South Florda and Ohio will be facing off again on Saturday when the Buckeyes play the Hurricanes in Ohio Stadium.
What's wrong with this picture? Everything as far as Ohio fans are concerned and nothing as far as fans in South Florida can tell. The two fans bases harbor grudges against each other going into Saturday's game between Ohio State and Miami in Columbus. COLUMBUS, Ohio — Anyone get the idea that Saturday isn't going to be simple? From Jose Mesa to Terry Porter to The Decision, every athletic encounter between Ohio and South Florida in recent times has been angst-ridden, up to and including the high school game between Glenville and William T. Dwyer, 80 miles from Miami, four days ago.
Why should Ohio State-Miami be any different? And LeBron James ups the ulcer ante.
"Sore subjects need to pass," OSU football coach Jim Tressel said Thursday. "Things are as they are. We all make decisions. You have to respect one another's decisions and move on. Am I surprised it's discussed? No, because the guy is special."
Near the Miami campus, allCanes, a store specializing in Miami apparel, sells a T-shirt that reads "Ohio Stole the Crown in '02" on the front and "Miami Steals the King in 2010" on the back. An employee said in a phone interview Thursday that the shirt has been one of the store's highest sellers, with more than 300 sold so far.
So the free-agent signing of the summer, James leaving the Cavs for the Miami Heat, was just the latest blow in this regional dogfight. The feud had been on simmer since the Buckeyes' victory over the Hurricanes for the 2002 national title, when Ohio State's hopes were kept alive by a controversial late flag from official Terry Porter.
"I can report that the Heat only signed LeBron as payback for Ohio State stealing the national championship from UM," Miami Herald columnist Greg Cote joked. "If not for that terrible call, LeBron would still be in a Cavs uniform."
Radio hosts in Miami this week joked that the Miami players, who infamously stepped off a plane wearing fatigues when arriving for the 1987 Fiesta Bowl against Penn State, would land in Columbus wearing James Heat jerseys.
What's left for Cleveland sports fans? Saturday, when the No. 2 Buckeyes face the No. 12 Hurricanes for the first time since the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. With quotes from some Miami players strategically played around the Ohio State locker room this week, OSU center Mike Brewster said, "We do our talking between the white lines."
But between the lines has been as messy as outside the lines.
A pass interference call on this fourth-down play in the first overtime of the 2003 Fiesta Bowl allowed Ohio State to beat Miami in two overtimes and win the national championship. The call is a bitter subject with Hurricanes fans, who believe OSU stole the title. Miami fans apparently forget several non-calls that hurt Ohio State or that the Hurricanes had several chances to win the game before the controversial call. Edgar Renteria's game-winning single for the Florida Marlins against the Indians came off Charles Nagy in the 11th inning of Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. Ohio State's 31-24 win eight years ago came in double overtime. Glenville's 26-22 win over Dwyer in Ohio Stadium on Labor Day came only after Dwyer appeared to score the go-ahead touchdown twice in the final minutes, once on a pass, another on a final-play quarterback sneak. The game was part of the Kirk Herbstreit Kickoff Classic, and the former OSU quarterback and current ESPN analyst said he's sick to his stomach about the way the game played out.
Even the only basketball game between Ohio State and Miami in the past eight years, on Dec. 2, 2008, turned on the ejection of Miami's best player for slapping an OSU player in the face. The Buckeyes, down 12 at the time, went on to a 73-68 win.
James is the latest connection, and Saturday is the first chance for a major Ohio team to face a major Miami team since his move.
"We've all got a bitter taste in our mouths," Glenville football coach Ted Ginn Sr. said, believing the stakes had been raised.
James went to a Hurricanes basketball practice two weeks ago and scrimmaged with the team, and according to the Associated Press, was given an open invitation to stand on the sidelines for Hurricanes football games. So that does it -- the Buckeyes can take out some frustrations for Ohio sports fans this weekend.
Except that James' Twitter account has expressed his continued support for Ohio State, and he has stayed in contact with OSU quarterback Terrelle Pryor. James has indicated interest in coming Saturday, though an OSU spokesperson said the school hasn't received a request from James. If he's there, Tressel sounded like his team could deal with it.
"There are going to be a lot of distractions," Tressel said. "If we can't handle distractions, one more is not going to make a difference."
But could the Ohio State fans accept it? When Pryor asked fans Wednesday to treat James with respect if he shows -- "Please, no name-calling or booing or anything like that," Pryor said -- the public response was swift. Expect boos.
"LeBron can root for any team he wants to, but he ripped the whole state's heart out, not just Cleveland, so if I was him, I would not show up at the game," said Robbie McGowan, 43, who was born and raised in Cleveland but now lives in Virginia and was among those expressing pro-boo views on Twitter.
Maybe James will be in Ohio Stadium on Saturday or maybe he won't. Or maybe he'll be there in disguise. When the teams from Ohio and South Florida get between the white lines, expect . . . what could be next?