NEW ORLEANS - Prime time. Monday night football. Who would have thought that the Fox presentation of last night's Bowl Championship Series title game would be a rerun of last year's?
But in a season when the unusual was usual, the meeting between No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 2 LSU was anything but original programming. The story line was straight from last year's game, in which Florida, a Southeastern Conference power, took a big halftime lead over Ohio State and coasted to the championship.
The setting was Louisiana instead of Arizona, and the SEC team was LSU instead of Florida, but unfortunately for the Buckeyes, the result was painfully similar. LSU (12-2) took a 24-10 halftime lead and then eased its way to a 38-24 victory that was decisive, if not as one-sided as Florida's.
The Tigers also made history by becoming the first team with two losses to win the BCS national championship and the first team to win two BCS titles.
It was the Tigers' second national championship in four years and third overall.
Speculation about a possible split title - with another two-loss team such as Southern California possibly getting the nod in the final Associated Press poll - was settled a few hours after the game when the Tigers got 60 of 65 first-place votes to finish No. 1 in the AP's eyes as well.
The Tigers entered the game ranked No. 2 but were slight favorites over the top-ranked Buckeyes. They showed why as quarterback Matt Flynn, in his last college game, threw four touchdown passes in a signature effort that earned him the Most Outstanding Offensive Player award.
It was all much to the delight to the majority of the record Superdome crowd of 79,651, many of whom serenaded the Buckeyes with chants of "SEC, SEC" as the clock ticked off its final seconds.
"We just prepared well and we just executed," said Flynn, who completed 19 of 27 passes for 174 yards. "We had a lot of time."
LSU coach Les Miles, who guided the Tigers through a choppy season in which they seemed to underachieve as many times as they played up to their talent level, was delighted.
"A great group of young men, a group of young men who found a way to overcome, whether it's injury or a devastating loss," said Miles. "I couldn't be more proud of this team. I'm so fortunate to be the coach."
But Ohio State (11-2), again a bridesmaid, was left to come up with a "what went wrong?" explanation.
"It always comes down to execution," said defensive end Vernon Gholston. "We didn't do that."
Ohio State running back Chris Wells gave the Buckeyes early hope with a 65-yard TD run two minutes into the game, but he could only shake his head afterward.
"To get to the national championship game twice and not win, that's just incredible," said Wells, who rushed for a game-high 146 yards.
"We played hard, LSU played hard," said Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, who most likely will have a Top 5 team in preseason next year. "We got off to that lead and they fought back, and we knew they would. We didn't do the things we like to think we could do."'
There was a theory that Ohio State, though ranked No. 1, was too slow for a speed team in a speed-dominated league such as the SEC. But that didn't seem to be the case when the Buckeyes came out of the gate with a pair of offensive bursts that gave them an early edge.
On the first offensive series, Wells turned a simple off-tackle play into the 65-yard touchdown. On the next series, the Buckeyes got a 25-yard field goal from Ryan Pretorius. The game was less than six minutes old and the Buckeyes had a 10-point lead.
But the Tigers lived on the edge of disaster all season, with a pair of triple-overtime losses as well as come-from-behind wins against Florida, Auburn, and Alabama.
"We had to keep playing," said Flynn. "We knew they were going to come out with a big surge. We knew we had had to stay in there and keep playing our game."
Playing in the friendly confines of the Superdome, just 80 miles from campus, LSU got into the rhythm of the game with a scoring march of its own late in the first quarter that ended with a 32-yard field goal by Colt David to cut it to 10-3. It was game on for both teams.
Shaking off the rust of a five-week layoff since the SEC championship game, the Tigers showed both speed and skill two minutes into the second quarter when Flynn ended a seven-play, 84-scoring drive with a 13-yard TD pass to tight end Richard Dickson to tie the game at 10-10.
LSU was giving the Buckeyes a clear view of its speed - and it was from behind, as Flynn ended a 66-yard scoring drive with a 10-yard pass to wide receiver Brandon LaFell, which gave the Tigers a 17-10 lead with 7:25 remaining in the half.
The Tigers had put together a scoring burst similar to the one Florida did against Ohio State in last year's title game. And when cornerback Chevis Jackson picked off a Todd Boeckman pass on the next series and returned it to the Buckeye 24, Ohio State was in deep trouble.
The Tigers quickly turned that into another TD, as Jacob Hester bulled his way in from a yard out for a 24-10 lead that LSU took into the locker room at halftime with a sense of confidence.
The Tigers picked up the pace in the second half when they moved 80 yards in 14 plays on the opening drive. Flynn threw his third TD pass, a 4-yard rollout to Early Doucet, for a 31-10 lead.
The story was as familiar and painful to the Buckeyes and their fans as it was enjoyable for the Tigers and their fans.
It seemed that only Tiger mistakes could make this one close, and Ohio State got one. An interception of a Flynn pass by cornerback Malcolm Jenkins led to a touchdown - the Buckeyes' first since the first quarter. Boeckman converted the turnover into a 5-yard TD pass to Brian Robiskie, which cut the margin to 31-17.
But Ohio State needed much more help, and the Tigers didn't provide it. The Buckeyes' season again ended with a whimper against a quicker and better SEC team.
