Former Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey remembers his not-so-welcome reception as a member of the Cleveland Browns.
View full sizeKen Dorsey finished his college career on his back courtesy of Ohio State. The man who was at the helm for Miami when the Buckeyes won the national title in 2003 spent most of his three-year career with the Browns in a similar fashion.Dorsey, a seventh-round pick by the San Francisco 49ers, had been traded to the Browns in exchange for Trent Dilfer.
It was Day One of 2006 training camp, and the stomach of the former University of Miami quarterback great churned with excitement as he ran onto the practice field for the first time.Little did he know.
``I was booed,'' said Dorsey, 29, now a Canadian Football League backup who said he would return to UM ``in a heartbeat'' should a coaching opportunity ever present itself. ``Those people in Ohio really love to bring that game up. After that, I was like, `Thank God you guys won. I don't know what would have happened if we had won and I had run out there.' ''
In 2008, his final year with the Browns, Dorsey had seven picks and zero touchdowns. He started three games that year and finished with a quarterback rating of 26.4. Clearly, he and Ohio football were not meant to be.
Irony awaits
Jacory Harris, the Hurricanes quarterback, hit 12 of 15 passes for 210 yards and three touchdowns in just one half as Miami routed Florida A&M, 45-0, in its season opener last weekend.
According to the Miami Herald's blog, that gives him 39 career TD passes, which puts him in eighth place on the school's all-time list. One more pass will tie him for seventh with another legendary Miami quarterback:
Browns quarterback and Cleveland favorite son Bernie Kosar.
Memories
Jack Park, an Ohio State football historian, is writing a weekly blog about the Buckeyes for the Columbus Dispatch this season called "Jack Looks Back." This week's entry, fittingly enough, takes a gander at the Bucks' 2003 Fiesta Bowl win over Miami to claim the national title.
Ohio State's 31-24 victory over Miami in double-overtime in the Fiesta Bowl to capture the 2002
national title is a solid choice for the Buckeyes' greatest victory. John Cooper, who was in his
second year of retirement in 2002, had three distinct connections with the game:
1. While head coach at Tulsa, Cooper gave Miami head coach Larry Coker the
opportunity to move from high-school coaching to the college level with an assistant-coaching
position in 1979. Coker had been head coach at Claremore High School in Oklahoma and often has said
that without Cooper's offer he might never have been able to coach at the college level. Coker also
was an assistant to Cooper at Ohio State in 1993 and '94.
2. The 2002 season was just Jim Tressel's second year as Ohio State's head coach,
and many of those Buckeyes players had been recruited by Cooper.
3. The game was played in Sun Devil Stadium on the Arizona State campus, where in
1986 Cooper was named college football's Coach of the Year after leading the Sun Devils to a 10-1-1
record, including a 22-15 Rose Bowl victory over Michigan.
A good grade for Pryor
Terrelle Pryor did what he was supposed to do against Marshall, opined John Kampf, a News-Herald sportswriter who covers the Buckeyes for the Journal Register News Service, was impressed by the Ohio State quarterback.
In the News-Herald's Writers Round Table, Kampf talks about the success Pryor had in the Bucks' 45-7 win.
I think it's a sign of things to come. He went 17-for-25 for
247 yards and three TDs against Marshall, which granted can't be
mistaken for the Miami Hurricanes. But he made every throw he was
supposed to make, went through his progressions and put the ball right
on the money in hitting receivers in stride or throwing to a position
before the receiver even made his break in that direction. We'll know
more next week against a better and faster Miami defense, which I think
is going to have to come after Pryor, which in turn could and should
open more running lanes for him to take off. I expect him to have a big
game against the Hurricanes, both through the air and on the ground.
From The Plain Dealer
Columnist Bill Livingston also takes a look back at that 2003 Fiesta Bowl win by the Buckeyes. Livy's analysis of what he dubbed "The Greatest Game Ever" breaks down some of the key plays, like the pass interference call on Glenn Sharpe against the Buckeyes' Chris Gamble, Maurice Clarett stripping the ball from Miami's Sean Taylor, who had intercepted a Craig Krenzel pass in the end zone, and more.
Livy's story is the subject of today's poll, in which we're asking what Buckeye fans feel was the most critical play of the game.
These are different teams, with different players, obviously, but when No. 13 Miami steps onto the field this Saturday at the Horseshoe against the No. 2 Buckeyes, those memories will remain.
And we're betting coach Jim Tressel will use them to motivate his charges for another win over the 'Canes.