Ohio State vs Miami

Click HERE to watch si.com's q and a with Jim Tressel




Brian Rolle is Buckeyes' man in the middle
Most coaches would take one look at Brian Rolle and think strong safety or running back.
A 5-foot-11, 218-pound middle linebacker? Maybe in the Sun Belt, but never at Ohio State, a program rich in linebacker tradition that can hand pick the players to put in the center of its defense.
This is the team that produced Chris Spielman, Andy Katzenmoyer, James Laurinaitis and other prototype middle linebackers. Why would the Buckeyes settle for less?
"I suppose if you plug him into the computer, Brian Rolle doesn't fit," Buckeyes head coach Jim Tressel said. "But he sure can play football."
Rolle's résumé speaks for itself. After two seasons as a special-teams standout, Rolle stepped into a starting role in 2009 and recorded 94 tackles, seven for loss, with an interception, a fumble recovery and a rare defensive PAT after picking off a pass on a two-point conversion attempt and racing 98 yards to the end zone.
He opened his senior season with a bang Thursday night, recording his first career pick-six, a 30-yard interception return to the end zone in a 45-7 rout of Marshall.
Rolle might lack ideal middle-linebacker size, but he has all the other tools to excel at the position.
Let's start with his voice, which can be heard just about any time on the practice field or during a game.
"Most people think I'm talkative, but it's just if I have something to say to somebody, I'll say it," said Rolle, one of six co-captains for the Buckeyes this fall. "I’m the quarterback of the defense, so I feel like I'm obligated to make all the calls and tell guys where they need to be and where they line up.
'There's more weight on my shoulders to do things right, and as a senior, I know I'm going to have guys looking up to me even more."
Rolle's loquacious personality stands in stark contrast to the man flanking him on most plays. Ohio State standout outside linebacker Ross Homan is more of a silent assassin, and Rolle jokes that those who don't know Homan well "would think he was a mute or something."
Added Rolle: "The only thing I really hear him say during the game is, 'B-Rolle, what's the call?'"
Despite their differences, Rolle and Homan mesh well together. Both were preseason All-Big Ten selections by most media outlets.
And after playing behind Laurinaitis and Marcus Freeman for several years, Rolle and Homan have a vision for their own legacy.
"We saw how great James and Marcus worked together," Rolle said. "I was thinking, me and Ross, if we continue to do what we're doing and we go in with our heads on right and lead like seniors are supposed to, in the years to come, the coaches will be able to talk to the young guys about how great we were our senior year in leading this team hopefully to a national championship."
The next step toward that goal arrives Saturday, as No. 2 Ohio State hosts No. 12 Miami (ESPN, 3:40 p.m. ET).
For Rolle, this one's "personal."
He grew up in Immokalee, Fla., a football hotbed in South Florida. His cousin Antrel Rolle was an All-American cornerback for Miami who played in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State.
Needless to say, Brian Rolle was all about the U.
"Growing up, that was the only thing that mattered in college football," he said. "Being from South Florida, you either were a Gator fan or a Cane fan, and I was a Cane fan. Miami was my first love."
As Rolle moved up through the high school ranks, he pictured himself wearing a Miami jersey.
"There was no doubt in my mind," he said. "My sophomore to senior year, I just knew I was going to play at Miami. But I didn't get that offer I wanted."
Miami went through a coaching transition during Rolle's senior year. Despite numerous overtures to the program, Rolle never got a chance to be a Cane.
"I took a lot of unofficial visits there, went up to a bunch of games, talked to a bunch of coaches," he said. "In the end, I was sad about it, but now I'm at Ohio State, it's my senior season, and I feel blessed to be here now."
The Buckeyes feel blessed to have Rolle directing their defense -- all 5-11, 218 pounds of him.
"Brian is unique," Tressel said. "He's probably not as big as some of the guys we've had, but he's got tremendous instincts and fabulous leadership skills. He's an excellent tackler, he plays the pass very well, loves the game, loves to prepare for the game.
"Glad he's on our side."




Revenge, respect on the line for Miami
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- There are no echoes from the past here, not when the past shows up every day in the offseason begging for revenge.
Every former Miami player who walked through the campus this summer had a simple message for the current torchbearers: They have to beat Ohio State. For them. For a championship lost. For a controversial call that ended up altering the direction of the program.
Believe it or not, the rematch of the 2003 Fiesta Bowl this Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, provides the perfect beginning for the reawakening of the Hurricanes' program. Miami has not been close to a national title since that devastating loss in overtime, which was marked by a controversial pass interference call in the end zone.
Instead, the Hurricanes went on a downward spiral, costing coach Larry Coker his job and Miami its coveted spot among the elite. But a 5-1 start last season provided glimmers of the Miami that once was. Now this one begins with expectations higher than they have been in seven years.
Winning at Ohio State might not provide closure for what happened in Arizona, but it would be the most definitive declaration yet that the program is ready to make a return to the spotlight.
"To me, it's more about them winning a big game to put themselves back in an elite status," said Ken Dorsey, the quarterback on that 2002 Miami team. "All of us want to see Miami win this game, but even more so we want to see Miami back in the national title hunt. This is potentially a starting point for that more than anything."
Dorsey never used the word revenge, but many former Hurricanes did when they worked out with current players. Cornerback Brandon Harris said Jonathan Vilma, Andre Johnson and Ed Reed all spoke about the importance of winning this game.
"A lot of them, they're going to live their dreams through us this week," Harris said. "They realize they can't go out there and play them again, but we have the opportunity to take them down."
When asked for the theme of the week, defensive lineman Olivier Vernon bluntly said, "Revenge time. Nobody's forgotten about that. I feel like I was playing that game. Everybody -- the fans, the coaches, I can sense it. All the players, we want to get that game back."
There is no getting that game back, of course, no taking back the pass interference call on Glenn Sharpe, no taking back all the time spent lamenting a lost sixth championship. Dorsey says the only time he thinks about the game is when he is asked about what happened.
That is not the case with so many others who played, and coached, in that game. "You don't get over those as a coach," recalled Coker, now putting together a team at UT-San Antonio to begin play in 2011. "You remember more the bad times than the good times. We won a lot of games at Miami and won the national championship, but that one stands out more than the others."
The next season, Miami went 11-2 and beat Florida State in the Orange Bowl. That was the last time the Hurricanes made it into a BCS bowl game. Recruiting started to slip, and so did discipline and accountability. Coker tried to shake up his coaching staff, firing several longtime assistants after the worst bowl loss in school history -- a 40-3 defeat at the hands of LSU in the 2005 Peach Bowl.
Things got uglier in 2006. A benches-clearing brawl against Florida International marred an unacceptable 7-6 season. Coker was fired.
When asked whether the loss to Ohio State had any impact on the direction of the program, Coker said, "I don't think that game had a lot to do with that. Not many teams ever win two national championships back-to-back."
Randy Shannon was hired in 2007 to restore the once-proud Miami tradition, but the winning takes time. Miami went 5-7 in his first season, its first losing record in 10 years. But the 2007 Hurricanes had a full complement of players. The team that went 5-6 in 1997 was reeling from the effects of probation and the loss of 31 scholarships.
Still, Shannon was putting together recruiting classes that would be the envy of many across the country. He saw much of that talent begin to emerge in 2009, when Miami handled a brutal start to the season against four straight ranked teams beautifully. The Hurricanes jumped all the way to No. 8 in the rankings before sliding back down, with inexperience and mistakes taking a toll.
So Miami fans wait, and the players wait, for their return to glory. Anybody will tell you the downfall of a program happens more swiftly than the climb back up. Where national championship appearances were once routine, Miami is waiting on its first 10-win season since 2003.
Shannon has tried to downplay the magnitude of the Ohio State matchup, using the old cliché that it is just another game and what happened at the Fiesta Bowl is in the past. Quarterback Jacory Harris tried to follow his coach's lead, using the same clichés.
But there is a deep meaning to this game, beyond revenge. There is a sense this is the time to prove Miami really, truly is back.
"When we win -- I don't want to say if -- we're going to set the standard for the younger guys," running back Damien Berry said.




No. 2 Ohio State vs No. 12 Miami (FL)
COLUMBUS, OH
Sept. 11, 3:40 PM ET

Miami and Ohio State meet for the first time since their controversial 2003 Fiesta Bowl. The winner of this year's game can take a step forward in returning to Arizona for a chance at a title. Jacory Harris and Terrelle Pryor both got off to good starts in Week 1 as the Canes and Buckeyes rolled. This is the first meeting in Columbus since 1977.