The 2001 Miami Hurricanes were a team on a mission. They felt as though they’d been robbed of a chance at a national championship the prior year, and this was a team with more than enough talent to go do something about it.
The 1996 college football season looked headed for a predictable finish. It got there, but in the mold of a well-written Hollywood script that were some wild twists and turns that made you wonder how the anticipated outcome was going to occur, but the scriptwriters got there eventually.
The Alabama Crimson Tide had not won a national championship in the post-Bear Bryant era, and while they opened the 1992 college football season ranked #9, there were not tremendous expectations—at least outside Tuscaloosa—that this would be the year that changed.
Miami was the preseason #1 team in the country and had split the championship vote the previous year with Washington. The Hurricanes had won four national championships over the previous nine years and come within one play of two more.
Editor’s Note: This post is part of a series of sports history articles commemorating under-the-radar teams and moments in a given year. This article about the 1992 Miami Hurricanes recalls a memorable run of miracle finishes as the team made a drive at a repeat national title that ultimately came up just short.
This post is part of a series of sports history articles commemorating under-the-radar teams and moments in a given year. The 1999 Virginia Tech football team made the program’s first big national mark and introduced the world to Michael Vick.
This post is part of a series of sports history articles commemorating under-the-radar teams and moments in a given year. The 1985 Iowa Hawkeyes played an epic 1 vs. 2 game with Michigan in October that shaped the national championship race and ultimately settled the Big Ten crown.
This post is part of a series of sports history articles commemorating under-the-radar teams and moments in a given year. This article about the Arkansas-Oklahoma Orange Bowl game that followed the 1977 college football season marks a major upset that had huge repercussions on the national title race that season and future seasons to come.
In light of the November arrest of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky for child abuse, his subsequent conviction and life prison sentence, Paterno’s firing and this month’s release of The Freeh Report, it’s become impermissible to harbor so much as a kind thought for the now-deceased Penn State coach. To say anything remotely kind about Joe Paterno and his legacy, it is said by the mainstream media, is to be virtually synonymous with a defense of child abuse. Harsh, to say the least, and after reading the Freeh Report, I don’t believe it’s accurate or fair.
We’re down to one game for the college football national championship as Alabama meets LSU tonight in the BCS National Championship Game (8:30 PM ET, ESPN). Another year will take its place in college football history, not just who wins the national championship, but entire package of major bowl games that serves as the centerpiece of the sport. As part of the Notebook’s BCS Finale Day, historical articles with college football themes are being featured throughout. In this article I want to take a brief look back on two seasons that have particular relevance tonight
An era comes to an end tonight when Dennis Erickson takes his Arizona State team onto the field in Las Vegas to play Boise State. Erickson will not be back as Sun Devil head coach and the odds are pretty good it’s his last game on the sidelines anywhere. With Erickson, along with Florida Atlantic’s Howard Schnellenberger, moving into retirement, the last vestiges of the great Miami Hurricane dynasty of the late 1980s and early 1990s has gone into the history books. While the Notebook was admittedly not a fan of the ‘Canes, their historical significance and on-field excellence is beyond dispute. So on this night, let’s take a look back on the glory years of Miami football history.