Do you believe in miracles? Ricardo Louis, and Auburn nation, say yes! Just when this BCS national title game begins to sag under the grandiose weight of Heisman trophies and state attorneys and Southern football, Kid Miracle shows up. His name is Ricardo Louis. He is sitting in a quiet corner of a crowded Newport Beach ballroom. It is media day, yet only a couple of reporters have shown up to interview him. His soft voice is filled with wonder. His eyes occasionally redden with emotion. He is not the best player in this room. He is not even the best player at his table. But he is the only one who truly understands. "You can call it what you want," he says. I call it destiny. Ricardo Louis is the miracle who made it possible for the Auburn Tigers to play for the national championship against Florida State on Monday at the Rose Bowl. He is the kind of miracle that makes it possible to still believe in the weekly wonder that is college football, with youthful unpredictability bouncing around on the occasional wisps of luck. "I don't believe in luck," Florida State's Lamarcus Joyner says with a grin. But let's just say, that receiver was in the right place at the right time. That receiver was Louis. The right place was Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium. The right time was 36 seconds remaining in their Nov. 16 game against Georgia. The Tigers trailed by a point. They were stuck on their own 27-yard line. They were facing fourth down and 18. The game, and their national championship hopes, were reasonably considered to be finished. Then quarterback Nick Marshall launched a deep desperation pass that bounced off two Georgia defenders and into the reach of Louis, who hauled in the twirling ball and carried it the final 10 yards into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown. It was a finish so stunning, the CBS announcers were silent for 36 seconds after shouting Louis' name, the screen filled with a prolonged roar as Tigers danced and Bulldogs grieved. "I passed out for about two seconds," says Auburn defensive end Dee Ford. Find the play. Watch the play. Again and again. Faith in the splendid rawness of college football is restored by it. This BCS championship matchup could not have happened without it. "I guess we're not sitting here unless I catch it," Louis says. While Chris Davis' 100-yard touchdown return of a missed field goal to beat Alabama in the Iron Bowl two weeks later has been more celebrated, that run occurred on a perfectly executed play. Louis' catch was a greater play because, well, it wasn't a play, it was a glorious wreck in which one kid captured the flying ruins and carried them into history. And, no, contrary to his previous comment, Louis didn't just "catch it." He caught it after talking his way off the bench and onto the field just before the snap. The sophomore had caught only one touchdown pass the entire season. He is just another speedy uniform in Auburn's little-used receiving corps. Earlier in the game he had accidentally tackled his own running back, Tre Mason, in the Auburn backfield while running in motion. This was not supposed to be his moment. Says co-offensive coordinator Dameyune Craig. But he came up to me and told me he wanted the football . . . he asked for it. . . . I could see it in his eyes . . . he is so unselfish, that doesn't happen very much. . . . So I told the coach [Gus Malzahn] to put him in. Says Louis: "I don't know why, but at that moment, I felt I could do something to win the game and I wanted a chance. . . . Like I said, maybe it was destiny? He didn't just catch it, he caught it after also badgering Marshall to throw it to him. Says Marshall: "Yeah, coming back onto the field, he asked me to get him the ball, I saw it in his eyes, he was going to be ready for it." Says Louis: "I asked him for the ball, and he didn't say anything to me, so I asked him again, just to make sure he heard me."