OPINION: Miami Hurricanes season openers have a varied history, with highlights and lowlights
One time when the Miami Hurricanes opened the football season, Alonzo Highsmith outgained eventual Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson by 140 yards to 96.
In another opener, the Canes humbled top-ranked Florida State 31-0. It was the only loss of the season for the Seminoles.
And in perhaps the most dramatic way they’ve ever kicked off a season, the Hurricanes rallied for 10 points in the final quarter to stun the favored Florida Gators 21-20. Danny Miller’s 55-yard field goal bounced off the left upright and fell through to provide the winning margin as time expired.
From Los Angeles to Boston, from Wisconsin to the Orange Bowl, Miami has opened football seasons at historic venues and nondescript places such as Chattanooga, Tenn., and Waco, Tex.
Twenty-three times they’ve begun a season against a ranked opponent, three times facing the No. 1 team.
And they’ve launched seasons against lower level programs such as Charleston Southern, Bethune-Cookman and McNeese State.
They’ll start the 2023 season on September 1 at Hard Rock Stadium against a mid-level opponent, Miami of Ohio. But as the Canes learned last season in a home game, mid-level doesn’t automatically mean middling and a comfortable victory. Middle Tennessee State won 45-31.
Invariably there is great anticipation when a season begins, regardless the opponent. In the past half century, Miami has played in numerous openers that captured the nation’s attention.
That was particularly the situation in 1984 when the defending national champion Hurricanes met pre-season No. 1 Auburn in the second Kickoff Classic at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.
Moreover, this was the first game Miami played under Jimmy Johnson, who wasn’t hired until Howard Schnellenberger resigned to coach in the ill-fated USFL after the Canes had finished spring practice.
Highsmith, who now is in his second season as general manager of the Miami football program, was a junior fullback in 1984 and had 22 carries for 140 yards to spearhead the ground game, while Bernie Kosar passed for 329 yards and two touchdowns. The defense limited Jackson 96 yards on 22 carries.
“Winning this game means a lot to me,” said Johnson. “There was a lot of pressure, a lot of doubts.”
In 1988 the Hurricanes again were defending national champs when they opened the season in the Orange Bowl. Having to replace seven starters on offense and six on defense, they were ranked sixth. Bobby Bowden’s FSU team was No. 1, and eventual Thorpe Award winner Deion Sanders and teammates created a rap song that disparaged the Canes and got their attention.
A copy of the rap song found its way to UM, and that’s all Jimmy Johnson needed for his pre-game speech. He turned on the tape and walked out of the room. Final score: 31-0 as Miami’s defense limited the Seminoles to a meager 12 first downs and 242 total yards. Steve Walsh led the offense with 226 yards passing and two touchdown tosses.
The Seminoles finished the season No. 3 in the nation behind Notre Dame and Miami. The Irish edged the Hurricanes 31-30 in a mid-season game at South Bend that ultimately decided the national title.
Miami has launched a season against in-state rivals FSU and Florida on 19 occasions. The Canes are 4-9 against the Seminoles (losing the first seven in the 1950s-1970s) and 2-4 against the Gators in openers.
That dramatic finish against Florida on the Miller field goal off the left upright came in 1982. All-American quarterback candidate Jim Kelly passed for 218 yards and ran one yard for a touchdown but was sidelined by a calf injury in the third quarter. Florida built a 20-11 lead but backup Mark Richt rallied the Hurricanes with a 55-yard touchdown pass to Rocky Belk. Then, on a third-and-10, Richt hit tight end Glenn Dennison for 20 yards, setting up Miller’s field goal.
The third time the Canes faced a top-ranked team to open the season, defending national champion Alabama crushed them 44-13 at the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta in 2021.
Though the Hurricanes have won five national titles and have come within a play of winning two others, they’ve been ranked No. 1 pre-season only twice, and they’re 1-1 in those games.
They were defending national champs under Dennis Erickson in 1990 and topped the polls but lost at No. 16 BYU 28-21, as Ty Detmer threw for 406 yards and three touchdowns.
Again in 1992 they began the season as defending champs and No. 1 and won at No. 23 Iowa 23-7 in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. The August 24 storm that devastated south Miami-Dade County forced the Canes to move pre-season practices 100 miles north for 10 days to Dodgertown in Vero Beach.
Overall in opening games the Canes have won 64 times, lost 32 and there was one tie, 0-0 in the Orange Bowl in 1944 against South Carolina. There was a 2-0 victory over Southeastern Louisiana at home to start the 1935 season.
Other odds and ends in season openers:
* Lone overtime: A 16-10 victory over FSU in 2004 at the Orange Bowl. In another dramatic finish, and in Miami’s first game in the ACC, Brock Berlin threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Santana Moss with 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter and Jon Peattie’s extra point tied the game at 10-10. In overtime Frank Gore’s 18-yard touchdown run lifted the fifth-ranked Canes past the fourth-ranked Seminoles. It was Miami’s sixth consecutive victory over FSU.
* That was the first of three consecutive high-profile and low-scoring opening games against the Seminoles. In 2005 at Tallahassee, No. 14 FSU beat No. 9 Miami 10-7. Peattie lined up for a game-tying 28-yard field goal with 2:30 left but a low snap was dropped by holder Brian Monroe and rolled into the pile and Peattie didn’t have a chance to kick. In 2006 No. 11 FSU defeated No. 12 Miami 13-10. Gary Cismesia’s 33-yard field goal with 8:06 left provided the winning margin. The Canes had just 2 yards rushing.
* Earliest start for a season: August 27, 1984, the Auburn game in the Kickoff Classic.
* Latest start: October 30, 1926, the program’s first game ever, a 7-0 home victory over Rollins.
* In 2018 Miami opened the season at the home of the Dallas Cowboys, AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The 9th-ranked Hurricanes were no match for No. 24 LSU, trailing 33-3 after three quarters and losing 33-17.
* Then in 2019 they again opened at a neutral site against an SEC opponent, this time 8th-ranked Florida at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium and lost 24-20 in what was called the Camping World Kickoff. The Canes drove to the Gators’ 24 in the final minute but a fourth down pass by running back DeeJay Dallas under pressure fell incomplete with 12 seconds left.
* Record in opening games against ranked foes: 11-12.
* Most points scored: 70, defeating Florida A&M 70-0 in 2016 and Bethune-Cookman 70-13 last season.
* Largest margin of defeat: 33-0 to Wake Forest in 1939. In the modern era (last half century) the worst loss to begin a season was 31-6 at UCLA in 1995, the first game under Butch Davis.
* Most misleading result: Florida 28, Miami 3 in 1983 at Gainesville. The Gators capitalized on seven turnovers. But Howard Schnellenberger believed he had found his quarterback for the future in Bernie Kosar, who was intercepted three times while completing 24 of 45 passes for 223 yards. The coach was right, the Hurricanes won the next 11 games including the Orange Bowl Classic over Nebraska to win their first national title.
The post OPINION: Miami Hurricanes season openers have a varied history, with highlights and lowlights appeared first on On3.
