Buckeyes familiar to scene

You guys again?

Yep.

The Ohio State Buckeyes will be playing in a Phoenix-area bowl game for the fourth time in the last five years, but in this case familiarity has bred contentment.

The Buckeyes are three for three in trips here this century and will try to make it 4-0 with a win over Florida in Monday night’s Bowl Championship Series title game.

The legacy of Ohio State under Coach Jim Tressel was born at the 2003 Fiesta Bowl, when the Buckeyes upset heavily favored Miami in a double-overtime thriller to capture the school’s first national title since 1968.

Ohio State has followed up with Fiesta Bowl wins against Kansas State in 2004 and Notre Dame in 2006.

Tressel loves the area so much he brought his team out three days before the Buckeyes were required to check in.

“Being here in Arizona is being in paradise,” Tressel said.

Ohio State, seeking to go wire-to-wire as the nation’s No. 1 team, arrived Saturday but maintained a low profile so as to not detract attention from Monday’s Fiesta Bowl.

The Buckeyes on Tuesday moved headquarters from the Radisson Fort McDowell Resort and Casino to the Scottsdale Princess Resort -- home away from home to some players.

Troy Smith, this year’s Heisman Trophy winner, couldn’t wait to get to his favorite restaurant: In-N-Out Burger.

“For the folks back in Ohio, they need to understand first and foremost, it is a fresh burger,” Smith gushed in his Tuesday media session. “The lettuce and tomatoes are extremely fresh. And they toast the buns. That’s huge. That’s key.”

The only difference this trip is that Ohio State won’t be playing in Sun Devil Stadium. This year’s BCS national title game will be played at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.

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Ohio State players don’t like it when you say they will have a 51-day layoff between their last game Nov. 18 and Monday’s title game.

“We have been practicing,” Smith said. “What people don’t understand is sometimes practices are more brutal than the games, simply because the preparation for the games is everything. When you prepare well, you play well.”

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Florida Coach Urban Meyer said Boise State’s overtime victory against Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl would help change perceptions.

“I think that the separation of BCS, non-BCS, I think that era is over,” Meyer said.

Meyer is back in the Phoenix area this year trying to win a national championship.

Two seasons ago, Meyer made history when his Utah team finished No. 6 in the BCS standings and became the first “non-BCS” school to earn a major bowl berth.

Utah, led by quarterback Alex Smith, capped a perfect season with a victory over Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl. Meyer had already accepted the Florida job but was allowed to coach Utah through the end of its season.

Meyer said relaxing the automatic qualifier rule for a non-BCS team from top six to top 12 was “the right thing to do,” but he still thinks it will be difficult for a school outside the six power conferences to make it to the national title game.

“I think it will still be some time before you see that,” Meyer said.

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This is the first year the major bowls are hosting their own game and the national championship, making for a tight turnover between games.

Hours before Monday’s Fiesta Bowl, in fact, information guides for Boise State and Oklahoma were already being boxed up in the media room at Scottsdale’s Camelback Inn and replaced by BCS title game materials.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com