GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Auburn running back Michael Dyer never heard any whistle, so he just kept running
— past the tackler who thought he had him down and deep into Oregon territory.
Dyer broke stride, then took off on a once-in-a-lifetime run in the final minutes, setting up a short
field goal on the last play that led No. 1 Auburn over the No. 2 Ducks 22-19 in the BCS championship
game Monday night.
The freshman running back upstaged Auburn’s Heisman-winning quarterback Cam Newton with a 37-yard run, in
which he appeared down but wasn’t — his knee never hit the ground — as he rolled over defender Eddie
Pleasant to put the Tigers in scoring position.
Three plays later, Dyer ran 16 yards to push the ball to the 1 and set up Wes Byrum’s 19-yard field goal
with no time left. It was his sixth career game-winning field goal — the one that capped off a perfect,
14-0 season, brought the title back to Auburn for the first time since 1957 and left the Southeastern
Conference on top for the fifth straight year.
"Fifty-three years, baby!" coach Gene Chizik said to the cheering crowd. "This is for you.
War Eagle!"
Dyer was the star of a classic sequence that closed out a wild finish — five crazy minutes of football
that made up for the first 55, which were more of a bruising battle than the offensive masterpiece
everyone had predicted.
The craziness began when Casey Matthews, son of the 1980s NFL linebacker Clay, knocked the ball from
Newton’s hands while he was trying to ice a 19-11 lead.
Oregon’s offense, shut down by Nick Fairley & Co. for most of the night, moved 45 yards over the
next 2:17 and Darron Thomas threw a shovel pass to LaMichael James for a touchdown. Thomas hit Jeff
Maehl for the tying 2-point conversion with 2:33 left and the game was down to the last possession.
And that possession will be remembered for one incredible play.
Dyer, who chose jersey No. 5 because that’s how old his brother was when their father died in a car
accident, took the handoff from Newton and ran off right tackle for what looked like a 6- or 7-yard
gain. Nothing routine about this one, though. He never heard a whistle, wasn’t sure his knee hit the
ground, so, urged by his coaches on the sideline, he popped up and kept going. Almost everyone on the
field had stopped playing, but the referee never blew the play dead. Dyer made it to the Oregon 23. An
official’s review ensued and the replay showed that, indeed, his knee had never touched the turf.
"I was going out there, trying to make a play. I just kept my feet moving," he said.
In a statement released after the game, Big Ten referee Bill LeMonnier said he was confident of the call:
"The ruling on the field was there was nothing other than the foot that touched the ground,"
he explained.
The freshman finished with 143 yards and was chosen Offensive Player of the Game — no small feat
considering he had Newton playing well on the same offense.
Newton threw for 265 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 64 yards, most in short, punishing bites. He
wrenched his back and had to go to the trainer after the game. All in a night’s work: "I’m OK. It
was worth it," he said.
It was a good performance, but not spectacular — par for the course in a game that was projected as a
possible 60-55 shootout by South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier and a 74-point touchdown-fest by the
oddsmakers who set the over-under.
Wearing white jerseys with gray numbers, green pants and DayGlo shoes and socks, the Ducks got only 49
yards rushing from James. An offense that had been held under 37 points only once all year managed just
the two touchdowns. The last one came on a simple shovel pass from Thomas, who finished with 363 yards
passing — 81 of which came on a long pass to Maehl that set up the first touchdown.
Oregon didn’t come close to its nation-leading 49-point average and the fast-paced offense that turned
most opponents into mush in the second half couldn’t wear down Auburn.
"When it comes down to a field goal at the last second, you can always point to play here, a play
there, but it really doesn’t do much for you," Oregon coach Chip Kelly said. "We’re a
forward-thinking operation, and we’ll learn from this thing and move forward."
Fairley, Auburn’s 298-pound defensive tackle, had the Ducks moving backward much of the night. He lived
up to his reputation as a game-changer for better, with three tackles for loss, including a sack — and
for worse, when he got a 15-yard penalty for shoving James’ face into the turf after the whistle.
Newton was a game-changer, as always, keeping Auburn ahead through most of this tight game, the final
outing in a season shadowed by an NCAA investigation into his failed recruitment by Mississippi State.
The governing body cleared him to play before the SEC championship but said his father, Cecil, solicited
money from the Bulldogs.
Cecil, not in the stands Monday night, missed a heck of a finish.
And the end of a memorable season for Auburn, the school that has loads of tradition — the Tiger Walk,
the War Eagle yell and a case full of Heisman and other big-time individual trophies — but not nearly as
many titles to go with it. Bad luck in the polls doomed their one-loss season in 1983, probation kept
them from capitalizing on a perfect record in 1993 and the vagaries of the BCS left them on the outside
in 2004, maybe the most painful of all the snubs.
So, really, this one is for all the Bos and Beasleys and Terrys and Tracys in the Auburn family who came
close but couldn’t close the deal. And it fashions a nice symmetry with that team up the road — Alabama
— which took home the Heisman and the same crystal championship trophy one short year ago.
Tide fans, of course, will remind you that it still has five more AP titles than the Tigers. But this
celebration is going on at Toomer’s Corner in Auburn, where the traditional toilet-papering of the
drugstore and the rest of the street was going on in full force in the bitter cold as Monday night
turned into Tuesday morning.
"Winning a championship for the Auburn family, I can’t really describe it right now," Chizik
said. "To try would probably cheapen it."
At Auburn, the words "War Eagle" would almost surely suffice.
