Game Week begins today….finally! There’s six days until Ohio State begins the 2009 season, and there is nobody that deserves the #6 honor more than Cie Grant.
We know you can hardly see Grant (get it…. “see Grant”??) in this photo, but if you’re a Buckeye fan, you know damn well that it’s him bringing down Ken Dorsey in this photo.
The final play of the 2003 Fiesta Bowl gave Ohio State the National Championship, and it came to us the only way we knew how…in heart-stopping fashion.
I don’t have to describe the details of the game to fans on this site – you’ve seen it many times probably, but that last play is worth one more look.
On 4th-and-goal at the 1 yard line, Ohio State leads Miami 31-24 in double OT and needs one final stop of the high-powered Miami offense. QB Ken Dorsey had two receivers wide right, and a third wide left, not to mention the dangerous Kellen Winslow Jr at tight end. There was little doubt that it would be a pass play, and it needed to be shut down fast.
Grant lined up to the right side of the Miami offensive line and drifted slowly to the exterior edge of the line just as the ball was snapped. When the ball reached Dorsey’s hands in the shotgun, he barely had time to react. Grant was chasing him within a second, and Grant grabbed him by the left shoulder pad. Dorsey had no choice but to heave the ball into the end zone, where it fell harmlessly at the feet of Donnie Nickey. Celebration time!
Let’s watch it again…..and again, and again!
Two weeks later, Grant gave us another beautiful moment, only this time we didn’t know he had the talent! At the official celebration at Ohio Stadium on a cold day, Grant stepped to the microphone and delivered the best version of “Carmen, Ohio” I have ever heard. This one requires much less of a description, just enjoy;
Cie Grant, today we honor you….thank you!
6 days left!!!!
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