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Game Thread Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 20 (final)

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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left colSpan=2>9) Which coach would you rather having preparing a team for a big bowl game?

</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left width="10%">63.4%</TD><TD vAlign=top align=left>Charlie Weis
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left width="10%">36.6%</TD><TD vAlign=top align=left>Jim Tressel</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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??????
 
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The Buckeyes (9-2) will face Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 2 in a match-up that is sure to create almost as much buzz as the national title game between Southern Cal and Texas.
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I'm not saying this game is bigger than Texas/USC, but this game is ALL the "buzz" after the announcement. That will surely change as we get closer to the games, but we are off to a good start in the "buzz" category...

A great side benefit of this game is that every scUM fan on the planet is going to feel a little sick to their stomach as tOSU and ND hype machines crank up for a month. It's gotta suck to be them right now...:lol:
 
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I don't know if this AP article has been posted or not. If it has just ignore it. But I post it because I find a glaring error in it...and it pisses me off, because they are trying to bring down Ohio State's SOS.

Ohio State returns to Fiesta Bowl once again

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<!-- begin text11 div --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top><!-- begin leftcol --><!-- template inline -->COLUMBUS, Ohio -- For the third time in four years, Ohio State has a date in the desert.

The Buckeyes (9-2) accepted an invitation on Sunday to meet Notre Dame in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, also their bowl destination in the magical championship year of 2002 and again in 2003.

"The main thing about it is we're going to feel comfortable out there," safety Nate Salley said. "It's almost like our second home and that's an advantage for us."

The battle against the Fighting Irish (9-2) will take place at 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 2 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.

It's a dream matchup in many ways, pitting two teams on a roll who could easily have been playing in the national championship game had a play or two gone their way.

Ohio State has won its last six games, thanks to a defense led by linebacker A.J. Hawk and a versatile offense featuring quarterback Troy Smith and tailback Antonio Pittman.

Notre Dame is one of the biggest surprises in college football in Charlie Weis' first year as head coach, making a dramatic turnaround from last year's 6-5 record. The Fighting Irish came into this season 11-16 in their previous 27 games.

"He's done a tremendous job," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said of his Notre Dame counterpart. "Charlie and his staff have come in and taken them to the next level."

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith was on the Fiesta Bowl board when he was the AD at Arizona State. He said he was in steady contact with seven or eight people currently on the board to lobby for the Buckeyes.

"I'm a life member of the Fiesta Bowl board," Smith said. "Unfortunately for them -- or fortunately for me -- I had all their cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses and I was working them pretty hard last week."

This will be the fifth time the Fighting Irish and Buckeyes have met, the first time at a neutral site or in a bowl.

Notre Dame won the first two meetings, 18-13 in 1935 in what many historians have referred to as one of the greatest college games ever. The Fighting Irish also won a year later, 7-2.

After a 60-year gap, the teams met again in back-to-back years in 1995-96, with Ohio State taking both games, by scores of 45-26 and 29-16.

Smith, who graduated from Notre Dame in 1977 and played defensive end on the Fighting Irish's 1973 national championship team, said his allegiance has changed.

"I'm not a dues-paying member of the Notre Dame Alumni Association," he said.

Tressel said when he was growing up his two favorite Notre Dame players were quarterback Joe Theismann and Smith.

"I'll get a few brownie points here," Tressel said with a laugh.

The Fighting Irish and Buckeyes share many similarities. One of the biggest is that, although neither team beat any elite teams this season -- neither has a win over a team currently ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 -- both came close to perfection.

Notre Dame's only losses came to then-unbeaten Michigan State, 44-41 in overtime on Sept. 17, and to No. 1-ranked and two-time defending national champion USC, 34-31 on Oct. 15. The Trojans' Matt Leinart sneaked across -- Fighting Irish fans said he was pushed across by tailback Reggie Bush -- from a yard out on the game's final play.

Ohio State lost 25-22 to No. 2 Texas on Sept. 10 and then dropped a 17-10 decision at Penn State on Oct. 8. The Buckeyes ended up tying the Nittany Lions for the Big Ten title, but Penn State earned the conference's automatic BCS berth by virtue of winning the head-to-head battle and having a better overall record and BCS ranking.

The Fighting Irish are led by a quarterback who grew up not far from Ohio Stadium. Brady Quinn, expected to be among the top five in the Heisman Trophy balloting later this week, is from suburban Dublin. The 6-foot-4 junior has completed 65 percent of his passes this season for 32 touchdowns with only 7 interceptions.

"Brady was a great high school quarterback and we were very interested in him coming here," Tressel said. "He's done a great job. He took the opportunities at Notre Dame and has grown with them."

The Irish have lost seven straight bowl games.

"That's something that obviously needs to end," Quinn said. "It's been going on far too long."

For weeks -- ever since the Buckeyes ended their regular season with a last-minute, 25-21 victory over rival Michigan on Nov. 19 -- there had been speculation that Ohio State might end up paired with the Fighting Irish. The losses Saturday night by LSU and Virginia Tech, two of the teams ahead of the Buckeyes in the Bowl Championship Series standings, put the final stamp on the matchup.

Ohio State and Notre Dame both ended up as automatic BCS game qualifiers.

Richelle Simonson, Ohio State's athletic ticket director, said the Fiesta Bowl had allotted 16,000 tickets to each of the participating universities.

"We anticipate tremendous demand," she said.

A lottery will be used for students and for faculty and staff. Ohio State will not offer any tickets for public sale.

The Fiesta Bowl conjures up sweet memories for Ohio State and its fans. The Buckeyes' 31-24 double-overtime victory over top-ranked Miami in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl gave them their first national championship in 34 years.

They came back to the Fiesta Bowl the very next year and beat Kansas State 35-28 to cap an 11-2 season.

This will be the Buckeyes' 37th bowl game and fourth trip to the Fiesta. They have won their last three bowl games after losing nine of 12.

The Buckeyes will meet on Thursday to begin preparations, will be off from Dec. 21 through Christmas Day, and then will depart Dec. 26 for the game.



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So I guess #20 Michigan and #25 Iowa were just practice games? Notre Dame beat Michigan as well.
So we beat 2 top 25 teams and they beat 1. We also beat quite a few more teams that WERE in the top 25 until we knocked them out.
Granted we didn't beat any Top 10 teams...but when your worst loss comes to the #3 team in the country...there's a lot to be said? Who did Notre Dame's worse loss come to?
 
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JonathanXC said:
I don't know if this AP article has been posted or not. If it has just ignore it. But I post it because I find a glaring error in it...and it pisses me off, because they are trying to bring down Ohio State's SOS.




So I guess #20 Michigan and #25 Iowa were just practice games? Notre Dame beat Michigan as well.
So we beat 2 top 25 teams and they beat 1. We also beat quite a few more teams that WERE in the top 25 until we knocked them out.
Granted we didn't beat any Top 10 teams...but when your worse loss comes to the #3 team in the country...there's a lot to be said? Who did Notre Dame's worse loss come to?
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I think you mean worst not worse. We played the toughest schedule in the nation in my book.
 
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BuckeyeKid789 said:
I think you mean worst not worse. We played the toughest schedule in the nation in my book.
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No doubt. The only team that may have played a tougher schedule up to now might be Michigan...but that's just because they had to play us...while our schedule is brought down by playing then, lol.
 
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Fiutak of CollegeFootballNews rates the Fiesta Bowl as the second best bowl of the season (behind the Rose, of course)...

2. [FONT=verdana, arial,
sans serif][SIZE=-1]Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Jan. 2, 4:30 pm ET ABC … Notre Dame vs. Ohio State[FONT=verdana, arial,
sans serif]
[/FONT]Notre Dame vs. Arkansas State would probably get the highest TV ratings outside of the Rose Bowl, much less a showdown with the Buckeyes. The Irish offense gets its toughest test all year, while Ohio State’s offense will see if it can hang punch-for-punch with the Irish passing game. Yeah, the Buckeyes should have way too much on both sides of the ball for the Irish, but it’s Ohio State vs. Notre Dame. You have to watch.
Stars of the show: 1) Brady Quinn, QB Notre Dame, 2) A.J. Hawk, LB Ohio State, 3) Jeff Samardzija, WR Notre Dame
The knee jerk, off-the-cuff, initial prediction: Ohio State 38 … Notre Dame 20[/SIZE][/FONT]
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And here are Zemek's initial thoughts on the game...

Fiesta: Notre Dame-Ohio State

Being the quarterback of a good Notre Dame team, Brady Quinn will get most of the publicity and buzz heading into this game. But as in each game the Buckeyes play, it's Troy Smith who will be the first, second, third, fourth and fifth key to this game. If Troy Boy brings his A-game, the Irish can forget about being competitive. But if Smith turns the ball over a few times--as he's prone to do--Notre Dame will maximize momentum and take this game right down to the wire. If fans in Auburn, Eugene and elsewhere want to be happy on the night of Jan. 2, they'll want to become members of the Troy Smith Fan Club.
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I couldn't agree more that if Troy comes to play, ND can forget about this game being close...even my ND friends like Acexline on BP have conceded that.
 
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JonathanXC said:
I don't know if this AP article has been posted or not. If it has just ignore it. But I post it because I find a glaring error in it...and it pisses me off, because they are trying to bring down Ohio State's SOS.

So I guess #20 Michigan and #25 Iowa were just practice games? Notre Dame beat Michigan as well.
So we beat 2 top 25 teams and they beat 1. We also beat quite a few more teams that WERE in the top 25 until we knocked them out.
Granted we didn't beat any Top 10 teams...but when your worst loss comes to the #3 team in the country...there's a lot to be said? Who did Notre Dame's worse loss come to?
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Good call. Not to mention the fact that we beat Minny and Northwestern, who are ranked just outside the top 25 in the Coaches' Poll. Who else did ND beat? Oh yeah, only Navy and BYU that had winning records. Are those two teams ranked anywhere near the top 25?

On a related point, I thought it was ridiculous that ESPN (on their 6pm bowl preview show last night) put up a graphic that had the number of top 25 teams that we beat and that Oregon beat. For us, they had 2, and for Oregon they had 1. I don't know what polls they're looking at, but in none of the major ones (AP, Coaches, BCS) are ANY of the teams Oregon beat actually ranked. Just another BS example of the media trying to bring us down to ND's and Oregon's level.
 
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I'm still in shock that this game came to pass. Too many things seemed against it; two teams from the same region, the need for two teams to loose their playoff games, the fact that Notre Dame was assurred a spot ahead of several teams with the same record and ranked ahead of them, the thought that Notre Dame didn't need to play us/or Auburn/or Georgia, the fact that Oregon was 10 -1.

Politics makes strange bedfellows and this game seems to prove it.

But now that it's here I believe we're in great shape, especially if Carpenter can play. Quinn's passing has been impressive, but we've faced up against passers as good or better in Vince Young, Stanton, Banasez and Robinson. I don't think Quinn's faced another defense as good as ours, not in Michigan State, Tennessee, Washington or even USC. I don't think that Notre Dame can run on us if Texas, Penn State, Michigan and Minnesota couldn't.

I feel like it could get ugly early unless our special teams have another Michigan, in which case we could loose to Notre Dame just as we almost lost to Michigan and Michigan State despite being the obvious better team.
 
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BuckeyeKid789 said:
You gotta' be shittin' me. http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/polling?incomming=1&event_id=1864&question13634=55675&question13635=55676&question13636=55687&question13637=55695&question13638=55702&question13639=55703&question13640=55707&question13641=55709&question13642=55710&question13643=55713
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Of course the results look like that. People that vote on those are not always Ohio State or ND fans of course and all of us buckeyes get a bad rep in being terrible fans and no one likes our team. It doesn't matter what those things say. As surprised as I was by the results, I still could care less. But damn, if they think that Weis is that much better of a coach than Tressel (62.4% Weis, 37.6 % Tressel), then I think they are freakin crazy. They are both very good coaches, and I cannot believe the numbers are that off.
 
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