Buckeyes enjoy feast in desert

TEMPE, Ariz. – Troy Smith outplayed Brady Quinn and Jim Tressel outfoxed Charlie Weis.

Fourth-ranked Ohio State jumped on No. 5 Notre Dame with big play after big play Monday night in a 34-20 Fiesta romp, sending the Irish to their eighth consecutive bowl defeat.

“I been hearing a lot about how are you guys going to beat (Notre Dame) when you give Charlie Weis four weeks to prepare for it,” Buckeyes senior linebacker A.J. Hawk said. “That kind of upset me because I thought, ‘What about giving coach Tressel four weeks to prepare for you?’ “

So make it four straight bowl wins for the Buckeyes, three of them at the Fiesta in four years.

Suspended from last year’s Alamo Bowl for taking $500 from a booster, Smith earned a measure of redemption with an offensive MVP performance, hooking up on a pair of long touchdown passes.

Santonio Holmes set a Fiesta Bowl record with an 85-yard TD catch, then said he was forgoing his senior season to enter the NFL draft. Ted Ginn scored on a 68-yard end around and caught a 56-yard touchdown pass for the Buckeyes (10-2).

Darius Walker scored all three touchdowns for Notre Dame (9-3). The Irish fell to 13-14 overall in bowls, a disappointing end for Weis in his first year as their coach.

Smith completed 19 of 28 passes for a career-high 342 yards and ran for another 66 in 13 attempts.

“As you watched Troy throughout his career, every day in practice, he learns a little something and gets better, and he learns from every ball game,” Tressel said. “He’s very passionate about being a great quarterback.”

The junior from Cleveland capped his performance with a pair of third-and-long completions on the Buckeyes’ final scoring drive. Antonio Pittman, who rushed for 136 yards in 21 carries, broke free on a 60-yard touchdown run to secure the victory with 1:46 to play.

“First of all, I want to let you know that sitting out of last year’s bowl, I didn’t think about that as much as you probably think I did,” Smith said. “To me, this year’s seniors, this group of guys on the field, that’s what it was about. I don’t like taking a lot of credit for what goes on on the field because it takes 11 guys.”

Forget the stereotype of plodding, but powerful Ohio State; the Buckeyes won with sheer speed.

Ginn caught eight passes for 167 yards. He zigzagged into the end zone on his long run to help the Buckeyes take a 21-7 halftime lead.

Ohio State had a Fiesta Bowl-record 27 first downs. The Buckeyes’ 617 yards were third-most in the bowl’s 35-year history.

The intricate, efficient offense Weis brought with him from the New England Patriots sputtered early before the Irish mounted a comeback that cut the deficit to seven in the fourth quarter.

Hawk, Ohio State’s Lombardi Award-winning linebacker and the game’s defensive MVP, sacked his girl-friend’s brother, Quinn, twice. Hawk also ran down Quinn to stop an early fourth-quarter third-down play.

Quinn, a third-team All-American completed 29 of 45 passes for 286 yards but no touchdowns. Walker gained 90 yards in 16 attempts.

“There are two ways you can go after a loss,” Weis said. “One is you sit there and feel sorry for yourselves. The other is to take that bitter taste in your mouth and say I don’t want to have that taste a year from now.”