CHAMPS

CHAMPS
Tigers first to win second BCS title
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Peter Finney

In Tigertown, and BCS land, let's say the crystal football torch has been passed, from Nick Saban to Les Miles.

But let's make one thing clear: Four years later, Les Miles is his own man.

He's earned it.

He's paid his dues.

He's lived through a high-pressure, roller-coaster year that saw his Tigers begin the season No. 2 and finish No. 1.

He saw them counted out, once, twice, three times, but there they were Monday night, defeating the Big Ten champion 38-24 in front of 79,651, the largest crowd to see a football game in the history of the Superdome.

The Tigers won the Bowl Championship Series trophy by doing what no team came close to doing to the top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, by scoring 31 straight points after spotting them a 10-0 lead in the first six minutes.

They did it with big plays on both sides of the ball.

On four touchdown passes by Most Outstanding Offensive Player Matt Flynn.

On 86 hard-earned rushing yards by Jacob Hester.

On a crucial field-goal block by Ricky Jean-Francois, on a spectacular pick by Chevis Jackson.

On a fumble-forcing sack by Ali Highsmith.

They did it by getting to quarterback Todd Boeckman five times, by pressuring him into two vital interceptions, none more vital than the one by Jackson.

"I was running step for step with the receiver," Jackson said. "When I saw his eyes get bigger, I knew the ball was coming. So I turned around and there I was."

In the fourth quarter, it was Highsmith's turn to come up with a turnaround sack that stopped a Buckeye march.

"We were blitzing," he said, "and I was just trying to get him to throw the football. When he didn't throw it, I knocked it out of his hands. That was it."

It was the kind of evening that left the winning coach in a permanent state of mega-watt smiles.

"In a way," Miles said, "this was sort of like how this team has done it all year, by a bunch of guys stepping up and making the kind of plays you need to win. It was great to see how the guys settled down after that rough start. We were playing an excellent football team, and we managed to respond like champions do."

Miles felt the field goal block that came with the Buckeyes attempting to break a 10-10 tie was one of the biggest of the game.

For academic reasons, Jean-Francois did not become eligible until the SEC championship game against Tennessee on Dec. 1.

"The players stuck with me," he said. "Told me to keep my head up. Told me the sun was going to come up. I felt the block was real good for momentum."

Some of the finest momentum was furnished by Flynn's 19-of-27 night with 174 yards and four touchdowns.

"We grew a lot as a team this year," he said. "We turned into a stubborn team with no quit in us. We did a good job of not letting the things going on around us, the good and the bad, affect our play. When we got down early, we knew what we had to do."

As for the early moments, you can say this: Ohio State was playing like the home team and the home team was playing like it was suffering from a severe case of the jitters.

A minute and a half into the game, Chris Wells was slicing off tackle and taking off on a 65-yard touchdown gallop, longest of the season for the Buckeyes. He was hardly touched.

Early Doucet bobbled a short pass in the flat.

A bad snap from the shotgun formation sent Flynn in reverse, chasing the ball back to his 6-yard line.

A blown assignment in the secondary resulted in a wide-open Brandon Saine grabbing a 44-yard pass that set the table for a 25-yard field goal.

In less than six minutes, the Buckeyes had a 10-0 lead and all the Tigers had to show was a three-and-out.

That would change when the Tigers' offense suddenly came alive and Flynn moved the team 65 yards to a field goal, a push highlighted by a couple of throws to Doucet and a 20-yard burst up the middle by Hester.

It didn't end here.

Flynn was back, this time with an 84-yard march the quarterback kept alive with a 20-yard connection to Demetrius Byrd and closed with a strike down the middle to Richard Dickson that beat a Buckeye blitz. There was more to come.

Jean-Francois and Jackson saw to that.

After Jean-Francois went airborne to block a field goal, Flynn took the Tigers 55 yards, hitting passes inside and outside, finally nailing Brandon LaFell on a 10-yard beauty that came on third-and-5.

Three plays later, it was Jackson running stride-for-stride with Ray Small, turning and picking off a Boeckman rainbow at the LSU 42 and running it back to the Buckeye 24.

Five plays later, it was Hester nudging it in from the 1 and another third-down conversion.

The Tigers had a 24-10 lead.

The Tigers had converted on eight of their last nine third-down attempts.

The most penalized team in the SEC, one that averaged 10 a game, had played for 30 minutes with zero flags.

For 60 minutes, they would play well enough to win a national championship.

When he had dried out from a postgame soaking, when the confetti had stopped dropping, Miles had just a few simple sentences to sum things up.

"We're a deserving champion. We are no 'I' champion. We are a 'we' champion.

That's the best kind."