Phoenix ? Larry Coker never has lost a game as Miami’s head football coach, and his top-ranked Hurricanes are 13-point favorites to make him a winner again in the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State.

Coker and Ohio State coach Jim Tressel were in Arizona on Thursday to talk about the Jan. 3 national championship showdown in Tempe, Ariz.

“When it comes to a one-game playoff, which is what we’re in right now, I don’t think it matters a great deal who is the favorite or who is the underdog,” Coker said. “What matters is how you play on game night.”

He used last season’s Super Bowl as an example.

“The Rams were heavy favorites against New England. New England had no chance to win the game, but they did,” Coker said.

The No. 2 Buckeyes are 13-0 but won six games by a touchdown or less. Tressel said the Buckeyes are shrugging off the underdog role.

“I think our young people are confident that if they play well, they’ll have a great showing for themselves,” he said.

“While they know that Miami is a great football team, I don’t think they spend too much time looking at the spread. … There’s two teams left that are unbeaten, and in my mind that’s more the story line than the spread.”

Miami coach Larry Coker, left, and Ohio State coach Jim Tressel pose with the Bowl Championship Series trophy which will be presented to the winner of the Fiesta Bowl during a news conference Thursday in Phoenix.

Coker and Tressel posed with the new Fiesta Bowl trophy, which is nearly four feet high and features 2,400 diamonds, 18-karat gold, sterling silver and five shades of hand-carved marble. Ohio State plans to arrive in Phoenix on Dec. 26 and Miami on Dec. 27.

“The fact that it’s for a national championship, I would like to think that won’t steal away from the great experience that they’ll have,” Tressel said.

Tressel said he is modeling his Ohio State program after Miami’s. He spent a day at Miami watching spring practice this year.

Miami, 12-0 this season, has won 34 in a row, the last 24 of them with Coker as head coach. Giving a losing postgame speech would be a new experience for him.