 99-50, in its last two defeats. It yielded 582 yards in the Colorado debacle and 472 yards against Miami.

Thursday was a turkey shoot for Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey and receiver Andre Johnson, who played pitch-and-catch against a helpless secondary.

Dorsey completed 22 of 35 passes for 362 yards and three touchdowns, and Johnson finished with seven catches for 199 yards with two touchdowns. The players shared the game’s most valuable player award.

The game capped a fairy-tale season for Coker, a 53-year-old lifetime assistant who became the first rookie coach to win a national title since Michigan’s Bennie Oosterbaan in 1948.

Coker inherited his team only because Butch Davis left this year to coach the Cleveland Browns. Coker thanked his lucky stars, and the Miami administration, for giving “an old coach who’d never coached a game an opportunity.”

What’s more, Miami won its national title only six years after being docked 24 scholarships for NCAA violations.

“There were reports the program would never be back and compete on a national level,” Coker said. “That’s obviously not the case.”

Nebraska would have had you believe the Colorado game was an aberration, not an affliction, yet the Cornhuskers showed early they had no business being in this game. They suffered consecutive defeats for the first time since 1990.

“A very unpleasant feeling,” Nebraska Coach Frank Solich said.

Miami struck early and often.

“This is the fastest team I’ve ever been around,” Coker said.

And, now, the fastest team Nebraska’s been around.

After the Hurricanes recovered Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch’s first-quarter fumble, Dorsey hit Johnson for a 49-yard scoring pass on first down.

Johnson could not have been more open on the play after Nebraska cornerback Keyou Craver fell down on the coverage.

Dorsey’s eyes became grapefruits.

“I thought I’d put too much on it, I was so excited,” Dorsey said of the throw. “I just threw it out there.”

Johnson was so alone he could have been ticketed for loitering.

His thoughts?

“Please let me catch it,” he said. “Please let me catch it.”

It is difficult to conjure up a turning point in such a lopsided game, but here’s one:

Down only 7-0, and facing fourth and seven at the Miami 33, Solich elected to punt the ball back to Miami’s electrifying offense.

That might be sound strategy in the ball-control Big 12, but it was highly questionable given the potency of Miami’s offense.

How’d it go?

The punt netted 19 yards. Miami took over at its 14, then cut through the Nebraska defense like a knife through butter. The Hurricanes needed only five plays to go 86 yards, tailback Clinton Portis scoring on a dazzling 39-yard run to make it 14-0.

Of his decision to punt, Solich said he was trying to pin Miami in its own end.

“I thought it was probably the right decision,” Solich said. “I still think it’s the right decision.”

On Nebraska’s next possession, Miami safety James Lewis scooped up a pass that deflected off Tracey Wistrom’s hands and returned the interception 47 yards for a score to make it 21-0.

Minutes later, after Nebraska went three and out, Miami needed only two plays to score from its 34.

On first down, Dorsey hit Johnson on a 45-yard pass play to the Nebraska 21.

From there, Dorsey and tight Jeremy Shockey hooked up on a 21-yard pass-and-catch for a touchdown.

It was like pinball. For good measure, Miami tacked on another score before the half on an eight-yard pass from Dorsey to Johnson.

“They talked the talk and walked the walk,” Nebraska’s Craver said. “We are not used to losing. It is hard to swallow.”

Bottom line: None of this was Nebraska’s fault. The Cornhuskers did not ask to be here. They were ranked No. 4 in both the coaches’ and writers’ polls, yet advanced to the Rose Bowl by winning the No. 2 spot in the BCS standings, a multi-pronged ranking formula that also incorporates strength of schedule and computers.

Thanks largely to the BCS’ computer component, Nebraska was able to edge Colorado for the Rose Bowl berth by 0.05 and Oregon--which routed Colorado in Tuesday’s Fiesta Bowl, 38-16--by 1.44.

With Miami playing lights out, you wondered if any team the BCS spit out would have been up to the task.

“It certainly was not the matchup everybody dreamed of,” Solich said. “Whether or not a matchup with anyone else would have worked any different, I don’t know. I don’t know that anyone is as balanced as Miami when they are playing at the top of their game.”