AP file photo Then-Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel talks with then-freshman tailback Maurice Clarett (13) in a game against No. 17 Penn State on Oct. 26, 2002 in Columbus.

This year’s Ohio State team may have come up just short of playing for a national championship, but on this date, exactly 20 years ago, another Buckeye team defied all odds and became legendary.

On Jan. 3, 2003, Ohio State knocked off defending national champion and double-digit favorite Miami 31-24 in double overtime — a Hurricanes team that featured countless future NFL Draft picks — to win the Fiesta Bowl and the BCS National Championship, the program’s first since 1970.

“As a team, everyone knew how good Miami was,” said Jim Tressel, head coach of the Buckeyes’ 2002-2003 team. “They had won 34 straight games, no one had really tested them, they were defending national champs, they had five or six first-round draft picks — they were special. But I’m not sure everyone knew how good we were, which was an advantage.”

Ohio State’s journey to that title began with the program’s hiring of Tressel the year before in 2001.

Tressel arrived in Columbus from Youngstown State, where he won four FCS national championships during a 15-year stretch with the Penguings.

Despite making the jump to the FBS and the Power 5, Tressel didn’t change how he did things when he took over. The way he ran the program at YSU, was the way he ran the program at Ohio State.

“There wasn’t anything that was different because that’s what I knew,” Tressel said. “I don’t think you can go do something you don’t know and all of a sudden change who you are. Obviously the size and speed of guys were different and so were the opponents and the budgets were bigger, but just from a foundational belief in how you build culture and build a team and give the student-athlete an experience that will help them the rest of their life — no change.”

Tressel brought in a freshman class of 25 players in his first season — which was unusual considering a typical class included maybe 18 or 19 freshmen. But that group would set the foundation for the years to come.

The journey can often be more rewarding than the destination, and Tressel credits how that 2002-2003 team, particularly the seniors, had “suffered,” prior to that season. It was a unique combination of veteran seniors, who had been through a lot, combined with a uniquely talented group of underclassmen that came together to make that season special.

“We learned a lot of lessons from suffering,” Tressel said. “They were 6-6, then 8-4, then they were 7-5, then they had a new coach and they had to adjust to that. They decided they had learned a lot of lessons and they decided to put the lessons they learned from suffering to good use. What I recall about that group was that it was an interesting mixture of some guys that had suffered enough and some extraordinary new talent…I think (we won) because of that unusual combination of talent and experiences and passion — it’s hard to duplicate that.”

One of the biggest pieces of that team’s success was the play of then-freshman running back and Youngstown-native Maurice Clarett, who ran for 1,237 yards and 18 touchdowns in his lone season in Columbus.

While Tressel was at YSU, he attended a Berea vs. Austintown Fitch game in order to watch his nephew play, who was a safety for Berea. A young freshman running back for the Falcons at the time, Clarett ran all over Berea and Tressel took notice.

Fast forward a couple years, and Tressel had taken over at Ohio State. Shortly afterwards, Tressel said Clarett, now at Warren G. Harding, called him up and said, “Coach, I’m coming to Ohio State.”

“We always laugh about this,” Tressel said. “I said, ‘Maurice, I haven’t even offered you a scholarship,’ and he said, ‘you will.'”

The rest was history.

“He came in and was an incredible impact player for a lot of reasons,” Tressel said. “He suffered and went through some tough times, but now today, he is an outstanding father, husband, business owner and difference maker in the community. He’ll be the first to tell you it might not have happened if he didn’t suffer the way he did.”

Ohio State was like a team of destiny that season. The Buckeyes came out on the winning end of six one-possession games throughout the regular season leading up to the title game, beating Cincinnati, Wisconsin, Penn State, Purdue, Illinois and Michigan.

Against the Hurricanes, Ohio State set the tone from the start.

“I think the thing that shocked them a little bit, and you could see it in the first series or two, is that their offensive line could not compete with our defensive line,” Tressel said. “So I think we had a little bit of a shock advantage.”

By halftime, thanks to a Clarett touchdown, Ohio State led 14-7.

Then, the Buckeyes had the ball late in the second half with a chance to run the clock out, but a consequential no-call and missed call on a catch by Chris Gamble was ruled incomplete and they were forced to punt. Miami then drove down and kicked a field goal to force overtime.

The two teams traded touchdowns in the first overtime, with Ohio State’s coming after a famously controversial pass interference call in the end zone, but then Clarett scored his second touchdown run of the game in the second overtime to put the Buckeyes ahead.

“Everyone loves to talk about missed calls, but that’s life,” Tressel said. “We made human errors as coaches, our players made human errors and officials made human errors. Since (that day), Miami has been bellyaching about that call and they haven’t done anything on the field since. To me, that’s a great lesson in life.”

The Ohio State defense forced a hurried incomplete pass on 4th down of Miami’s final possession and that was it — history was made, Ohio State was the national champion.

“I thought our coaches did an excellent job of assessing what it is we could do to be competitive with them and we had to go out and see if we could execute that,” Tressel said.

The game marked a crossroads of sorts for both programs. Ever since that title game loss, Miami has largely been trying to climb its way back to national relevance, while Ohio State has been one of the premier programs in college football over the past 20 years.

During the Buckeyes’ win over Notre Dame in September, Ohio State honored the 2002-2003 team with an on-field ceremony.

“It was a reminder of how blessed we were to coach at Ohio State and how blessed those players were to have a chance to play at a place like Ohio State,” Tressel said. “We were part of something that was sustainable. If you think back from 2002 to now…we’ve been in the discussion (for championships) ever since then. I felt good that not only did we provide joy that year for Buckeye fans, but we put a bunch of bricks in the foundation that they’ve had a lot of joy for 20 years.”

At the end of the ceremony, Tressel was lifted into the air by his former players, similar to the way they did at the team’s 10-year anniversary celebration back in 2012.

“It was so much fun to see all those guys,” Tressel said. “Now most of them are in their early 40s and have families and businesses. We were together for two days and it was interesting listening to them. I didn’t hear anyone talk about X’s and O’s, and I didn’t really even hear anyone talking about the games. I heard them talking about the lessons they learned that now they’re using in business or now they’re using with their families or now they’re using in their communities to make a difference. To me, that’s what it’s all about.

“We never apologize for wanting to win, but that really wasn’t what the program was about. The program was about what you’re going to be like when you’re 40 and that was pretty neat to see how they’ve all evolved.”