Flynn throws four TDs, leads LSU to national title

NEW ORLEANS, Louisana: No 2-ranked Louisiana State University danced, dodged and darted its way into the end zone and dispatched top-ranked Ohio State 38-24 in the US college football championship game on Monday.

It was over early, with Matt Flynn throwing four touchdown passes and giving Ohio State a horrible replay.

Playing at their home-away-from-home in the Superdome, the LSU Tigers were the first two-loss team to play for the title and won their second Bowl Championship Series crown in five seasons. They are the first university to win a second title since BCS rankings began with the 1998 season.

"My team is the No 1 team in the land," said All-American defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, who passed up the NFL draft to stay at LSU.

And in a season of surprises, this was hardly an upset: Ohio State once again fell apart in college football's biggest game. A year after the Buckeyes were routed by Florida 41-14, they barely did better.

"We just didn't do the things you need to do to win a ballgame of this nature. We're very aware that LSU's a deserving champion," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said.

Jacob Hester bulled for a short touchdown, Early Doucet wiggled loose for a touchdown and Dorsey led a unit that outplayed the top-ranked defense in the US Ohio State had little to celebrate after Chris "Beanie" Wells broke loose for a 65-yard touchdown run on the fourth play of the game.

Yet while LSU got to hoist the crystal trophy, certainly many fans around the country were peering into their crystal balls, wondering if someone else was worthy of the title. Southern California, Georgia, West Virginia, Kansas and Missouri all put on impressive shows in bowl games, and will be among the favorites in 2008.

The Tigers rallied from an early 10-0 deficit, taking a 24-10 lead that held up. Two big plays on special teams kept them ahead - they blocked a field goal, and later took advantage of a roughing-the-kicker penalty.

Flynn hit Doucet with a 4-yard toss with 9:04 left for a 31-10 lead and celebration was on in earnest. The Buckeyes made the score more respectable on Todd Boeckman's 5-yard TD pass on fourth down to Brian Robiskie, only to have Flynn come back and throw his second TD pass to Richard Dickson.

Ohio State, trying to add to its BCS title from 2002, was perhaps the most-maligned No. 1 team in recent memory. Critics attacked the Buckeyes all season and Tressel gave his players a 10-minute DVD filled with insults hurled at them by television and radio announcers, hoping it would motivate his team.

Instead, LSU ravaged the nation's best defense and showed that maybe all those naysayers were right.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/09/2008 page24)