Entertaining Romberg Set For Fiesta Bowl
Dec 30, 2002
By RUSTY MILLER
AP Sports Writer
PHOENIX (AP) – Miami center Brett Romberg provided a welcome relief from theusually mundane question-and-answer sessions leading up to the Fiesta Bowl.
Here’s a sampling:
On coming from Canada to play at Miami: “Every day that I wake up in southFlorida – it’s cold back home and there’s snow on the ground and I don’t haveto shovel the driveway – it makes me feel like I’m getting paid to be onvacation for five years.”
On wide receiver Andre Johnson: “He’s 6-foot-4, 230 pounds. His back hasveins in it for God’s sake. He’s a genetic freak.”
On Johnson versus Ohio State’s cornerbacks: “He can manhandle a whole line.It’s scary. He’s definitely not human. If they want to clone him, that woulddefinitely be good.”
On line coach Art Kehoe: “He is the Devil. Coach Kehoe’s one of us. Hemight be able to play with us if he was 30 years younger and you added 13, 14inches to him. He was messing with one of our second-team guys, telling himthey were going to put a 1 in front of his jersey number because of hisgrade-point average.”
On his best practical joke: “We paid $50 to (offensive lineman and fellowCanadian) Sherko Haji-Rasouli to shave his whole body.”
On how he’ll deal with Ohio State defensive tackle Tim Anderson: “I’llprobably have to talk to Anderson, give him a few comments here and there tolighten the situation. Laugh him to sleep.”
BY ANY NAME: Ohio State safety Donnie Nickey was midway through hisinterview session when he discovered that the placard in front of him had hisname misspelled. It had his first name as Donny.
“I want to keep this,” he said as he took a pen and corrected thespelling. “There you go. That’s how I used to spell it when I was about 5.”
FLORIDA UNFRIENDLY: The Fiesta Bowl will match the top two teams in thecountry for the fourth time.
A bad omen for Miami: A team from Florida has lost in the other threenational title games.
The Hurricanes are 0-3 in the Fiesta Bowl, losing the title matchup in 1987to Penn State 14-10, and losing to UCLA in 1985 and Arizona in 1994.
In the other No. 1 vs. No. 2 games, Nebraska wrapped up its secondconsecutive national title by overpowering Florida 62-24 in 1996. And fouryears ago, Tennessee won the first BCS title game, beating Florida State 23-16.
Ohio State split its first two trips to the Fiesta Bowl, losing 31-19 toPenn State in 1980 and beating Pittsburgh 28-23 in 1984.
HOME BOY: Miami offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski isn’t expecting hisfriends back home to be cheering for him this week.
The native of Toledo, Ohio, knows where the allegiances of most of thecity’s fans lie.
“I had a lot more ticket requests than I could accommodate,” he said. “Iknow probably other than my immediate family, most are rooting for Ohio State.It’s a great thrill.”
WELL DONE: Linebacker Matt Wilhelm still has not collected a steak dinnerfrom strong safety Mike Doss. The two made a friendly wager before the seasonthat whomever had fewer tackles would buy dinner for the other.
“We carried it over to the bowl game,” Wilhelm said. “I’m not sure whatthe numbers are, but I’ve got a few on him.”
For the record, Wilhelm leads the team with 111 tackles. Doss has 98.
Wilhelm was asked if Doss begged him to include the bowl game.
“No. Obviously, as any loser, you want a double or nothing deal. So wecarried it over,” he said with a laugh.
