Columnist Dean Juipe: Miami, OSU on path to showdown

Dean Juipe

Monday, Nov. 11, 2002 | 10:14 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Halved, and halved again. From 8 to 4 to 2.

A picture that was once blurred has come into focus.

That's what has happened in college football over the past three weeks, as what was once eight unbeaten teams was trimmed to four and then trimmed again this past Saturday when both Oklahoma and Bowling Green dropped from the ranks of the unbeaten.

Left standing and likely to remain there until a Fiesta Bowl showdown: Miami and Ohio State.

Of course nothing is certain. But a Miami vs. OSU scenario makes for a perfect fit and reduces the argument concerning the national championship to the outcome of a single game in early January.

It's all so neat and tidy. At best, one team -- and only one team -- will go the season undefeated.

I'm hoping it's Miami, which is a turnabout in that for many years I was among the many who despised the Hurricanes. It wasn't just a perception thing: They not only seemed surly and degenerative, they were.

Their image today, however, reflects a program that has corrected its faults and retools on an annual basis. Did you know Miami went into this season with only 10 returning starters and had to plug the gaps of having lost a record 11 players to the 2002 NFL draft?

Those losses, plus the lingering effects of having lost 31 scholarships over a four-year period in the mid '90s as part of a probation settlement, could and would have devastated most teams. Yet Miami is 9-0 and has rightfully been returned to the top of the polls after a brief absence brought on by the voters' temporary infatuation with Oklahoma.

Miami has all but forgotten what it's like to lose and is riding a 31-game winning streak, which is the seventh longest in the history of major college football.

Head coach Larry Coker has won his first 21 games and quarterback Ken Dorsey -- who, barring something completely unforeseen, will get my Heisman Trophy vote -- is an incredible 35-1 as a starter.

Dorsey may or may not be a great quarterback by the usual standards, but he doesn't make many errors. Saturday, for instance, in a pivotal 26-3 win at Tennessee, he was flawless, passing for 254 yards and quieting a crowd in excess of 107,000 as Miami eliminated one of its remaining challenges.

The Hurricanes have this week off and close with Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Virginia Tech -- which is still no easy march, as Virginia Tech harbored its own national-title dreams until a couple of weeks ago and Syracuse has to be taken more seriously after adding to the Hokies' grief with an upset win of its own.

Getting 11-0 Ohio State through its final two games unscathed to set up the ideal Fiesta Bowl shouldn't be too tough: Illinois, up next, is only 4-6 and the closer with Michigan appears less grueling than usual as the Wolverines are both badly coached and quarterbacked.

Taking nothing for granted, Ohio State vs. Miami should satisfy fans everywhere and take the pressure off the perpetually beleaguered and misunderstood Bowl Championship Series computers.

A season that once looked to be a mess will have straightened itself out with a minimum of bickering.